Stephen Sondheim, a leading voice in American musical theater during the second half of 20th century and the composer who received the most Tony Awards has died. He was 91 years old. The Broadway legend died Friday, November 26, at his Roxbury, Conn, home. He was 91.
His shows, starting with the comedic “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”The ground-breaking “Company”Operatic “Sweeney Todd”The experimental “Pacific Overtures,”The Broadway musical stage was transformed, and this has influenced and advanced the medium. Sondheim was an Oscar Hammerstein II protégé. He began to break away from this melodic tradition to include complex and dissonant themes of 20th century classical musical music in his works.
Sondheim was awarded seven Tony Awards and a 2008 Special Tony Award, both for lifetime achievements in theater.
Although Sondheim never enjoyed the same popularity as Andrew Lloyd Webber, he changed the boundaries and broadened American musical theater with great daring. He based his tunes on so many disparate sources, including the ancient Roman playwright and poet Plautus.“A Funny Thing”), a film by Ingmar Bergman (“A Little Night Music”American political assassinations“Assassins”). His songs were criticized by critics for not being whistle-able like Richard Rodgers and Lloyd Webber. However, musicals from him continued to be appreciated, reappreciated, and praised throughout the years.
No one could deny Sondheim’s abilities as a lyricist — in that realm he easily rivaled the great Cole Porter. Sondheim’s talent is evident in his early collaborations (with Leonard Bernstein)“West Side Story”) and Jules Styne (“Gypsy”As a composer and conceiver of musical subjects, his voice became more refined and distinct. Many of his musicals are sardonic, and often downbeat. “Company”We dealt with one man, whose relationships with his married friends were not encouraging. “Follies,”Show business illusions vs. the realities of real life. Of course, “Sweeney Todd”The story is about a barber that killed his clients to make pies.
These materials were not always accessible to mass audiences. It was a hit with critics and theatre lovers. Sondheim not only won many Tonys, but he also paved the way to musicals that addressed sophisticated subjects as well as straight drama.
Sondheim was almost a product of his New York sensibility. Stephen Joshua Sondheim was born into a middle-class Manhattan family. After his parents divorced, he was sent to a military school. His mother moved him to Doylestown, Penn. where he lived with Oscar Hammerstein II, who was a close friend and became his surrogate dad. Sondheim performed his first musical at age 15. “By George,”Hammerstein tore it apart. “I learned more about songwriting and the musical theater (that afternoon) than most people learn in a lifetime,”He later remembered. Sondheim worked as an assistant on Hammerstein’s musicals “Allegro,” “South Pacific” “The King and I.”After completing the George School, he enrolled at Williams College. He was awarded a Hutchinson Prize to study composition and music, and he also graduated magnacum laude in 1950.
Sondheim’s Broadway debut came in 1953 with the musical “Saturday Night,”For which he composed the music and lyrics. However, the producer died unexpectedly and the financial backing of the show was also lost. Sondheim was briefly a telescripter, earning a small living in Hollywood. “Topper.”The incidental music was also composed by him for such plays. “Girls of Summer” “Invitation to a March.”
Arthur Laurents introduced Sondheim and Bernstein to each other, giving him the chance to write the lyrics to his musical updating. “Romeo and Juliet”So called “West Side Story” (1957). Although he later criticized his musical, it helped Sondheim to launch his career. He was to have written the music as well as the lyrics for Laurents’ “Gypsy,”Ethel Merman was the star and demanded that Jule Syne write the music. Sondheim’s brilliant lyrics and Styne’s score transformed the tale of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee into what many legiters consider one of the great musicals of all time. (Sondheim also contributed some lyrics to Bernstein’s “Candide”).
Sondheim was ready to go it alone, and he did. “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,”A comedy that was inspired by the Roman comic playwright Plautus. Starring Zero Mostel, it opened in 1962 would prove to be Sondheim’s most profitable musical, long running and frequently revived with the signature songs “Comedy Tonight” and “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid.”
But Sondheim’s next musical was one of his biggest disappointments. Laurents collaborated on the experimental “Anyone Can Whistle,”It was an exhausting experience that opened in 1964. It was also his second Laurents collaboration that was better. “Do I Hear a Waltz?,” for which Richard Rodgers wrote the music (it was Sondheim’s last collaborative effort), was based on Laurents’ play “The Time of the Cuckoo”(which eventually became the film “Summertime”) and had a brief, unprofitable run.
Except for the ABC TV original musical “Evening Primrose,”Sondheim was never heard of again after 1969, when he collaborated with Hal Prince to create a musical comedy that stretched the boundaries of musical comedy with his multi-character, free form sketches. “Company.”It was a hit when it premiered on Broadway the year after. “Being Alive,” “The Ladies Who Lunch” “I’m Not Getting Married Today.”It earned Sondheim his first Tony. The next year, Sondheim received the more dreamlike, even more daring Tony. “Follies”Also with Prince, a stunning reconception of the backstage musical. It is dark and reflective and beautifully staged. Sondheim received another Tony for the pastiche score from several musical eras. However, it was not as successful as expected. “Company.”
“A Little Night Music,” based on Ingmar Bergman’s Chekhovian romance “Smiles of a Summer Night,” opened in 1973, and whoever doubted Sondheim’s ability as a composer (from the start, no one ever doubted his lyrical mastery) was converted by the tuner’s waltzes and its plaintive “Send in the Clowns,”Sondheim wrote the closest thing to a hit single. Anthony Perkins also co-wrote his one film script. “The Last of Sheila,”This is a complicated murder mystery.
