Sondheim covers on Instagram, TikTok paved Eleri Ward's path
Eleri Ward had Stephen Sondheim’s “Every Day a Little Death” stuck in her head
NEW YORK (AP) — It was 2019 and aspiring Broadway actor Eleri Ward had Stephen Sondheim’s “Every Day a Little Death” stuck in her head.
“I would see friends at auditions and whatnot, and having been awake since like 4 or 5 a.m., they’d ask me how I’m doing,” she said. “And I responded with, ‘Oh, every day a little death.’ I was saying it as a stupid joke.”
She decided to record an acoustic rendition in her New York apartment's living room and posted the iPhone video to Instagram on a Friday afternoon that March.
Her innovation helped fulfill her aspiration: That simple post, amassing 120 likes, would lead to a recording contract, a job as the opening act for Josh Groban on tour last summer and the release Friday of her second indie-folk CD of Sondheim covers, “Keep a Tender Distance,” on Ghostlight Records.
