Stephen Sondheim | |
|---|---|
 Sondheim,c. 1976 | |
| Born | (1930-03-22)March 22, 1930 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | November 26, 2021(2021-11-26) (aged 91) Roxbury, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Education | Williams College (BA) |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1952–2021 |
| Spouse | |
| Awards | Full list |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | Musical theater |
Musical artist | |
Stephen Joshua Sondheim (/ˈsɒndhaɪm/; March 22, 1930 – November 26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. Regarded as one of the most important figures in 20th-centurymusical theater, he is credited with reinventing the American musical.[1] He receivednumerous accolades, including eightTony Awards, anAcademy Award, eightGrammy Awards, anOlivier Award, and thePulitzer Prize. He was inducted into theAmerican Theater Hall of Fame in 1982 and awarded theKennedy Center Honor in 1993 and thePresidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.[2]
Sondheim was mentored at an early age byOscar Hammerstein II and later frequently collaborated withHarold Prince andJames Lapine. HisBroadway musicals tackle themes that range beyond the genre's traditional subjects, while addressing darker elements of the human experience.[3][4] His music and lyrics are characterized by their complexity, sophistication, and ambivalence.[5]
Sondheim began his career by writing the lyrics for bothWest Side Story (1957) andGypsy (1959). He transitioned to writing both music and lyrics, including for five works that earnedTony Awards for Best Musical:A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962),Company (1970),A Little Night Music (1973),Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), andPassion (1994). He is also known forFollies (1971),Pacific Overtures (1976),Merrily We Roll Along (1981),Sunday in the Park with George (1984),Into the Woods (1987), andAssassins (1990).
Theaters are named after him bothon Broadway andin the West End of London. He won theAcademy Award for Best Original Song for "Sooner or Later" fromDick Tracy (1990). Many of his works have been adapted for film, includingWest Side Story (1961),Gypsy (1962),A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966),A Little Night Music (1977),Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007),Into the Woods (2014), andWest Side Story (2021). He published three books, including two involving his collected lyrics.
Sondheim was born on March 22, 1930, into aJewish family in New York City, the son of Etta Janet ("Foxy"; née Fox; 1897–1992) and Herbert Sondheim (1895–1966). His paternal grandparents, Isaac and Rosa, wereGerman Jews, and his maternal grandparents, Joseph and Bessie, wereLithuanian Jews fromVilnius.[6] His father manufactured dresses designed by his mother. Sondheim grew up on theUpper West Side ofManhattan, where he began taking piano lessons at age 7.[7] After his parents divorced, he lived on a farm nearDoylestown, Pennsylvania. The only child of affluent parents living inthe San Remo at 145Central Park West, he was described inMeryle Secrest's biographyStephen Sondheim: A Life as an isolated, emotionally neglected child. When he lived in New York City, Sondheim attended theEthical Culture Fieldston School. He spent several summers atCamp Androscoggin, whereTom Lehrer was a counselor.[6][8][9]
His mother sent him toNew York Military Academy in 1940.[10] From 1942 to 1947, he attendedGeorge School, a privateQuaker preparatory school inBucks County, Pennsylvania, where he wrote his first musical,By George, in 1946.[10][11] After graduating from high school, Sondheim attendedWilliams College, where he initially majored in mathematics but switched to music after taking a music elective during his first year. During his time at Williams, he participated in Cap & Bells, the college's student-run theater group, and wrote his first two full musicals. Sondheim graduatedmagna cum laude in 1950, was inducted intoPhi Beta Kappa, and received the Hubbard Hutchinson Prize, which included a two-year fellowship to study music.[10]
Sondheim traced his interest in musical theater toVery Warm for May, a Broadway musical he saw when he was nine. "The curtain went up and revealed a piano", Sondheim recalled. "A butler took a duster and brushed it up, tinkling the keys. I thought that was thrilling."[12]
Sondheim detested his mother,[13] who was said to bepsychologically abusive[14] and to haveprojected her anger from her failed marriage onto her son:[15] "When my father left her, she substituted me for him. And she used me the way she used him, to come on to and to berate, beat up on, you see. What she did for five years was treat me like dirt, but come on to me at the same time."[16] She once wrote him a letter saying that the only regret she ever had was giving birth to him.[17] When she died in 1992, Sondheim did not attend her funeral. He had been estranged from her for nearly 20 years.[13][18]
When Sondheim was about ten years old (around the time of his parents' divorce), he formed a close friendship withJames Hammerstein, son of lyricist and playwrightOscar Hammerstein II, who were neighbors in Bucks County. The elder Hammerstein became Sondheim's surrogate father, influencing him profoundly and developing his love of musical theater. Sondheim metHal Prince, who later directed many of his shows, at the opening ofSouth Pacific, Hammerstein's musical withRichard Rodgers. The comic musical Sondheim wrote at George School,By George, was a success among his peers and buoyed his self-esteem. When he asked Hammerstein to evaluate it as though he had no knowledge of its author, he said it was the worst thing he had ever seen: "But if you want to know why it's terrible, I'll tell you." They spent the rest of the day going over the musical, and Sondheim later said, "In that afternoon I learned more about songwriting and the musical theater than most people learn in a lifetime."[19]
Hammerstein designed a course of sorts for Sondheim on constructing a musical. He had the young composer write four musicals, each with one of the following conditions:[20]
None of the "assignment" musicals were produced professionally.High Tor andMary Poppins have never been produced: the rights holder for the originalHigh Tor refused permission (though a musical version by Arthur Schwartz was produced for television in 1956), andMary Poppins was unfinished.[22]
Hammerstein's death
Hammerstein died ofstomach cancer on August 23, 1960, aged 65.[23][24] Sondheim later recalled that Hammerstein had given him a portrait of himself. Sondheim asked him to inscribe it, and said later of the request that it was "weird... it's like asking your father to inscribe something." Reading the inscription ("For Stevie, My Friend and Teacher") choked up the composer, who said, "That describes Oscar better than anything I could say."[25]
Sondheim began attendingWilliams College, aliberal arts college inWilliamstown, Massachusetts, whose theater program attracted him.[26] His first teacher there was Robert Barrow:
everybody hated him because he was very dry, and I thought he was wonderful because he was very dry. And Barrow made me realize that all my romantic views of art were nonsense. I had always thought an angel came down and sat on your shoulder and whispered in your ear "dah-dah-dah-DUM." It never occurred to me that art was something worked out. And suddenly it was skies opening up. As soon as you find out what aleading tone is, you think, Oh my God. What adiatonic scale is—Oh my God! The logic of it. And, of course, what that meant to me was: Well, I can do that. Because you just don't know. You think it's a talent, you think you're born with this thing. What I've found out and what I believed is that everybody is talented. It's just that some people get it developed and some don't.[16]
