In 2017, New Yorker staff writer D.T. Max initiated a profile of Stephen Sondheim, timed to the eventual premiere of a new musical he was writing. Sadly, that process was impeded by the global pandemic, and cut short by Sondheim's death in 2021, yet here Max knits together three years of their conversations into a unique and intimate work of literature and celebration. Finale reveals the guarded Sondheim at his most relaxed, thoughtful, sardonic, and engaging, talking about work, music, movies, family, New York, aging, and the creative process.

"Brazenly entertaining…. It summons to the page a Broadway voice like no other."—LATimes