“Merrily We Roll Along”The show tried to be more clever by telling its story backwards, and it succeeded. As the series progresses, the characters who are bitter at the end of their lives become more idealistic and younger.
It was bold in concept. Its execution left a great deal to be desired, though it boasted one of Sondheim’s best scores, including the haunting “Not a Day Goes By.” He also musicalized Aristophanes’ “The Frogs.”
“Sweeney Todd,”The Grand Guignol opera, a melodrama about an homicidal barber in 19th-century England, was actually an opera. It was staged by Prince and won Sondheim a lot of praises. It was quickly adopted into the operatic repertoire worldwide and won Tonys in Sondheim’s favor.
Sondheim’s last two Broadway successes (though neither compared to “Sweeney”Oder “Funny Thing”) were “Sunday in the Park With George” — a reverie in two time periods (19th century France and today) about pointillist painter Georges Seurat, and more abstract than the melodramatic “Sweeney Todd” — and the dark fairy tale “Into the Woods.”He won the Pulitzer Prize. “Sunday in the Park With George”1985
His next project is “Assassins,”About presidential murderers and would-be killers like John Wilkes Booth or Squeaky Forme, was considered an oddity and didn’t move to Broadway after being at Playwrights Horizon since 1991. However, the 2004 Broadway production of Roundabout Theater Company’s musical, “The Phantom of the Opera,” was a critical success that won five Tonys, the trophy for musical revitalization, and received five Tonys.
1994 saw him return with “Passion,”Based on Ettore Scola’s film. While it was respectfully received and won several Tonys, some thought it lacked real songs — they saw it as an interesting experiment, but one for which audiences were not ready. His play “Getting Away With Murder,”co-written by George Furth. It was quickly closed on Broadway in 1996.
His most recent musical is “Road Trip,”The process of development was long and bumpy. Initially called “Wise Guys”In 1999, the Off Broadway workshop hosted the premiere of the show. “Bounce” at Chicago’s Goodman Theater in 2003 and also had a run at the Kennedy Center later that year. But the musical never made it to Gotham until 2008. In 2008, another retooled version of the musical was released. “Road Trip,” bowed at Off Broadway’s Public Theater in a staging director by John Doyle, whose stripped-down Broadway revivals of “Sweeney Todd”2005: “Company”In 2006, it had been a huge hit.
His music was revived on Broadway during his last years of career. Sondheim musicals were a regular feature at the Roundabout Theater Company, which produced a variety of them. “Assassins”To “Sunday in the Park”To “Pacific Overtures.”The Roundabout changed the name of one of its Broadway venues in honor the composer in 2010.
The Kennedy Center hosted a summerlong celebration in 2002 of Sondheim’s work that included six of his tuneers performing repertory. In recent years, Sondheim musicals have been adapted for commercial purposes. “Sweeney,” “Company,” “A Little Night Music”2009 “Follies” (2011).
Not many commercial productions of Sondheim’s musicals managed to recoup, despite the accolades and the fan fervor. Sondheim achieved more than he ever imagined, and left an indelible mark on American music and musical theater in general. Compendium revues of Sondheim’s work “Side by Side by Sondheim,” “Marry Me a Little,” “Putting It Together,” “You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow” “Sondheim and Sondheim”His musicals, which were less popular than his movies, helped popularize music that was not as appreciated.
Sondheim composed the score for the film Alain Resnais (1974). “Stavisky” penned the songs in Warren Beatty’s “Reds” and “Dick Tracy,”For 1991, winning the Oscar for Best Picture. “Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man).”(Sondheim was Grammy nominated to perform another song. “Dick Tracy,” “More”). He also wrote “I Never Do Anything Twice”For “The Seven Percent Solution.”
Multiple Grammys were won by the composer for musical cast album, and he was also awarded song of the Year in 1975. “Send in the Clowns.”
In 2007 director Tim Burton adapted “Sweeney Todd” for the bigscreen, with Johhny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter starring, and the Hollywood adaptations wouldn’t stop there. Disney’s bigscreen adaptation of Sondheim’s “Into the Woods”Theater fans were not pleased with the December 2014 release of the musical. Sondheim disclosed in June that cuts had been made to make it more accessible for families. “You know, if I were a Disney executive, I probably would say the same thing,”Sondheim stated. It did however receive three academy awards nominations, one for Meryl Streep, who played the iconic witch.
Richard Linklater, Director of Richard Linklater, is currently working on a movie about the retelling of The Wizard of Oz. “Merrily We Roll Along”This film, which stars Ben Platt & Beanie Feldstein is being shot over a 12-year period.
Sondheim was the president of Dramatists Guild between 1973 and 1981. In honor of his 80th birthday, the Henry Miller’s Theater was redubbed the Stephen Sondheim Theater in September 2010. It was celebrated with a series of concerts and other benefits.
And in 2011 he received a Special Award at the U.K.’s Olivier Awards “in recognition of his contribution to London theater.”In November 2015, he was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama.
HBO’s 2013 documentary explored his legacy. “Six by Sondheim.”
From 1999 to 1999, Sondheim was in a long-lasting relationship with Peter Jones, a dramatist.