The composer toldMeryle Secrest: "I just wanted to study composition, theory, and harmony without the attendantmusicology that comes in graduate school. But I knew I wanted to write for the theater, so I wanted someone who did not disdain theater music."[27] Barrow suggested that Sondheim study withMilton Babbitt, whom Sondheim called "a frustrated show composer" with whom he formed "a perfect combination".[27] When they met, Babbitt was working on a musical forMary Martin based on the myth ofHelen of Troy. The two met once a week in New York City for four hours. (At the time, Babbitt was teaching atPrinceton University.) According to Sondheim, they spent the first hour dissectingRodgers and Hart orGeorge Gershwin or studying Babbitt's favorites (Buddy DeSylva,Lew Brown, andRay Henderson). They then proceeded to other forms of music (such asMozart'sJupiter Symphony), critiquing them the same way.[28] Fascinated by mathematics, Babbitt and Sondheim studied songs by a variety of composers (especiallyJerome Kern). Sondheim told Secrest that Kern had the ability "to develop a single motif through tiny variations into a long and never boring line and his maximum development of the minimum of material". He said of Babbitt, "I am his maverick, his one student who went into the popular arts with all his serious artillery".[27] At Williams, Sondheim wrote a musical adaption ofBeggar on Horseback (a 1924 play byGeorge S. Kaufman andMarc Connelly, with Kaufman's permission) that had three performances.[29] A member of theBeta Theta Pi fraternity,[30] he graduatedmagna cum laude in 1950.[31]
"A few painful years of struggle" followed, when Sondheim auditioned songs, lived in his father's dining room to save money, and spent time in Hollywood writing for the television seriesTopper.[12] He devoured 1940s and 1950s films, and called cinema his "basic language";[13] his film knowledge got him throughThe $64,000 Question contestant tryouts. Sondheim disliked movie musicals, favoring classic dramas such asCitizen Kane,The Grapes of Wrath, andA Matter of Life and Death: "Studio directors likeMichael Curtiz andRaoul Walsh ... were heroes of mine. They went from movie to movie to movie, and every third movie was good and every fifth movie was great. There wasn't any cultural pressure to make art".[32]
At age 22, Sondheim had finished the four shows Hammerstein requested. ScreenwritersJulius andPhilip Epstein'sFront Porch in Flatbush, unproduced at the time, was being shopped around by designer and producerLemuel Ayers. Ayers approachedFrank Loesser and another composer; both turned him down. Ayers and Sondheim met as ushers at a wedding, and Ayers commissioned Sondheim for three songs for the show; Julius Epstein flew in from California and hired Sondheim, who worked with him in California for four or five months. After eight auditions for backers, half the money needed was raised. The show, retitledSaturday Night, was intended to open during the 1954–55 Broadway season, but Ayers died ofleukemia in his early forties. The production rights transferred to his widow, Shirley, and due to her inexperience the show did not continue as planned;[33] it openedoff-Broadway in 2000. Sondheim later said, "I don't have any emotional reaction toSaturday Night at all—except fondness. It's not bad stuff for a 23-year-old. There are some things that embarrass me so much in the lyrics—the missed accents, the obvious jokes. But I decided, leave it. It's my baby pictures. You don't touch up a baby picture—you're a baby!"[13]
Burt Shevelove invited Sondheim to a party where Sondheim arrived before him but knew no one else well. He saw a familiar face,Arthur Laurents, who had seen one of the auditions ofSaturday Night, and they began talking. Laurents told him he was working on a musical version ofRomeo and Juliet withLeonard Bernstein, but they needed a lyricist;Betty Comden andAdolph Green, who were supposed to write the lyrics, were under contract in Hollywood. He said that although he was not a big fan of Sondheim's music, he enjoyed the lyrics fromSaturday Night and he could audition for Bernstein. The next day, Sondheim met and played for Bernstein, who said he would let him know. Sondheim wanted to write music and lyrics; he consulted with Hammerstein, who said, as Sondheim related in a 2008New York Times video interview, "Look, you have a chance to work with very gifted professionals on a show that sounds interesting, and you could always write your own music eventually. My advice would be to take the job."[33]West Side Story, directed byJerome Robbins, opened in 1957 and ran for 732 performances. Sondheim expressed dissatisfaction with his lyrics, saying they did not always fit the characters and were sometimes too consciously poetic. Initially Bernstein was also credited as a co-writer of the lyrics, but he later offered Sondheim solo credit, as Sondheim had essentially done all of them.The New York Times review of the show did not mention the lyrics.[34] Sondheim described the division of the royalties, saying that Bernstein received 3% and he received 1%. Bernstein suggested evening the percentage at 2% each, but Sondheim refused because he was satisfied with just getting the credit. Sondheim later said he wished "someone stuffed a handkerchief in my mouth because it would have been nice to get that extra percentage".[33]
AfterWest Side Story opened, Shevelove lamented the lack of "lowbrow comedy" on Broadway and mentioned a possible musical based onPlautus's Roman comedies. Sondheim was interested in the idea and called a friend,Larry Gelbart, to co-write the script. The show went through a number of drafts, and was interrupted briefly by Sondheim's next project.[35]
In 1959, Laurents and Robbins approached Sondheim for a musical version ofGypsy Rose Lee's memoir afterIrving Berlin andCole Porter turned it down. Sondheim agreed, butEthel Merman – cast as Mama Rose – had just finishedHappy Hunting with an unknown composer (Harold Karr) and lyricist (Matt Dubey). Although Sondheim wanted to write the music and lyrics, Merman refused to let another first-time composer write for her and demanded thatJule Styne write the music.[36] Sondheim, concerned that writing lyrics again would pigeonhole him as a lyricist, called his mentor for advice. Hammerstein told him he should take the job, because writing a vehicle for a star would be a good learning experience. Sondheim agreed;Gypsy opened on May 21, 1959, and ran for 702 performances.[33]
The first Broadway production for which Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics wasA Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which opened in 1962 and ran for 964 performances.[37] Thebook, based onfarces byPlautus, was byBurt Shevelove andLarry Gelbart. The show won sixTony Awards (includingBest Musical)[38] and had the longest Broadway run of any show for which Sondheim wrote both music and lyrics.[39]
Sondheim had participated in three straight hits, but his next show—1964'sAnyone Can Whistle—was a nine-performance bomb (although it introducedAngela Lansbury to musical theater).
