Stephen Sondheim Green-Lit and “Loved” ‘The Office’s ‘Sweeney Todd’ Episode

One of Broadway’s biggest legends, Stephen Sondheim, was a huge fan of The Office. Well, we know he loved one episode, at least.

On the September 7 episode of Office Ladies, Stitcher’s The Office rewatch podcast hosted by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, the BFFs and former costars chatted all about the Season 7 episode, “Andy’s Play,” which got the Sondheim seal of approval.

For those who need a refresher, “Andy’s Play” finds Dunder Mifflin’s finest enjoying a night out to support the Nard Dog (Ed Helms) as Anthony Hope in a community theater production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. As Fischer explained, Sweeney Todd is based on a 1973 Christopher Bond play of the same name, but when Sondheim saw the play he was inspired to write the hit musical.

Since The Office was essentially putting a condensed production of that musical on television and wanted to secure the rights to a few Sweeney Todd songs, they had to undergo an elaborate approval process that involved getting Sondheim himself to sign off.

“I checked with [line producer] Randy Cordray, of course, and he said this really was a huge deal. Quote: ‘We basically had to produce a full blown community theater production of ‘Sweeney Todd’ embedded into a full blown episode of ‘The Office.'” Fischer said.

According to Cordray, one of The Office‘s post producers had to reach out to Universal Television’s music supervisor to get the sync rights, which Fischer explains “meant that we were allowed to sing the song ourself. We weren’t going to, like, play a recorded soundtrack.” But they also had to get the grand rights to the music so they could air it on television.

“There’s a difference between just doing it on a stage and then committing it to television forever,” Fischer said. “Stephen Sondheim had to sign off. They had to send him our script.”

“Really? He read our script?” Kinsey asked. “…Oh, my gosh.”

“He read ‘Andy’s Play.'” Fischer confirmed. “Guess what? He loved it.”

“[Sondheim] gave us his blessing. Ultimately, we ended up paying $100,000. And we got the rights to sing four songs. And that’s how we did it,” Fischer continued.

Be sure to listen to the full episode of Office Ladies for more behind-the-scenes stories about “Andy’s Play.”