Sondheim, the songwriter who reshaped the American musical theatre in the second half of the 20th century with his intelligent, intricately rhymed lyrics, his use of evocative melodies and his willingness to tackle unusual subjects, has died. He was 91.
SondheimB次元官网网址檚 death was announced by Rick Miramontez, president of DKC/O&M. SondheimB次元官网网址檚 Texas-based attorney, Rick Pappas, the composer died Friday at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut.
Sondheim influenced several generations of theatre songwriters, particularly with such landmark musicals as B次元官网网址淐ompany,B次元官网网址� B次元官网网址淔olliesB次元官网网址� and B次元官网网址淪weeney Todd,B次元官网网址� which are considered among his best work. His most famous ballad, B次元官网网址淪end in the Clowns,B次元官网网址� has been recorded hundreds of times, including by Frank Sinatra and Judy Collins.
The artist refused to repeat himself, finding inspiration for his shows in such diverse subjects as an Ingmar Bergman movie (B次元官网网址淎 Little Night MusicB次元官网网址�), the opening of Japan to the West (B次元官网网址淧acific OverturesB次元官网网址�), French painter Georges Seurat (B次元官网网址淪unday in the Park With GeorgeB次元官网网址�), GrimmB次元官网网址檚 fairy tales (B次元官网网址淚nto the WoodsB次元官网网址�) and even the killers of American presidents (B次元官网网址淎ssassinsB次元官网网址�), among others.
Tributes quickly flooded social media as performers and writers alike saluted a giant of the theatre. B次元官网网址淲e shall be singing your songs forever,B次元官网网址� wrote Lea Salonga. Aaron Tveit wrote: B次元官网网址淲e are so lucky to have what youB次元官网网址檝e given the world.B次元官网网址�
B次元官网网址淭he theatre has lost one of its greatest geniuses and the world has lost one of its greatest and most original writers. Sadly, there is now a giant in the sky,B次元官网网址� producer Cameron Mackintosh wrote in tribute. Music supervisor, arranger and orchestrator Alex Lacamoire tweeted: B次元官网网址淔or those of us who love new musical theatre: we live in a world that Sondheim built.B次元官网网址�
Six of SondheimB次元官网网址檚 musicals won Tony Awards for best score, and he also received a Pulitzer Prize (B次元官网网址淪unday in the ParkB次元官网网址�), an Academy Award (for the song B次元官网网址淪ooner or LaterB次元官网网址� from the film B次元官网网址淒ick TracyB次元官网网址�), five Olivier Awards and the Presidential Medal of Honor. In 2008, he received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement.
SondheimB次元官网网址檚 music and lyrics gave his shows a dark, dramatic edge, whereas before him, the dominant tone of musicals was frothy and comic. He was sometimes criticized as a composer of unhummable songs, a badge that didnB次元官网网址檛 bother Sondheim. Frank Sinatra, who had a hit with SondheimB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淪end in the Clowns,B次元官网网址� once complained: B次元官网网址淗e could make me a lot happier if heB次元官网网址檇 write more songs for saloon singers like me.B次元官网网址�
To theatre fans, SondheimB次元官网网址檚 sophistication and brilliance made him an icon. A Broadway theatre was named after him. A New York magazine cover asked B次元官网网址淚s Sondheim God?B次元官网网址� The Guardian newspaper once offered this question: B次元官网网址淚s Stephen Sondheim the Shakespeare of musical theatre?B次元官网网址�
A supreme wordsmith B次元官网网址� and an avid player of word games B次元官网网址� SondheimB次元官网网址檚 joy of language shone through. B次元官网网址淭he opposite of left is right/The opposite of right is wrong/So anyone whoB次元官网网址檚 left is wrong, right?B次元官网网址� he wrote in B次元官网网址淎nyone Can Whistle.B次元官网网址� In B次元官网网址淐ompany,B次元官网网址� he penned the lines: B次元官网网址淕ood things get better/Bad gets worse/Wait B次元官网网址� I think I meant that in reverse.B次元官网网址�
He offered the three principles necessary for a songwriter in his first volume of collected lyrics B次元官网网址� Content Dictates Form, Less Is More, and God Is in the Details. All these truisms, he wrote, were B次元官网网址渋n the service of Clarity, without which nothing else matters.B次元官网网址� Together they led to stunning lines like: B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 a very short road from the pinch and the punch to the paunch and the pouch and the pension.B次元官网网址�
Taught by no less a genius than Oscar Hammerstein, Sondheim pushed the musical into a darker, richer and more intellectual place. B次元官网网址淚f you think of a theatre lyric as a short story, as I do, then every line has the weight of a paragraph,B次元官网网址� he wrote in his 2010 book, B次元官网网址淔inishing the Hat,B次元官网网址� the first volume of his collection of lyrics and comments.
Early in his career, Sondheim wrote the lyrics for two shows considered to be classics of the American stage, B次元官网网址淲est Side StoryB次元官网网址� (1957) and B次元官网网址淕ypsyB次元官网网址� (1959). B次元官网网址淲est Side Story,B次元官网网址� with music by Leonard Bernstein, transplanted ShakespeareB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淩omeo and JulietB次元官网网址� to the streets and gangs of modern-day New York. B次元官网网址淕ypsy,B次元官网网址� with music by Jule Styne, told the backstage story of the ultimate stage mother and the daughter who grew up to be Gypsy Rose Lee.