Do I Hear a Waltz?, based on Laurents's 1952 playThe Time of the Cuckoo, was intended as anotherRodgers and Hammerstein musical withMary Martin in the lead. A new lyricist was needed,[40] and Laurents andMary Rodgers, Rodgers's daughter, asked Sondheim to fill in. Although Richard Rodgers and Sondheim agreed that the original play did not lend itself to musicalization, they began writing a musical version.[41] The project had many difficulties, including Rodgers's alcoholism. Sondheim later called it the one project he truly regretted writing, given that the reasons he wrote it—as a favor to Mary, as a favor to Hammerstein, as an opportunity to work again with Laurents, and as an opportunity to make money—were not reasons to write a musical. He then decided to work only when he could write both music and lyrics.[13]
Sondheim asked author and playwrightJames Goldman to join him asbookwriter for a new musical inspired by a gathering of formerZiegfeld Follies showgirls: initially titledThe Girls Upstairs, it becameFollies.[42]
In 1966, Sondheim semi-anonymously provided lyrics for "The Boy From...", a parody of "The Girl from Ipanema" in the off-Broadway revueThe Mad Show. The song was credited to "Esteban Río Nido",[43] Spanish for "Stephen River Nest", and in the show'splaybill the lyrics were credited to "Nom De Plume". That year Goldman and Sondheim hit a creative wall onThe Girls Upstairs, and Goldman asked Sondheim about writing a TV musical. The result wasEvening Primrose, withAnthony Perkins andCharmian Carr. Written for theanthology seriesABC Stage 67 and produced byHubbell Robinson, it was broadcast on November 16, 1966. According to Sondheim and directorPaul Bogart, the musical was written only because Goldman needed money for rent. The network disliked the title and Sondheim's alternative,A Little Night Music.[44]
After Sondheim finishedEvening Primrose, Jerome Robbins asked him to adaptBertolt Brecht'sThe Measures Taken despite the composer's general dislike of Brecht's work. Robbins wanted to adapt another Brecht play,The Exception and the Rule, and askedJohn Guare to adapt the book. Leonard Bernstein had not written for the stage in some time, and his contract as conductor of theNew York Philharmonic was ending. Sondheim was invited to Robbins's house in the hope that Guare would convince him to write the lyrics for a musical version ofThe Exception and the Rule; according to Robbins, Bernstein would not work without Sondheim. When Sondheim agreed, Guare asked: "Why haven't you all worked together sinceWest Side Story?" Sondheim answered, "You'll see". Guare said that working with Sondheim was like being with an old college roommate, and he depended on him to "decode and decipher their crazy way of working"; Bernstein worked only after midnight, and Robbins only in the early morning. Bernstein's score, which was supposed to be light, was influenced by his need to make a musical statement.[45]Stuart Ostrow, who worked with Sondheim onThe Girls Upstairs, agreed to produce the musical, initially titledA Pray by Blecht, thenThe Race to Urga. An opening night was scheduled, but during auditions Robbins asked to be excused for a moment. When he did not return, a doorman said he had gotten into a limousine to go toJohn F. Kennedy International Airport. Bernstein burst into tears and said, "It's over". Sondheim later said of this experience: "I was ashamed of the whole project. It was arch and didactic in the worst way."[46] He wrote one and a half songs and threw them away, the only time he ever did that. Eighteen years later, Sondheim refused Bernstein's and Robbins's request to retry the show.[45]
Sondheim lived in aTurtle Bay, Manhattanbrownstone from his writing ofGypsy in 1959. Ten years later, he heard a knock on the door. His neighbor,Katharine Hepburn, was in "bare feet—this angry, red-faced lady" and told him, "You have been keeping me awake all night!" (she was practicing for her musical debut inCoco). "I remember asking Hepburn why she didn't just call me, but she claimed not to have my phone number. My guess is that she wanted to stand there in her bare feet, suffering for her art".[47]
AfterDo I Hear a Waltz?, Sondheim devoted himself solely to writing both music and lyrics for the theater—and in 1970, he began a collaboration with directorHarold Prince resulting in a body of work that is considered one of the high water marks of musical theater history, with criticHoward Kissel writing that the duo had set "Broadway's highest standards".[48][49]
The first Sondheim show with Prince as director was 1970'sCompany. A show about a single man and his married friends,Company (with a book byGeorge Furth) lacked a straightforward plot, instead centering on themes such as marriage and the difficulty of making an emotional connection with another person. It opened on April 26, 1970, at theAlvin Theatre, running for 705 performances after seven previews, and wonTony Awards forBest Musical, Best Music, and Best Lyrics.[50] The original cast includedDean Jones,Elaine Stritch, andCharles Kimbrough. Popular songs include "Company", "The Little Things You Do Together", "Sorry-Grateful", "You Could Drive a Person Crazy", "Another Hundred People", "Getting Married Today", "Side by Side", "The Ladies Who Lunch", and "Being Alive".Walter Kerr ofThe New York Times praised the production, the performances, and the score, writing, "Sondheim has never written a more sophisticated, more pertinent, or—this is the surprising thing in the circumstances—more melodious score".[51]
Documentary filmmakerD. A. Pennebaker captured the making of theoriginal cast recording shortly after the show opened on Broadway in his 1970 filmOriginal Cast Album: Company.[52][53] Stritch, Sondheim, and producerThomas Z. Shepard are featured prominently.Company was revived on Broadway in 1995, 2006, and 2020/2021 (the last revival began previews in March 2020, but shut down before resuming in November 2021 due to the ongoingCOVID-19 pandemic; in this revival, the main character was a woman, Bobbie, portrayed byKatrina Lenk).[50] The 2006 and 2021 productions won theTony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.
Follies (1971), with a book byJames Goldman, opened on April 4, 1971, at theWinter Garden Theatre and ran for 522 performances after 12 previews.[54] The plot centers on a reunion, in a crumbling Broadway theater scheduled for demolition, of performers inWeismann'sFollies (a musical revue, based on theZiegfeld Follies, that played in that theater between the world wars). The production also featured choreography and co-direction byMichael Bennett, who later createdA Chorus Line.
The original production starredDorothy Collins,John McMartin,Alexis Smith, andGene Nelson. It included the songs "I'm Still Here", "Could I Leave You?", and "Losing My Mind". The production earned 11Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical. It won 7 Tony Awards, includingBest Original Score. The show was revived on Broadway in 2001 and 2011.[55][56]
A Little Night Music (1973), based onIngmar Bergman'sSmiles of a Summer Night and with a score primarily inwaltz time, was among Sondheim's greatest commercial successes.Time magazine called it his "most brilliant accomplishment to date".[57] The original cast includedGlynis Johns,Len Cariou,Hermione Gingold, andJudy Kahan. The show opened on Broadway at theShubert Theatre on February 25, 1973, and ran for 601 performances and 12 previews.[58] Clive Barnes ofThe New York Times wrote, "A Little Night Music is soft on the ears, easy on the eyes, and pleasant on the mind. It is less than brash, but more than brassy, and it should give a lot of pleasure. It is the remembrance of a few things past, and all to the sound of a waltz and the understanding smile of a memory. Good God!—[an] adult musical!"[59]
The production earned 12Tony Award nominations and won 6 awards, includingBest Musical andBest Original Score. "Send in the Clowns", a song from the musical, was a hit forJudy Collins and became Sondheim's best-known song. It has since been covered byFrank Sinatra,Barbra Streisand, andJudi Dench. The production was adapted to screen in the1977 film of the same name starringElizabeth Taylor,Dianna Rigg,Len Cariou, andHermione Gingold. It was revived on Broadway in 2009 in a production starringCatherine Zeta-Jones andAngela Lansbury.[60]
Pacific Overtures (1976), with a book byJohn Weidman, was one of Sondheim's most unconventional efforts: it explored the westernization of Japan, and was originally presented in a mock-Kabuki style.[61] The show closed after a run of 193 performances,[62] and was revived on Broadway in 2004.[63]
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), with a score by Sondheim and a book byHugh Wheeler, is based onChristopher Bond's 1973 stage play derived from theVictorian original.[64][65][66][67][68] The original production starredAngela Lansbury,Len Cariou,Victor Garber, andEdmund Lyndeck. Popular songs from the musical include "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd", "The Worst Pies in London", "Pretty Women", "A Little Priest", "Not While I'm Around", "By the Sea", and "Johanna". The production earned 9Tony Award nominations and won 8 awards, includingBest Musical, Best Original Score, Best Actress, and Best Actor. Richard Eder ofThe New York Times wrote: "Mr. Sondheim's lyrics can be endlessly inventive. There is a hugely amusing recitation of the attributes given by the different professions—priest, lawyer, and so on—to the pies they contribute to. At other times the lyrics have a black, piercing poetry to them."[69]
Lansbury's performance was captured alongsideGeorge Hearn in the Los Angeles production, which was filmed and shown onPBS as part ofMasterpiece Theatre. It later earned fivePrimetime Emmy Award nominations. It has been revived on Broadway in 1989, 2005, and 2023. The 2023 production starredJosh Groban,Annaleigh Ashford,Jordan Fisher, andGaten Matarazzo. Afilm adaptation was made in 2007 directed byTim Burton and starringJohnny Depp,Helena Bonham Carter, andAlan Rickman.
