SONDHEIM Perfectly. Pennebaker knows what he’s doing, he knows what to shoot, when to shoot. It’s as true as a newsreel.

MULANEY That’s a little better than “fine.”

MEYERS Well he said “fine” twice.

PENNEBAKER I knew Elaine and I thought she was a funny person but I didn’t know that ability, to drive passion right through the walls. What she did on that first version [of “The Ladies Who Lunch”], it struck me as one of the most fantastic moments of filming. And then when they said, “It won’t do,” I thought, what’s going on? This is crazy.

HALE How daunting was it to write lyrics in the style of Stephen Sondheim?

MEYERS If there are quotes about the songs, I think we’d pass at this point.

MULANEY No, I’d hear them. I read those books [Mr. Sondheim’s “Finishing the Hat” and “Look, I Made a Hat”], and really loved them, and had listened to interviews with him over the years on lyric writing. So I sat for a week or so with the books out, listening to different Sondheim songs, trying to just ape the meter here and there. Also what I had was a rhyming dictionary.

MEYERS You realize how good he is because you have to work so hard just to make a parody version that is close enough to count.

MULANEY That line in “Barcelona” when he rhymes “going” with “Boeing,” I was like, all these songs can stink if I can have one rhyme that I like that much.