It was not until 1962 that Sondheim wrote both music and lyrics for a Broadway show, and it turned out to be a smash B次元官网网址� the bawdy B次元官网网址淎 Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,B次元官网网址� starring Zero Mostel as a wily slave in ancient Rome yearning to be free.
Yet his next show, B次元官网网址淎nyone Can WhistleB次元官网网址� (1964), flopped, running only nine performances but achieving cult status after its cast recording was released. SondheimB次元官网网址檚 1965 lyric collaboration with composer Richard Rodgers B次元官网网址� B次元官网网址淒o I Hear a Waltz?B次元官网网址� B次元官网网址� also turned out to be problematic. The musical, based on the play B次元官网网址淭he Time of the Cuckoo,B次元官网网址� ran for six months but was an unhappy experience for both men, who did not get along.
It was B次元官网网址淐ompany,B次元官网网址� which opened on Broadway in April 1970, that cemented SondheimB次元官网网址檚 reputation. The episodic adventures of a bachelor (played by Dean Jones) with an inability to commit to a relationship was hailed as capturing the obsessive nature of striving, self-centered New Yorkers. The show, produced and directed by Hal Prince, won Sondheim his first Tony for best score. B次元官网网址淭he Ladies Who LunchB次元官网网址� became a standard for Elaine Stritch.
The following year, Sondheim wrote the score for B次元官网网址淔ollies,B次元官网网址� a look at the shattered hopes and disappointed dreams of women who had appeared in lavish Ziegfeld-style revues. The music and lyrics paid homage to great composers of the past such as Jerome Kern, Cole Porter and the Gershwins.
In 1973, B次元官网网址淎 Little Night Music,B次元官网网址� starring Glynis Johns and Len Cariou, opened. Based on BergmanB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淪miles of a Summer Night,B次元官网网址� this rueful romance of middle-age lovers contains the song B次元官网网址淪end in the Clowns,B次元官网网址� which gained popularity outside the show. A revival in 2009 starred Angela Lansbury and Catherine Zeta-Jones was nominated for a best revival Tony.
B次元官网网址淧acific Overtures,B次元官网网址� with a book by John Weidman, followed in 1976. The musical, also produced and directed by Prince, was not a financial success, but it demonstrated SondheimB次元官网网址檚 commitment to offbeat material, filtering its tale of the westernization of Japan through a hybrid American-Kabuki style.
In 1979, Sondheim and Prince collaborated on what many believe to be SondheimB次元官网网址檚 masterpiece, the bloody yet often darkly funny B次元官网网址淪weeney Todd.B次元官网网址� An ambitious work, it starred Cariou in the title role as a murderous barber whose customers end up in meat pies baked by ToddB次元官网网址檚 willing accomplice, played by Angela Lansbury.
The Sondheim-Prince partnership collapsed two years later, after B次元官网网址淢errily We Roll Along,B次元官网网址� a musical that traced a friendship backward from its charactersB次元官网网址� compromised middle age to their idealistic youth. The show, based on a play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, only ran two weeks on Broadway. But again, as with B次元官网网址淎nyone Can Whistle,B次元官网网址� its original cast recording helped B次元官网网址淢errily We Roll AlongB次元官网网址� to become a favorite among musical-theatre buffs.
B次元官网网址淪unday in the Park,B次元官网网址� written with James Lapine, may be SondheimB次元官网网址檚 most personal show. A tale of uncompromising artistic creation, it told the story of artist Georges Seurat, played by Mandy Patinkin. The painter submerges everything in his life, including his relationship with his model (Bernadette Peters), for his art.) It was most recently revived on Broadway in 2017 with Jake Gyllenhaal.)
Three years after B次元官网网址淪undayB次元官网网址� debuted, Sondheim collaborated again with Lapine, this time on the fairy-tale musical B次元官网网址淚nto the Woods.B次元官网网址� The show starred Peters as a glamorous witch and dealt primarily with the turbulent relationships between parents and children, using such famous fairy-tale characters as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel. It was most recently revived in the summer of 2012 in Central Park by The Public Theatre.
B次元官网网址淎ssassinsB次元官网网址� opened off-Broadway in 1991 and it looked at the men and women who wanted to kill presidents, from John Wilkes Booth to John Hinckley. The show received mostly negative reviews in its original incarnation, but many of those critics reversed themselves 13 years later when the show was done on Broadway and won a Tony for best musical revival.
B次元官网网址淧assionB次元官网网址� was another severe look at obsession, this time a desperate woman, played by Donna Murphy, in love with a handsome soldier. Despite winning the best-musical Tony in 1994, the show barely managed a six-month run.
A new version of B次元官网网址淭he Frogs,B次元官网网址� with additional songs by Sondheim and a revised book by Nathan Lane (who also starred in the production), played Lincoln Center during the summer of 2004. The show, based on the Aristophanes comedy, originally had been done 20 years earlier in the Yale University swimming pool.