Merrily We Roll Along (1981), with a book byGeorge Furth, is one of Sondheim's most traditional scores; songs from the musical were recorded byFrank Sinatra andCarly Simon. According to Sondheim's music directorPaul Gemignani, "Part of Steve's ability is this extraordinary versatility". The show was not the success their previous collaborations had been: after a chaotic series of preview performances, it opened to widely negative reviews, and closed after a run of less than two weeks. Due to the high quality of Sondheim's score, the show has been repeatedly revised and produced in the ensuing years.Martin Gottfried wrote, "Sondheim had set out to write traditional songs ... But [despite] that there is nothing ordinary about the music."[70] Sondheim later said: "Did I feel betrayed? I'm not sure I would put it like that. What did surprise me was the feeling around the Broadway community—if you can call it that, though I guess I will for lack of a better word—that they wanted Hal and me to fail."[47] Sondheim and Furth continued to revise the show in subsequent years. An acclaimed feature documentary on the show and its aftermath,Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened, directed byMerrily cast member Lonny Price, and produced byBruce David Klein, Kitt Lavoie, and Ted Schillinger, premiered at the New York Film Festival on November 18, 2016. Afilm adaptation ofMerrily We Roll Along, directed byRichard Linklater, began production in 2019 and is planned to continue for the next two decades to allow the actors to age in real time.[71] An off-Broadway revival starringJonathan Groff,Daniel Radcliffe, andLindsay Mendez ran from November 2022 to January 2023 at theNew York Theatre Workshop; it moved to Broadway in fall 2023.Merrily won 2024 Tony Awards for Best Revival of a Musical, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical (Jonathan Groff), Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical (Daniel Radcliffe), and Best Orchestrations (Jonathan Tunick).[72]
Merrily's failure greatly affected Sondheim; he was ready to quit theater and do movies, create video games or write mysteries: "I wanted to find something to satisfy myself that does not involve Broadway and dealing with all those people who hate me and hate Hal."[73] AfterMerrily, Sondheim and Prince did not collaborate again until their 2003 production ofBounce.[74]
Sondheim decided "that there are better places to start a show" and found a new collaborator inJames Lapine after he saw Lapine'sTwelve Dreams off-Broadway in 1981: "I was discouraged, and I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't discoveredTwelve Dreams at thePublic Theatre";[47] Lapine has a taste "for theavant-garde and for visually oriented theater in particular". Their first collaboration wasSunday in the Park with George (1984), with Sondheim's music evokingGeorges Seurat'spointillism. Sondheim and Lapine won the 1985Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play,[75] and it was revived on Broadway in 2008, and again in a limited run in 2017.[76][77]
They collaborated onInto the Woods (1987), a musical based on severalBrothers Grimmfairy tales. Although Sondheim has been called the first composer to bringrap music to Broadway (with the Witch in the opening number ofInto the Woods), he attributed the first rap in theater toMeredith Willson's "Rock Island" fromThe Music Man (1957).[28]Into the Woods was revived on Broadway in 2002[78] and at theSt. James Theatre in 2022.
Sondheim's and Lapine's last collaboration on a musical was the rhapsodicPassion (1994), adapted fromEttore Scola's Italian filmPassione D'Amore. With a run of 280 performances,Passion was the shortest-running show to win aTony Award for Best Musical.[79]
Assassins opened off-Broadway atPlaywrights Horizons on December 18, 1990, with a book byJohn Weidman. The show explored, inrevue form, a group of historical figures who tried (with varying success) to assassinate the President of the United States. The musical closed on February 16, 1991, after 73 performances. TheLos Angeles Times reported the show "has been sold out since previews began, reflecting the strong appeal of Sondheim's work among the theater crowd."[80] In his review forThe New York Times,Frank Rich wrote, "Assassins will have to fire with sharper aim and fewer blanks if it is to shoot to kill."[81][82]Assassins was eventually staged on Broadway in 2004.[83] InLook, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics (1981–2011), Sondheim wrote, "Assassins has only one moment I'd like to improve. . . . Otherwise, as far as I'm concerned, the show is perfect. Immodest that may sound, but I'm ready to argue it with anybody."[84]
Saturday Night was shelved until its 1997 production at London'sBridewell Theatre. The next year, its score was recorded; a revised version, with two new songs, ran off-Broadway atSecond Stage Theatre in 2000 and at London'sJermyn Street Theatre in 2009.[85]
Sondheim and Weidman reunited during the late 1990s forWise Guys, a musical comedy based on the lives of colorful businessmenAddison andWilson Mizner. A Broadway production starringNathan Lane andVictor Garber, directed bySam Mendes, and planned for spring 2000,[86] was delayed. RenamedBounce in 2003, the show premiered at theGoodman Theatre in Chicago and theKennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in a production directed by Harold Prince, his first collaboration with Sondheim since 1981.[87] Poor reviews preventedBounce from reaching Broadway, but a revised version opened off-Broadway asRoad Show atthe Public Theater on October 28, 2008. Directed byJohn Doyle, it closed December 28, 2008.[88][89][90] The production won the 2009Obie Award for Music and Lyrics[91] and theDrama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics.[92]
Asked about writing new work, Sondheim replied in 2006: "No ... It's age. It's a diminution of energy and the worry that there are no new ideas. It's also an increasing lack of confidence. I'm not the only one. I've checked with other people. People expect more of you and you're aware of it and you shouldn't be."[93] In December 2007, he said that in addition to continuing work onBounce, he was "nibbling at a couple of things with John Weidman and James Lapine".[94]
Lapine prepared the multimedia productioniSondheim: aMusical Revue, which was scheduled to open in April 2009 at theAlliance Theatre inAtlanta; it was canceled due to "difficulties encountered by the commercial producers attached to the project ... in raising the necessary funds".[95][96][97] Later revised asSondheim on Sondheim, the revue was produced atStudio 54 by theRoundabout Theatre Company; previews began on March 19, 2010, and ran from April 22 to June 13. The revue's cast includedBarbara Cook,Vanessa L. Williams,Tom Wopat,Norm Lewis, andLeslie Kritzer.[98]
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In 2013, Lapine directed the HBO feature-length documentarySix by Sondheim, which he executive produced with formerNew York Times theater criticFrank Rich, a longtime champion of Sondheim's work.[99] Sondheim himself acts and sings in the documentary as Joe, the cynical theater producer in the song "Opening Doors".[100]
Sondheim collaborated withWynton Marsalis onA Bed and a Chair: A New York Love Affair, anEncores! concert on November 13–17, 2013, atNew York City Center. Directed byJohn Doyle with choreography by Parker Esse, it consisted of "more than two dozen Sondheim compositions, each piece newly reimagined by Marsalis".[101] The concert featuredBernadette Peters,Jeremy Jordan,Norm Lewis,Cyrille Aimée, four dancers, and theJazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra conducted byDavid Loud.[102] InPlaybill, Steven Suskin called the concert "neither a new musical, a revival, nor a standard songbook revue; it is, rather, a staged-and-sung chamber jazz rendition of a string of songs ... Half of the songs come fromCompany andFollies; most of the other Sondheim musicals are represented, including the lesser-knownPassion andRoad Show".[103]
For the2014 film adaptation ofInto the Woods, Sondheim wrote the new song "She'll Be Back", sung by The Witch, which was cut from the film.[104]
