#28-Sondheim and Puzzle Boxes, with David Staller

Our latest episode focuses on Stephen Sondheim’s fascination with puzzle boxes, featuring guest David Staller, founding artistic director of the Gingold Theatrical Group. Staller describes his Shaw-inspired connection to Sondheim through Hermione Gingold, their friendship and correspondence, and Sondheim’s attraction to puzzles as finite, controllable structures that offered relief from the chaos of human relationships and creative pressures. The episode includes rare audio from Sondheim’s Games Magazine interview about collecting and admiring puzzle boxes, plus excerpts from Barry’s interview with puzzle-box designer Kagen Sound (on learning Sondheim was a client and seeing his boxes in the film Six by Sondheim). Staller recounts gifting Sondheim puzzle boxes (including Japanese artisan-made boxes), treasure-hunt parties and movie-themed murder mysteries, a final unopened birthday box returned after Sondheim’s death, and finding a hidden note during the 2024 Doyle auction. He also describes Sondheim’s love for, and association with the boy-star of, the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes.

00:00 Everything Is A Puzzle

01:44 Meet Guest David Staller

02:55 Shaw Connection To Sondheim

05:11 Why Games Felt Safe

07:54 Discovering Puzzle Boxes

08:46 What Puzzle Boxes Are

10:37 Sondheim On Puzzle Boxes

12:47 Voice Memories And Boxes

16:59 Japanese Artisan And Last Box

19:40 Opening The Box Onstage

21:53 What Was Inside The Box