R.I.P. Stephen Sondheim, legendary Broadway songwriter
The nine-time Tony winner, known for Sweeney Todd, Company, and Into The Woods, was 91
Aux News Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim, one of Broadway’s best known and revered composers and lyricists, known for West Side Story, Into The Woods, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, has died. Per The New York Times, Sonheim’s lawyer and friend, F. Richard Pappas, confirmed Sondheim’s death at his Connecticut home Friday. He was 91.
Born in New York City in 1930, Sondheim began his musical theater training under the tutelage of his neighbor, Oscar Hammerstein II, of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The composer of such classics as Oklahoma, Hammerstein became Sondheim’s mentor after the 10-year-old boy’s parents divorced.
Though Hammerstein would guide Sondheim through the first two decades of his career, Broadway’s most influential and successful songwriter was also one of Sondheim’s earliest critics. In 1945, when Sondheim presented his first musical, By George, to Hammerstein, who told his protégé: “It’s the worst thing I’ve ever read. It was terrible, and if you want to know why it’s terrible, I’ll tell you.” Years later, Sondheim described the lesson: “I dare say, at the risk of hyperbole, that I learned more that afternoon than most people learn about songwriting in a lifetime.”
Having such a remarkable teacher paid off. After graduating from Williams College, where he wrote four shows under Hammerstein’s guidance, Sondheim spent two years studying with avant-garde composer Milton Babbit.
Sondheim nearly made his Broadway debut in 1955, writing the words and music for the musical comedy Saturday Night. However, the death of the show’s producer led to his opening night’s delay. Still, it wouldn’t take much longer for young Sondheim to find success. His next job would make him a star.
In 1957, at the behest of his old teacher Oscar Hammerstein, Sondheim shelved his aspirations at becoming a composer-lyricist and settled for writing the words for West Side Story. The show won two Tonys, while the film adaptation (the unapologetic Sondheim was not a fan) won 10 Oscars. Two years later, Hammerstein would again convince Sondheim to take the job of lyricist, this time on “what may be the greatest of all American musicals,” Gypsy.
1962 would be a landmark year for Sondheim, with the premiere of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. Though it was his third to reach the stage, Funny Thing was Sondheim’s first show as composer and lyricist.
It would be another 10 years before Sondheim won his first Tony. 1971’s Company, which earned Sondheim Best Lyrics and Best Original Score Tonys, would begin an unmatched streak of artistic heights. Shows like Follies, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Assassins, Pacific Overtures, and Into The Woods would span a broad spectrum stylistically. Some productions failed on opening night, only to be reworked decades later, while others seemed to become generation-defining smashes before intermission. Critical reception was just as varied, with early reviews sometimes expressing befuddlement and outrage towards the composer’s idiosyncratic structures.
Nevertheless, Sondheim’s successes and failures alike make up a rich body of work that defies expectation. He worked from a place of experimentation, in many cases, breaking the rules of musical theater and embracing more “dangerous” routes as he headed into the unknown. “You shouldn’t feel safe,” Sondheim said in 2017. “You should feel, ‘I don’t know if I can write this.’ That’s what I mean by dangerous, and I think that’s a good thing to do. Sacrifice something safe.”
32 Comments
“Sometimes people leave you, halfway through the wood…”I never met him or knew him (other than bumping into him at the stage door ahead of an Assassins revival a few years ago where I immediately burst into tears), but his music has informed, inspired, guided, and provided the soundtrack to my life more than almost any other artist that it makes this feel like a personal loss. Even though he was 91 it feels like a shock. An absolute titan of theater and inarguably one of the most important artists of the last century (and beyond).Rest In Peace, Mr. Sondheim. Thanks for finishing the hat.
He was a friend of a friend. I never met him, but my friend always speaks so highly about him as a wonderful person and friend. Very generous, and a real gentleman.
My biggest nitpick with Assassins is that Booth didn’t kill himself. He was shot by a Mad Hatter/Self-inflicted Eunuch (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Corbett)…
Yeah, but wasn’t it a case of the classic cliche “suicide by eunuch”?
Well shit. I was hanging out with a friend who does stageplays yesterday and we talked a lot about Sweeney Todd. I don’t even know where to start, the man did it all. I suppose there isn’t any remaining writers of the Golden Age of Broadway left. What a sad thought.
The redwoods are falling.
RIP.
as an artist, my fave line of his is “look, i made a hat where there never was a hat.” every bit of art is a triumph.
I remember Lin Manuel Miranda quoting that in his acceptance speech for his first Tony. It’s really the essence of art in one lyric.
The world is poorer without him in it.
Love him. Hate him. It doesn’t matter, he was a titan.
His genius really left me awestruck and moved. Just an incredible talent.
