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Talking Tracy: As just about everyone in the known world knows, Madonna will play sultry nightclub songstress Breathless Mahoney. She’ll also introduce new songs written for her by Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim.

So how’d this duo click?

A new edition of “Sondheim & Co.,” a book by Craig Zadan due out this week, quotes Madonna as saying, “At first Stephen and I were both tentative. . . . I didn’t know if I could do his stuff justice and he wasn’t sure I could, either. The first day in the studio I was so intimidated. Stephen was sitting right behind me and I kept thinking, ‘I can’t do this.’ ”

Somehow she did. In the film, she sings the torch song “Sooner or Later,” a chorus girl number called “More,” and a duet called “What Can You Lose?” with Mandy Patinkin.

She’ll incorporate the songs into her repertoire when she tours next year. The name of the gig: The Breathless Tour.