Sondheim began collaborating withDavid Ives in 2014 on a musical based on theLuis Buñuel filmsThe Exterminating Angel andThe Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, initially slated for previews at thePublic Theater in 2017.[105] That date was cast into doubt after an August 2016 reading for the musical had only the first act finished.[106] A November 2016 workshop includedMatthew Morrison,Shuler Hensley,Heidi Blickenstaff,Sierra Boggess,Gabriel Ebert,Sarah Stiles,Michael Cerveris, andJennifer Simard.[107] After media outlets mistakenly reported that the show had the working titleBuñuel, Sondheim said that it still lacked a title in 2017.[108] The Public Theatre denied reports that the show would be part of its 2019–20 season, but hoped to produce the musical "when it is ready".[109] Development reportedly ceased for a time,[110] but resumed for a September 2021 reading of the show, then calledSquare One.[111]Nathan Lane andBernadette Peters were involved in a reading of this new work,[112] and Sondheim discussed adapting the Buñuel films in the final interview before his death.[113] A posthumous production of the collaboration, directed byJoe Mantello, premiered atThe Shed in September 2023 asHere We Are.[114]
TheKennedy Center staged a 15-week repertory festival of six Sondheim musicals—Sweeney Todd,Company,Sunday in the Park with George,Merrily We Roll Along,Passion, andA Little Night Music—from May to August 2002.[115][116][117] The Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration also includedPacific Overtures, a junior version ofInto the Woods, andFrank Rich ofThe New York Times speaking with the composer forSondheim on Sondheim on April 28, 2002.[115][118] The two men took their discussion, dubbed "A Little Night Conversation with Stephen Sondheim", on a West Coast tour of different U.S. cities[119][120] including Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Los Angeles,[121][122][123] andPortland, Oregon in March 2008,[124] then toOberlin College in September. TheCleveland Jewish News reported on their Oberlin appearance: "Sondheim said: 'Movies are photographs; the stage is larger than life.' What musicals does Sondheim admire the most?Porgy and Bess tops a list which includesCarousel,She Loves Me, andThe Wiz, which he saw six times. Sondheim took a dim view of today's musicals. What works now, he said, are musicals that are easy to take; audiences don't want to be challenged".[125][126] Sondheim and Rich had additional conversations: January 18, 2009, atAvery Fisher Hall;[127] February 2 at the Landmark Theatre inRichmond, Virginia;[128] February 21 at theKimmel Center inPhiladelphia;[129] and April 20 at theUniversity of Akron inOhio.[130] The conversations were reprised atTufts andBrown University in February 2010, at theUniversity of Tulsa in April,[131] and atLafayette College in March 2011.[132] Sondheim had another "conversation with" Sean Patrick Flahaven (associate editor ofThe Sondheim Review) at theKravis Center inWest Palm Beach on February 4, 2009, in which he discussed many of his songs and shows: "On the perennial struggles of Broadway: 'I don't see any solution for Broadway's problems except subsidized theatre, as in most civilized countries of the world.'"[133]
On February 1, 2011, Sondheim joined formerSalt Lake Tribune theater critic Nancy Melich before an audience of 1,200 atKingsbury Hall. Melich described the evening:
He was visibly taken by the university choir, who sang two songs during the evening, "Children Will Listen" and "Sunday", and then returned to reprise "Sunday". During that final moment, Sondheim and I were standing, facing the choir of students from theUniversity of Utah's opera program, our backs to the audience, and I could see tears welling in his eyes as the voices rang out. Then, all of a sudden, he raised his arms and began conducting, urging the student singers to go full out, which they did, the crescendo building, their eyes locked with his, until the final "on an ordinary Sunday" was sung. It was thrilling, and a perfect conclusion to a remarkable evening—nothing ordinary about it.[134]
On March 13, 2008,A Salon with Stephen Sondheim (which sold out in three minutes) was hosted by theAcademy for New Musical Theatre in Hollywood.[135][136]
Sondheim was an avid fan of puzzles and games. He is credited with introducingcryptic crosswords, a British invention, to American audiences through a series of cryptic crossword puzzles he created forNew York magazine in 1968 and 1969.[137] Sondheim was "legendary" in theater circles for "concocting puzzles, scavenger hunts and murder-mystery games",[12] inspiring the central character ofAnthony Shaffer's 1970 playSleuth.[138] Sondheim's love of puzzles and mysteries is evident inThe Last of Sheila, an intricatewhodunit written with longtime friendAnthony Perkins. The 1973 film, directed byHerbert Ross, featuredDyan Cannon,Joan Hackett,Raquel Welch,James Mason,James Coburn,Ian McShane, andRichard Benjamin.[139]
Sondheim also wrote occasional music for film: most notably, he contributed five songs toWarren Beatty's 1990 filmDick Tracy, including the ballad "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)", sung in the film byMadonna, which won theAcademy Award for Best Original Song. He also contributed toReds (both to the score, and with the song "Goodbye for Now"),The Seven-Per-Cent Solution ("The Madam's Song", later recorded as "I Never Do Anything Twice"),Stavisky (writing the score), andThe Birdcage ("Little Dream", and the eventually cut "It Takes All Kinds"). For the2014 movie adaptation ofInto the Woods, Sondheim wrote the new song "She'll Be Back" for the character of The Witch (played byMeryl Streep), which was eventually cut. Sondheim made a posthumous cameo appearance as himself in the 2022Netflix filmGlass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.[140]
Sondheim collaborated withCompany librettistGeorge Furth to write the playGetting Away with Murder in 1996; the Broadway production closed after 31 previews and only 17 performances.[141]
In 2003, he was invited to serve as guest curator for theTelluride Film Festival.[32]
After he was mentored by Hammerstein,[19] Sondheim returned the favor, saying that he loved "passing on what Oscar passed on to me".[25] In an interview with Sondheim forThe Legacy Project, composer-lyricistAdam Guettel (son ofMary Rodgers and grandson ofRichard Rodgers) recalled how as a 14-year-old boy he showed Sondheim his work. Guettel was "crestfallen" since he had come in "sort of all puffed up thinking [he] would be rained with compliments and things", which was not the case since Sondheim had some "very direct things to say". Later, Sondheim wrote and apologized to Guettel for being "not very encouraging" when he was actually trying to be "constructive".[142]
Sondheim also mentored a fledglingJonathan Larson, attending Larson's workshop for hisSuperbia (originally an adaptation ofNineteen Eighty-Four). In Larson's musicalTick, Tick... Boom!, the phone message is played in which Sondheim apologizes for leaving early, says he wants to meet him and is impressed with his work. After Larson's death, Sondheim called him one of the few composers "attempting to blend contemporary pop music with theater music, which doesn't work very well; he was on his way to finding a real synthesis. A good deal of pop music has interesting lyrics, but they are not theater lyrics". A musical-theater composer "must have a sense of what is theatrical, of how you use music to tell a story, as opposed to writing a song. Jonathan understood that instinctively."[143]
Around 2008, Sondheim approachedLin-Manuel Miranda to work with him translatingWest Side Story lyrics into Spanish for an upcoming Broadway revival.[144][145] Miranda then approached Sondheim with his new projectHamilton, then calledThe Hamilton Mixtape, which Sondheim gave notes on.[145][146] Sondheim was originally wary of the project, saying he was "worried that an evening of rap might get monotonous". But he believed Miranda's attention to, and respect for, good rhyming made it work.[146]
Sondheim provided avoice cameo for the2021 film adaptation ofTick, Tick... Boom!, directed by Miranda, for the scene in which a fictionalized version of himself leaves a phone message. Sondheim worked on a revised text of the message and voiced it himself afterBradley Whitford, who portrays him, was unavailable to rerecord the line.[147]
