In 1961, baseball fans made a big deal of Roger Maris hitting 61 home runs, for that eclipsed Babe Ruth’s 60, a single-season record that had held for 34 years.

I say we should get as excited that The Sondheim Review has just published its 61st issue. Now really – back in 1994 when you heard this magazine was annouced, did you think -- even though it would deal with the greatest composer-lyricist that Broadway (and the rest of the world) has ever seen -- it would remotely last as long as it has?

But on the first page of issue #61 – the one with Josefina Scaglione on the cover – there’s Rick Pender’s “Editor’s letter” stating that there are now subscribers in 32 countries – “including,” he wrote, “a recent renewal from Namibia.”

In an age where fewer and fewer magazines exist, here’s a 52-page glossy survivor that glows. This issue’s “News & Notes” includes two notable nuggets: 1) Sondheim “is noodling on ideas with John Weidman and James Lapine, but is primarily focused on his book about lyric writing, using his own lyrics as examples.” 2) The New York Public Library’s Theatre on Film and Tape Archive now has video recordings not only of Road Show, but also of Bounce at the Kennedy Center, and the Nathan Lane-Victor Garber Wise Guys workshop that preceded those.

In case you missed the now-notorious Jesse Green profile on Arthur Laurents that was in a March issue of New York Magazine, here it is word-for-word – including Mary Rodgers’ response when Green asked her for an opinion on the playwright-librettist: “Call me back when he’s dead.” This interview, though, is balanced later in the issue with a favorable review of Laurents’ recent book, Mainly on Directing.

Next are snippets of 11 reviews from the current West Side Story revival. Pender is to be commended for not just running the hagiographic ones, but also including the reviews that sported such words as “uneven” (Dziemianowcz, News), “ tiresome” (Winer, Newsday), and “smudgy” (McNulty, L.A. Times). The tell-it-like-it-is policy stays in place for the magazine’s own review by Rob Weiner-Kendt. It’s headlined, “Whirs and Struts: West Side Story revival retains its power to startle, but it’s not perfect.”

There’s an “In the Classroom” section, in which no fewer than five teachers tell about their experiences in bringing Sondheim to their students. Several magazine editors I know would shy away from running even one article on education, proclaiming “Oh, it’s just not ‘sexy.’” Bless Pender for letting us know that Sweeney Todd, West Side Story, Into the Woods, and A Little Night Music are making it into our schools. Nice, too, that Diane Nottle of The International Center started her report with, “It started out not like a song.” And how about Charles Troy, who tells the difficulties in finding the right font for Frederick, Anne, and Henrik when subtitling "Now-Soon-Later" so students can read along. Remember, the DVD doesn't offer subtitles, so here's Troy to pick up the slack.

Then comes a nifty interview with Larry Gelbart, who, of course, co-wrote the book to Sondheim’s score for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Gelbart also reports that when director George Abbott asked Sondheim “to write songs not for Lenny Bernstein … but for the audience,” Sondheim responded “You want those kind of songs, call Jule Styne.” He lets us know that “All Crete was at her feet” was originally a line of dialogue. Then he tells something about him and Sondheim: “We talked about doing a show about a team of collaborators who had written a hit and a year later wanted to work again – only by that time, they weren’t talking to one another.” And if additional proof is needed that this magazine tells it as it is, Gelbart then flatly states that “As it turns out, that’s exactly what happened to us – in real life.” (I’m a little sorry and not at all grateful, though, that interviewer Michael J. Bandler didn’t ask, “What happened?”)

Then comes a bunch of features on regional productions. Turns out that the East West Players in Los Angeles did Marry Me a Little on a double bill that concluded with The Last 5 Years. David Edward-Hughes does a sharp interview with Hugh Panaro, who did Sunday in the Park with George along with Allen Fitzpatrick, who, Panaro says, “cast me in the lead in Butterflies Are Free when I was 17.”

John Olson interviews Victoria Mallory and Kurt Peterson, who played the leads in a West Side Story revival in 1968 and the original Follies and Night Music some years later. In the piece, Mallory says that she was willing to do anything just to be a part of Follies, and co-director Hal Prince was so impressed with her that he agreed to put her in the show, even though he didn’t immediately see her in any role. Peterson’s Follies story is not dissimilar: He became Young Ben after Jon Cypher left the production and John McMartin came in, because he resembled McMartin more than the actor originally cast to resemble Cypher did.

Pender doesn’t ignore up-and-comers. Here’s a feature on Erin Kamler, one of the finalists of the Young Playwrights Festival (that Sondheim co-founded) in the early ‘80s, and now a creator of Divorce! a musical that’s had success on the West Coast. But more to the point, Pender devotes a good deal of space to reviews of regional productions. This issue sends us to Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and Washington state. What fun, too, to see some twists in productions; a Chicago Into the Woods used for its Giant a big foot with a broken toenail. But more importantly, Lord knows how many people are getting their first-ever mentions in print from Pender and his critics, and how they’ll be inspired to continue as a result of them.

Then comes a review of the recent Allegro recording. (And what does this Rodgers and Hammerstein show have to do with Sondheim? Aficionados will tell you: He was a 17-year-old gopher on it, and has said the maverick show may well by why he’s been “attracted to experimental musicals.”) Andrew Milner, one of our brightest young critics, assesses the marvelous two-disc Sony set is bright and all-encompassing, and anyone who can resist buying it after reading him is no Broadway baby.

Andy Propst then reviews four CDs that feature Sondheim songs. Most illuminating is his critique of Sondheim parodies in Forbidden Broadway Goes to Rehab, which “paint a bittersweet picture of the state of Broadway and musicals produced today while simultaneously evoking smiles from the listener.”

Given that Sondheim is famed as a puzzle enthusiast, how smart of original editor Paul Salsini to insert one in each issue, and how wise of Pender to continue it. In this issue is a “Cryptic Crossword” in which 14 Down is “Bear mauled onetime Broadway ‘Annie.’” If you can guess that one, you’re a better man than I.

“Looking Ahead” lists every production of a Sondheim musical being done in this country and a few others, ranging from professional troupes to community theaters. In the next few months, Anyone Can Whistle, Candide, and Passion get one each, but Into the Woods has 40, not including nine Into the Woods, Jrs. Attending these productions  gives us all something to do until the next issue of The Sondheim Review (at www.SondheimReview.com ).

You may e-mail Peter at pfilichia@aol.com