As if to say “my work is done here” — Stephen Sondheim exited our collective theater right after the release of Tick Tick Boom. The genius that brought us West Side Story and “Send in the Clowns” laid the groundwork for new ways to expose and explore really difficult human — and sometimes uniquely American — issues. We are not necessarily suggesting that our healthcare woes be set to music, but the number of fundamental changes the American system is moving through right now is worthy of a mind-blowing rock-opera musical score. Not unlike the racial tensions highlighted in West Side Story or how Rent illustrates the first difficult wave of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, there is a daily spotlight on the multiple problems with our current institutional, on-paper, inconvenient, secretive, and decidedly anti-consumer healthcare experience. The Stephen Sondheims, Jonathan Larsons, and Lin-Manuel Mirandas of the healthcare system are helping create an on-line, instantaneous, transparent, and consumer-centric set of solutions. It may be useful to remember that Stephen Sondheim was dismissed at first — his melodies were considered “unhummable” and his work was appreciated by only a few hard-core theater wonks. Traditional healthcare system players and critics of modern solutions may want to start tapping their toes to the new beat.