A supporter of writers' rights in the theater industry, Sondheim was an active member of theDramatists Guild of America. In 1973, he was elected as the Guild's 16th president, serving until 1981.[148]
According to Sondheim, he was asked to translateMahagonny-Songspiel: "But I'm not aBrecht/Weill fan and that's really all there is to it. I'm an apostate: I like Weill's music when he came to America better than I do his stuff before ... I loveThe Threepenny Opera but, outside ofThe Threepenny Opera, the music of his I like is the stuff he wrote in America—when he was not writing with Brecht, when he was writing for Broadway."[149] He turned down an offer to musicalizeNathanael West'sA Cool Million withJames Lapinec. 1982.[150][151]
Around 1960, Sondheim and Burt Shevelove considered making a musical of the filmSunset Boulevard, and had sketched out the opening scenes when they approached the film's directorBilly Wilder at a cocktail party on the possibility. Wilder rejected the idea, believing the story was more suited to opera than musical theater. Sondheim agreed, and resisted a later offer from Prince and Hugh Wheeler to create a musical version starringAngela Lansbury. This occurred several years before amusical version was produced byAndrew Lloyd Webber.[152]
Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein wroteThe Race to Urga, scheduled for Lincoln Center in 1969, but afterJerome Robbins left the project, it was not produced.[153]
After writingThe Last of Sheila together, Sondheim and Anthony Perkins tried to collaborate again two more times, but the projects were unrealized. In 1975, Perkins said he and Sondheim were working on another script,The Chorus Girl Murder Case: "It's a sort of stew based on all those Bob Hope wartime comedies, plus a littleLady of Burlesque and a littleOrson Welles magic show, all cooked into aLast of Sheila-type plot".[154] He later said other inspirations wereThey Got Me Covered,The Ipcress File, andCloak and Dagger.[155] They had sold the synopsis in October 1974.[156] At one point,Michael Bennett was to direct, withTommy Tune to star.[157] In November 1979, Sondheim said they had finished it,[158] but the film was never made.[159] In the 1980s, Perkins and Sondheim collaborated on another project, the seven-partCrime and Variations for Motown Productions. In October 1984 they had submitted a treatment to Motown.[160] It was a 75-page treatment set in the New York socialite world about a crime puzzle; another writer was to write the script. It, too, was never made.[161]
In 1991, Sondheim worked withTerrence McNally on a musical,All Together Now. McNally said, "Steve was interested in telling the story of a relationship from the present back to the moment when the couple first met. We worked together a while, but we were both involved with so many other projects that this one fell through". The story follows Arden Scott, a 30-something female sculptor, and Daniel Nevin, a slightly younger, sexually attractive restaurateur. Its script, with concept notes by McNally and Sondheim, is archived in theHarry Ransom Center at theUniversity of Texas at Austin.[162] In February 2012, it was announced that Sondheim would collaborate on a musical titledAll Together Now withDavid Ives and he had "about 20–30 minutes of the musical completed".[163][164][165][166][167] The show was assumed to follow the format ofMerrily We Roll Along. Sondheim described the project as "two people and what goes into their relationship ... We'll write for a couple of months, then have a workshop. It seemed experimental and fresh 20 years ago. I have a feeling it may not be experimental and fresh anymore".[168] Ives later describedAll Together Now as "a musical that exploded a single moment in the lives of two people meeting for the first time. We'd see the moment without music and then we'd explore it musically." Ives and Sondheim worked on the piece intermittently until Sondheim's death, but it was ultimately unrealized.[169]
Sondheim worked withWilliam Goldman onSinging Out Loud, a musical film, in 1992, penning the song "Water Under the Bridge".[170][171] According to Sondheim, he had written six and a half songs and Goldman one or two drafts of the script when directorRob Reiner lost interest in the project. "Dawn" and "Sand", from the film, were recorded for the albumsSondheim at the Movies andUnsung Sondheim.[149]
In August 2003, Sondheim expressed interest in the idea of creating a musical adaptation of the 1993 comedy filmGroundhog Day,[172] but in a 2008 live chat, he said that "to make a musical ofGroundhog Day would be togild the lily. It cannot be improved."[173]The musical was later created and premiered in 2016 with music and lyrics byTim Minchin and book byDanny Rubin (screenwriter of the film) with Sondheim's blessing.[174]
Nathan Lane said that he once approached Sondheim about creating a musical based on the filmBeing There with Lane starring as the central character of Chance. Sondheim declined on the basis that the central character is essentially a cipher, whom an audience would not accept expressing himself through song.[175]
| Year | Title | Music | Lyrics | Book | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1955[a] | Saturday Night | Stephen Sondheim | Julius J. Epstein | [39] | |
| 1957 | West Side Story | Leonard Bernstein | Stephen Sondheim | Arthur Laurents | [39] |
| 1959 | Gypsy | Jule Styne | [39] | ||
| 1962 | A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum | Stephen Sondheim | Burt Shevelove,Larry Gelbart | [39] | |
| 1964 | Anyone Can Whistle | Arthur Laurents | [39] | ||
| 1965 | Do I Hear a Waltz? | Richard Rodgers | Stephen Sondheim | [39] | |
| 1966 | Evening Primrose | Stephen Sondheim | James Goldman | [176] | |
| 1970 | Company | George Furth | [39] | ||
| 1971 | Follies | James Goldman | [39] | ||
| 1973 | A Little Night Music | Hugh Wheeler | [39] | ||
| 1974[b] | The Frogs | Burt Shevelove Nathan Lane(2004 book) | [177] | ||
| 1976 | Pacific Overtures | John Weidman | [39] | ||
| 1979 | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street | Hugh Wheeler | [39] | ||
| 1981 | Merrily We Roll Along | George Furth | [39] | ||
| 1984 | Sunday in the Park with George | James Lapine | [39] | ||
| 1987 | Into the Woods | [39] | |||
| 1990 | Assassins | John Weidman | [39] | ||
| 1994 | Passion | James Lapine | [39] | ||
| 2008 | Road Show | John Weidman | [178] | ||
| 2023 | Here We Are[c] | David Ives | [114] | ||
Sondheim received anAcademy Award, eightTony Awards, and eightGrammy Awards. He also received thePulitzer Prize for Drama forSunday in the Park with George (1985, shared withJames Lapine) and was honored with theKennedy Center Honors, Lifetime Achievement (1993).[114] He received the Hutchinson Prize for Music Composition (1950) and was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters (1983). He was also awarded the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council memberJames Earl Jones (2005),[179][180] theAlgur H. Meadows Award fromSouthern Methodist University (1994),[181] a SpecialLaurence Olivier Award (2011) "in recognition of his contribution to London theatre",[182][183] and aCritics' Circle Theatre Award (2012), which according to drama section chairMark Shenton "is effectively a lifetime achievement award."[184] He became a member of theAmerican Theater Hall of Fame (2014).[185] In 2013, Sondheim was awarded TheEdward MacDowell Medal byThe MacDowell Colony for outstanding contributions to American culture[186] In November 2015, Sondheim was awarded thePresidential Medal of Freedom by PresidentBarack Obama in a ceremony at theWhite House.[d][188][189]
Sondheim founded Young Playwrights Inc. in 1981 to introduce young people to writing for the theater, and was the organization's executive vice-president.[190] The Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts, at the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center inFairfield, Iowa, opened in December 2007 with performances byLen Cariou,Liz Callaway, andRichard Kind, all of whom had participated in Sondheim musicals.[191][192]
The Stephen Sondheim Society was established in 1993 to provide information about his work, with itsSondheim – the Magazine provided to its membership. The society maintains a database, organizes productions, meetings, outings, and other events, and assists with publicity. Its annual Student Performer of the Year Competition awards a £1,000 prize to one of twelve musical-theatre students from UK drama schools and universities. At Sondheim's request, an additional prize is offered for a new song by a young composer. Judged byGeorge Stiles andAnthony Drewe, each contestant performs a Sondheim song and a new song.[193][194][195]