Leave you, leave you, how could I leave you…
My word! THAT was a life lived!
Sondheim and Frank Loesser were the two who I could really enjoy.Others had a couple of perfect shows, and others had some perfect songs, but those two made reporting to the orchestra pit something I looked forward to.
91. Can’t be mad at that.
The “tragedy tomorrow” has finally come.
People strolling through the trees
Of a small suburban park
On an island in the river
On an ordinary SundayI was just listening to this last night. It would be a lie to say that I was his biggest fan (not anything to do with him or his art, just because I’m not that big a fan of musical theatre in general), but I don’t think I’ve ever heard the process of creating art out of something so seemly ordinary and mundane expressed so beautifully. RIP. White. A blank page or canvas. His favorite. So many possibilities…
Holy shit, I was just listening to an interview with Lin-Manuel Miranda about Tick, Tick…Boom! where he was talking about Sondheim supporting Jonathan Larson, and how Sondheim asked Miranda if he could rewrite his message to Larson that appears at the end of the film! Miranda was talking about his own admiration for Sondheim, and how at 91 he’s still writing songs….Go on doing what you in The Summerlands, Stephen Sondheim.
Josh Gad’s tweet on Sondheim put it best, “Perhaps not since April 23rd of 1616 has theater lost such a revolutionary voice.”
Sondheim began his musical theater training under the tutelage of his neighbor, Oscar Hammerstein II, of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The composer of such classics as Oklahoma, Hammerstein became Sondheim’s mentor after the 10-year-old boy’s parents divorced.I don’t know how much on tick,tick…Boom! is true, as I understand the film made it more explicitly autobiographical than the musical did. But if Larsen really was mentored, even briefly, by Sondheim they way he is in the film, then that’s a beautiful example of someone paying something forward.Also, I haven’t seen Sondheim speak much so I can’t speak as to how accurate an impersonation it is, but I absolutely loved Bradley Whitford’s performance as him in that film.
I’m not as up on Sondheim as most people here, but holy moley – Assassins? the audacity of the idea of that show is impressive. That it turned out well (anyway I liked it) is extra. And Into the Woods was amazing – it could have been a lighthearted romp through fairy tale with their familiar characters, and it was, till it wasn’t – till it got scary and tragic.Just an incredible career. RIP.
I lack the talent and education to go against the conventional wisdom of Sondheim’s brilliance, but I feel like Robot-Devil from Futurama would’ve kicked that guy’s ass for the beginning of Into The Woods. YOU CAN’T JUST TELL THE AUDIENCE WHAT CHARACTERS ARE FEELING! THAT MAKES ME SO ANGRY!Maybe it got better later, but I shut it off in disgust after 30 minutes. Emily Blunt’s ashamed face as she over-mouthed the words “I want a child,” while 2-3 other whingers were whingeing simultaneously, and defying any listener to detect a hint of harmony (or any larger plan at all,) is forever burned into my brain.I basically knew nothing about Sondheim prior to that viewing. I’d heard his work of course, but didn’t know which work was his and which wasn’t. As a casual musician, a casual lyricist, and a card-carrying member of a generation that just consumes too much entertainment generally, I had a visceral gut check that I was watching a fiasco.
If you gave up on Into the Woods after the first 20 minutes of the movie, then you missed everything that makes the play matter. Not to mention that the blatant “I wish” theme of the song was intended to be too on the nose. That was the intention. It was not that you were watching a fiasco as much as you determined that a character from Futurama was a better guide to art than one of the greatest minds we’ve ever had.
Rest in peace.
I’ll be forever grateful to my theatre teacher way back when who, after I asked if he had ever heard of this Hal Prince guy they talked about on 60 Minutes…well, after he stopped laughing, he said, “If you want to understand theatre, you have to understand him and Stephen Sondheim,” then brought me the cast recording of Sweeney Todd the next day. I’ve loved him ever since, and as I’ve gotten older I find myself picking up on different parts of his shows—sometimes different parts of individual songs—that I wasn’t ready to “get” before and then hey, what do you know…At 91, it was obviously a matter of when, not if, and I thought I’d been dealing with the inevitable for years now, but I’ll be damned if I haven’t been able to go half an hour without crying for the past day.
Quite simply one of the most important artists of our lifetime. “I’ll drink to that.”
It’s great that the AV Club posted this tribute to such a titan of theater.Good work!
I wish more NERRRDDS showed up to pay tribute. But because he didn’t sell toys we’ll be lucky to break 100 comments
The first Broadway show I saw was the original production of Sweeney Todd starring Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou. It was awesome and basically everything I have seen since pales in comparison.Sondheim is the last of the greats.
I thought we’d canceled Sondheim for some reason?
When Stephen died, I felt nothing.::PLEASE tell me someone will get this::