One of his more troubled shows was B次元官网网址淩oad Show,B次元官网网址� which reunited Sondheim and Weidman and spent years being worked on. This tale of the Mizner brothers, whose get-rich schemes in the early part of the 20th century finally made it to the Public theatre in 2008 after going through several different titles, directors and casts.
He had been working on a new musical with B次元官网网址淰enus in FurB次元官网网址� playwright David Ives, who called his collaborator a genius. B次元官网网址淣ot only are his musicals brilliant, but I canB次元官网网址檛 think of another theatre person who has so chronicled a whole age so eloquently,B次元官网网址� Ives said in 2013. B次元官网网址淗e is the spirit of the age in a certain way.B次元官网网址�
Sondheim was born March 22, 1930, into a wealthy family, the only son of dress manufacturer Herbert Sondheim and Helen Fox Sondheim. At 10, his parents divorced and SondheimB次元官网网址檚 mother bought a house in Doylestown, Pa., where one of their Bucks County neighbours was lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, whose son, James, was SondheimB次元官网网址檚 roommate at boarding school. It was Oscar Hammerstein who became the young manB次元官网网址檚 professional mentor and a good friend.
He had a solitary childhood, one that involved verbal abuse from his chilly mother. He received a letter in his 40s from her telling him that she regretted giving birth to him. He continued to support her financially and to see her occasionally but didnB次元官网网址檛 attend her funeral.
Sondheim attended Williams College in Massachusetts, where he majored in music. After graduation, he received a two-year fellowship to study with avant-garde composer Milton Babbitt.
One of SondheimB次元官网网址檚 first jobs was writing scripts for the television show B次元官网网址淭opper,B次元官网网址� which ran for two years (1953-1955). At the same time, Sondheim wrote his first musical, B次元官网网址淪aturday Night,B次元官网网址� the story of a group of young people in Brooklyn in 1920s. It was to have opened on Broadway in 1955, but its producer died just as the musical was about to go into production, and the show was scrapped. B次元官网网址淪aturday NightB次元官网网址� finally arrived in New York in 1997 in a small, off-Broadway production.
Sondheim wrote infrequently for the movies. He collaborated with actor Anthony Perkins on the script for the 1973 murder mystery B次元官网网址淭he Last of Sheila,B次元官网网址� and besides his work on B次元官网网址淒ick TracyB次元官网网址� (1990), wrote scores for such movies as Alain ResnaisB次元官网网址� B次元官网网址淪taviskyB次元官网网址� (1974) and Warren BeattyB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淩edsB次元官网网址� (1981).
Over the years, there have been many Broadway revivals of Sondheim shows, especially B次元官网网址淕ypsy,B次元官网网址� which had reincarnations starring Angela Lansbury (1974), Tyne Daly (1989) and Peters (2003). But there also were productions of B次元官网网址淎 Funny Thing,B次元官网网址� one with Phil Silvers in 1972 and another starring Nathan Lane in 1996; B次元官网网址淚nto the WoodsB次元官网网址� with Vanessa Williams in 2002; and even of SondheimB次元官网网址檚 less successful shows such as B次元官网网址淎ssassinsB次元官网网址� and B次元官网网址淧acific Overtures,B次元官网网址� both in 2004. B次元官网网址淪weeney ToddB次元官网网址� has been produced in opera houses around the world. A reimagined B次元官网网址淲est Side StoryB次元官网网址� opened on Broadway in 2020 and this year an off-Broadway B次元官网网址淎ssassinsB次元官网网址� opened off-Broadway at Classic Stage Company and a scrambled B次元官网网址淐ompanyB次元官网网址� opened on Broadway with the gender of the protagonist switched. A film version of B次元官网网址淲est Side StoryB次元官网网址� is to open this December directed by Steven Spielberg.
SondheimB次元官网网址檚 songs have been used extensively in revues, the best-known being B次元官网网址淪ide by Side by SondheimB次元官网网址� (1976) on Broadway and B次元官网网址淧utting It Together,B次元官网网址� off-Broadway with Julie Andrews in 1992 and on Broadway with Carol Burnett in 1999. The New York Philharmonic put on a star-studded B次元官网网址淐ompanyB次元官网网址� in 2011 with Neil Patrick Harris and Stephen Colbert. Tunes from his musicals have lately popped up everywhere from B次元官网网址淢arriage StoryB次元官网网址� to B次元官网网址淭he Morning Show.B次元官网网址�
An HBO documentary directed by Lapine, B次元官网网址淪ix by Sondheim,B次元官网网址� aired in 2013 and revealed that he liked to compose lying down and sometimes enjoyed a cocktail to loosen up as he wrote. He even revealed that he really only fell in love after reaching 60, first with the dramatist Peter Jones and then in his last years with Jeff Romley.
B次元官网网址淓very so often someone comes along that fundamentally shifts an entire art form. Stephen Sondheim was one of those. As millions mourn his passing I also want to express my gratitude for all he has given to me and so many more,B次元官网网址� singer and actor Hugh Jackman wrote via Twitter.
Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press