Most episode titles of the television seriesDesperate Housewives refer to Sondheim's song titles or lyrics,[196][197][198][199] and the series finale is titled "Finishing the Hat".[200] In 1990, Sondheim, as theCameron Mackintosh chair in musical theater atOxford,[201] conducted workshops with promising musical writers includingGeorge Stiles,Anthony Drewe, Andrew Peggie, Paul James,Kit Hesketh-Harvey, andStephen Keeling. The writers founded the Mercury Workshop in 1992, which merged with the New Musicals Alliance to become MMD (a UK-based organization to develop new musical theater, of which Sondheim was a patron).[202]
Signature Theatre inArlington County, Virginia established its Sondheim Award, which includes a $5,000 donation to a nonprofit organization of the recipient's choice, "as a tribute to America's most influential contemporary musical theatre composer". The first award, to Sondheim, was presented at an April 27, 2009, benefit with performances byBernadette Peters,Michael Cerveris, Will Gartshore, and Eleasha Gamble.[203][204][205] The 2010 recipient wasAngela Lansbury, with Peters andCatherine Zeta-Jones hosting the April benefit.[206] The 2011 honoree was Bernadette Peters.[207] Other recipients werePatti LuPone in 2012,[208] Hal Prince in 2013,Jonathan Tunick in 2014,[209] and James Lapine in 2015.[210] The 2016 awardee was John Weidman[211] and the 2017 awardee was Cameron Mackintosh.[212]
Henry Miller's Theatre, on West 43rd Street in New York City, was renamed theStephen Sondheim Theatre on September 15, 2010, for the composer's 80th birthday. In attendance were Nathan Lane, Patti LuPone, and John Weidman. Sondheim said in response to the honor, "I'm deeply embarrassed. Thrilled, but deeply embarrassed. I've always hated my last name. It just doesn't sing. I mean, it's notBelasco. And it's not Rodgers and it's notSimon. And it's notWilson. It just doesn't sing. It sings better thanSchoenfeld andJacobs. But it just doesn't sing". Lane said, "We love our corporate sponsors and we love their money, but there's something sacred about naming a theatre, and there's something about this that is right and just".[213]
In 2010,The Daily Telegraph wrote that Sondheim was "almost certainly" the only living composer with a quarterly journal published in his name;[11]The Sondheim Review, founded in 1994, chronicled and promoted his work. It ceased publication in 2016.[214]
InGreta Gerwig's 2017 filmLady Bird, characters perform songs fromMerrily We Roll Along,Into the Woods, andAnyone Can Whistle. In 2019, it was observed in the media that three major films of that year prominently featured Sondheim songs:Joker (Wall Street businessmen sing "Send In the Clowns" on the subway),[215]Marriage Story (Adam Driver sings "Being Alive";Scarlett Johansson,Merritt Wever, andJulie Hagerty sing "You Can Drive a Person Crazy"),[216] andKnives Out (Daniel Craig sings "Losing My Mind").[215] Sondheim's work has also been referenced in television, such asThe Morning Show (Jennifer Aniston andBilly Crudup sing "Not While I'm Around").[217]
Several benefits and concerts were performed to celebrate Sondheim's 80th birthday in 2010. Among them were theNew York Philharmonic's March 15 and 16Sondheim: The Birthday Concert atLincoln Center'sAvery Fisher Hall, hosted byDavid Hyde Pierce. The concert included Sondheim's music, performed by some of the original performers.Lonny Price directed, andPaul Gemignani conducted; performers includedLaura Benanti,Matt Cavenaugh,Michael Cerveris,Victoria Clark, Jenn Colella,Jason Danieley,Alexander Gemignani,Joanna Gleason,Nathan Gunn,George Hearn,Patti LuPone,Marin Mazzie,Audra McDonald,John McMartin,Donna Murphy,Karen Olivo,Laura Osnes,Mandy Patinkin,Bernadette Peters,Bobby Steggert,Elaine Stritch,Jim Walton,Chip Zien, and the 2009 Broadway revival cast ofWest Side Story. A ballet was performed byBlaine Hoven andMaría Noel Riccetto to Sondheim's score forReds, andJonathan Tunick paid tribute to his longtime collaborator.[218][219] The concert was broadcast on PBS'sGreat Performances show in November,[220] and its DVD was released on November 16.
Sondheim 80, aRoundabout Theatre Company benefit, was held on March 22. The evening included a performance ofSondheim on Sondheim, dinner and a show at the New York Sheraton. "A very personal star-studded musical tribute" featured new songs by contemporary musical-theater writers. The composers (who sang their own songs) includedTom Kitt andBrian Yorkey,Michael John LaChiusa,Andrew Lippa,Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez,Lin-Manuel Miranda (accompanied byRita Moreno),Duncan Sheik, andJeanine Tesori andDavid Lindsay-Abaire.Bernadette Peters performed a song that had been cut from a Sondheim show.[221][222]
An April 26New York City Center birthday celebration and concert to benefit Young Playwrights, among others, featured (in order of appearance)Michael Cerveris,Alexander Gemignani,Donna Murphy,Debra Monk,Joanna Gleason,Maria Friedman,Mark Jacoby,Len Cariou,BD Wong,Claybourne Elder,Alexander Hanson,Catherine Zeta-Jones,Raúl Esparza,Sutton Foster,Nathan Lane,Michele Pawk, the original cast ofInto the Woods,Kim Crosby,Chip Zien,Danielle Ferland, andBen Wright,Angela Lansbury, andJim Walton. The concert, directed byJohn Doyle, was co-hosted byMia Farrow; greetings fromSheila Hancock,Julia McKenzie,Milton Babbitt,Judi Dench, andGlynis Johns were read. AfterCatherine Zeta-Jones performed "Send in the Clowns",Julie Andrews sang part of "Not a Day Goes By" in a recorded greeting.Patti LuPone,Barbara Cook,Bernadette Peters,Tom Aldredge, andVictor Garber were originally scheduled to perform, but did not appear.[223][224]
A July 31BBC Proms concert celebrated Sondheim's 80th birthday at theRoyal Albert Hall. The concert featured songs from many of his musicals, including "Send in the Clowns" sung byJudi Dench (reprising her role as Desirée in the 1995 production ofA Little Night Music), and performances byBryn Terfel andMaria Friedman.[225][226]
On November 19the New York Pops, led bySteven Reineke, performed atCarnegie Hall for the composer's 80th birthday.Kate Baldwin,Aaron Lazar,Christiane Noll, Paul Betz, Renee Rakelle,Marilyn Maye (singing "I'm Still Here"), andAlexander Gemignani appeared, and songs included "I Remember", "Another Hundred People", "Children Will Listen", and "Getting Married Today". Sondheim took the stage during an encore of his song, "Old Friends".[227][228]
To honor Sondheim's 90th birthday,The New York Times published a special nine-page Theater supplement on March 15, 2020, featuring comments by "Critics, Performers and Fans on the Bard of Broadway."[229] Due to theater closures during theCOVID-19 pandemic, the Broadway revival ofCompany set to open on March 22, 2020, Sondheim's 90th birthday, was delayed.[230] But the virtual concertTake Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration was livestreamed on theBroadway.com YouTube channel on April 26. Participants in the event includedLin-Manuel Miranda,Steven Spielberg,Meryl Streep,Nathan Lane,Mandy Patinkin,Victor Garber,Bernadette Peters,Patti LuPone,Neil Patrick Harris,Jake Gyllenhaal,Christine Baranski,Sutton Foster,Josh Groban,Ben Platt,Brandon Uranowitz,Katrina Lenk,Kelli O'Hara,Jason Alexander,Brian Stokes Mitchell,Beanie Feldstein,Audra McDonald,Laura Benanti, andRaúl Esparza.[231][232][233] After New York City theaters reopened in 2021, Sondheim attended revivals of two of his musicals: the opening night ofAssassins at theClassic Stage Company on November 14, and the first post-shutdown preview ofCompany at theJacobs Theatre on November 15.[39][234]
In 2022,Cameron Mackintosh presentedStephen Sondheim's Old Friends, a two-hour concert tribute to the late Sondheim. The concert happened in theWest End in May and aired onBBC Two in December. Performers at the event includedHelena Bonham Carter,Rob Brydon,Petula Clark,Judi Dench,Damian Lewis,Julia McKenzie,Bernadette Peters, andImelda Staunton. Highlights included Dench singing "Send in the Clowns", Peters singing "Children Will Listen", and Staunton's "Everything's Coming Up Roses".
Mackintosh revived the tribute for a limited run at theGielgud Theatre beginning previews on September 16, 2023, with a planned closing on January 6, 2024.[235] The production starsBernadette Peters, marking her West End debut, andLea Salonga, returning to the West End for the first time since 1996.
According to Sondheim, when he askedMilton Babbitt if he could studyatonality, Babbitt replied: "You haven't exhaustedtonal resources for yourself yet, so I'm not going to teach you atonal".[236] Music criticAnthony Tommasini wrote that Sondheim's work, "while hewing to a tonal musical language, activated harmonies and folded elements ofjazz andimpressionist styles in his own distinctive, exhilarating voice."[237]
Sondheim is known for complexpolyphony in his vocals, such as the five minor characters who make up aGreek chorus in 1973'sA Little Night Music. He used angular harmonies and intricate melodies. His musical influences were varied; although he said that he "lovesBach", his favorite musical period was fromBrahms toStravinsky.[238]
Raymond-Jean Frontain writes that thematically, Sondheim's musicals occupy a paradoxical place in gay culture, describing him as a gay creative artist who never created an explicitly gay character, but nevertheless attained gay cult status. Frontain continues:
He incarnates the paradox of a highly intellectualized gay perspective that prizes ambivalence, undercuts traditional American progressivism, and rejects the musical's historically idealistic view of sex, romance, and the family; but that at the same time eschews camp, deconstructs the diva, and is apparently oblivious to AIDS, the post-Stonewall struggle for civil equality, and other socio-political issues that concern most gay men of his generation.[239]
Luca Prono described Sondheim's work as rejecting the traditional image of the Western world typically presented in Broadway productions, and instead depicting it as "predatory and alienating". His works have acquired a cult following withqueer audiences, and his songs have been adopted as life scores for successive generations of gays, and have often had a primary role in AIDS fundraising events.[240] "Somewhere" fromWest Side Story was informally adopted as agay anthem before the start of thegay liberation movement, but Sondheim rejected that reading, saying, "If you think that's a gay song, then all songs about getting away from the realities of life are gay songs."[241]
In an interview withTerry Gross for theFresh Air program onNPR, Sondheim stated,
I'm interested in the theater because I'm interested in communication with audiences," [...] "Otherwise I would be in concert music. I'd be in another kind of profession. I love the theater as much as music, and the whole idea of getting across to an audience and making them laugh, making them cry – just making them feel – is paramount to me."[242]
Matt Zoller Seitz characterized Sondheim's work for its bravery to express the truth, in all its complexity: "compassionately but without sugarcoating anything", devoid of the "easy reassurances and neat resolutions" typically demanded in the marketplace.[243]
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Sondheim was often described as introverted and solitary. In an interview withFrank Rich, he said: "The outsider feeling—somebody who people want to both kiss and kill—occurred quite early in my life". Sondheim jokingly told theNew York Times in 1966: "I've never found anybody I could work with as quickly as myself, or with less argument", although he described himself as "naturally a collaborative animal".[244]
Sondheim came out as gay at age 40.[13][245] He rarely discussed his personal life, though he said in 2013 that he had not been in love before he turned 60, when he entered into a roughly eight-year relationship with dramatist Peter Jones.[246][247] Sondheim married Jeffrey Scott Romley, a digital technologist, in 2017; they lived in Manhattan andRoxbury, Connecticut.[244]
In 2010–2011, Sondheim published, in two volumes, his autobiography,Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954–1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes[248] andLook, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics (1981–2011) with Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes and Miscellany.[249] The memoir included Sondheim's lyrical declaration of principle, stating that four principles underpinned "everything I've ever written". These were: "Content Dictates Form, Less is More, God is in the Details – all in the service of Clarity."[244]
InSix by Sondheim, James Lapine's 2013 documentary film about the creative process, Sondheim revealed that he liked to write his music lying down and would occasionally have a cocktail to help him write.[250]
Sondheim died of cardiovascular disease at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut, on November 26, 2021, at age 91.[39] Collaborator and friendJeremy Sams said Sondheim "died in the arms of his husband, Jeff".[251] On November 29,theatres across the West End of London dimmed their lights for two minutes to mark Sondheim's passing. Broadway theaters similarly dimmed their marquee lights for one minute on December 8.[252][253]
It is estimated that Sondheim's estate, including the rights to his work, was valued at around $75 million, the entirety of which was placed in trust. In his will, he named F. Richard Pappas and a second unnamed individual as the executors. Beneficiaries included his husband, Jeff; his frequent collaborator James Lapine; former lover Peter Jones; former assistant Steven Clar; designer Peter Wooster; gardener Rob Girard; theSmithsonian Institution; theLibrary of Congress; and theNew York Public Library for the Performing Arts.[254]
The Library of Congress received Sondheim's papers in early 2025 and made many available for public viewing in July.[255] Head music specialist Mark Eden Horowitz first began pursuing the papers in 1993, when the music division invited Sondheim to the library to "knock his socks off". They showed him papers from his mentor,Oscar Hammerstein II, along with materials from Sondheim's other heroes.George Gershwin's manuscript forPorgy and Bess brought Sondheim to tears and convinced him to leave his own papers at the library. The collection includes over 5,000 items.[256]
... she wrote me a letter, hand-delivered because she thought she was going to die and she wanted to make sure I got it. She said, 'The night before I undergo open heart surgery,' – underlined three times. Open parenthesis. 'My surgeon's term.' Close parenthesis. 'The only regret I have in life is giving you birth.'
Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim receives the Academy's Gold Medal from Awards Council member James Earl Jones at the 2005 International Achievement Summit during a Broadway symposium in New York City.
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