Stephen Joshua Sondheim
(born March 22, 1930) is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film, winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards (nine, more than any other composer) including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre (received 2008), multiple Grammy Awards, and a Pulitzer Prize. He has been described as "the greatest and perhaps best-known artist in the American musical theatre." [1] His most famous scores include (as composer/lyricist) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
, Company
, Follies
, A Little Night Music
, Sweeney Todd
, Sunday in the Park with George
, Into the Woods
, and Assassins
, as well as the lyrics for West Side Story
and Gypsy
. He was president of the Dramatists Guild from 1973 to 1981.
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STEPHEN SONDHEIM TICKETS
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Early years
Stephen Sondheim was born to Herbert and Janet ("Foxy") Sondheim, in New York City, and grew up on the
Upper West Side of
Manhattan and later on a farm in
Pennsylvania, after his parents divorced. While living in New York, Stephen Sondheim attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School. Herbert, his father, was a dress manufacturer and Foxy, his mother, designed the dresses. An only child of well-to-do parents living in a high-rise apartment on
Central Park West, Sondheim's childhood has been portrayed as isolated and emotionally neglected in
Meryle Secrest's biography,
Stephen Sondheim: A Life.
He graduated New York Military Academy in 1946.
Sondheim traces his interest in theater to
Very Warm for May
, a Broadway musical he saw at the age of 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."
[2]
When Stephen was ten years old, his father Herbert, a distant figure in Stephen's life, abandoned him and his mother. Stephen "famously despised" Foxy;
he once wrote a thank-you note to close friend
Mary Rodgers that read, "Dear Mary and Hank, Thanks for the plate, but where was my mother's head? Love, Steve."
When his mother died in the spring of 1992, he did not attend her funeral.
[3] His mother was psychologically abusive and distant,
[4] but at the same time used Sondheim in place of his father: for example, she would hold his hand at movies. His father wanted custody of him but because he had left Sondheim's mother for another woman (Alicia), this was not granted. Also, at that that time, mothers were more likely to win custody of the child. Herbert Sondheim and Alicia had two sons together.
Career
Mentorship under Oscar Hammerstein II
At about the age of ten, around the time of his parents' divorce, Sondheim became friends with Jimmy Hammerstein, son of the well-known lyricist and playwright
Oscar Hammerstein II. The elder Hammerstein became a surrogate father to Sondheim, as the young man attempted to stay away from home as much as possible. Hammerstein had a profound influence on the young Sondheim, especially in his development of love for musical theater. Indeed, it was at the opening of Hammerstein's hit show
South Pacific
that Sondheim met
Harold Prince, who would later direct many of Sondheim's most famous shows. During high school, Sondheim attended
George School, a private Quaker
preparatory school in
Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He had the chance to write a comic musical based on the goings-on of his school, entitled
By George
. It was a major success among his peers, and it inflated the young songwriter's ego considerably; he took it to Hammerstein, and asked him to evaluate it as though he had no knowledge of its author. Hammerstein said it was the worst thing he had ever seen. "But if you want to know why it's terrible," Hammerstein consoled the young man, "I'll tell you." The rest of the day was spent going over the musical, and Sondheim would later say that "in that afternoon I learned more about songwriting and the musical theater than most people learn in a lifetime."
[5]
Thus began one of the most famous apprenticeships in the musical theatre, as Hammerstein designed a kind of course for Sondheim to take on the construction of a musical. This training centered around four assignments, which Sondheim was to write. These were:
- A musical based on a play he admired (which became All That Glitters
)
- A musical based on a play he thought was flawed (which became High Tor
)
- A musical based on an existing novel or short story not previously dramatized (which became his unfinished Mary Poppins
, not connected to the musical film and stage play scored by the Sherman Brothers.)
- An original musical (which became Climb High
)
None of these "assignment" musicals was ever produced professionally.
High Tor
and
Mary Poppins
have never been produced at all, because the rights holders for the original works refused to grant permission for a musical to be made.
In 1950, Sondheim graduated
magna cum laude from
Williams College in
Williamstown, Massachusetts, where he was a member of
Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He went on to study composition with the composer
Milton Babbitt. Sondheim says that when he asked Babbitt if he could study
atonality, Babbitt replied "No, I don't think you've exhausted your
tonal resources yet."
[6]. Sondheim agreed, and despite frequent
dissonance and a highly chromatic style, his music remains resolutely
tonal.
Move to Broadway and work as lyricist
"A few painful years of struggle" followed for Sondheim, during which he continually auditioned songs, living in his father's dining room to save money; he also spent some time in Hollywood writing for the television series
Topper
.
He devoured the films of the 1940s and '50s and has called cinema his "basic language."
(His knowledge of film got him through
The $64,000 Question
contestant tryouts.) Ironically, Sondheim has expressed a dislike of movie musicals, favoring classic dramas like
Citizen Kane
,
The Grapes of Wrath
, and
A Matter of Life and Death
. He adds that "studio directors like
Michael Curtiz and
Raoul 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."
[7]
In 1954, Sondheim wrote both music and lyrics for
Saturday Night
, which was never produced on Broadway and was shelved until a 1997 production at
London's Bridewell Theatre. In 1998
Saturday Night
received a professional recording, followed by a revised version with two new songs and an Off-Broadway run at
Second Stage Theatre in 2000 and its full British premiere with the new songs due in 2009 at London's
Jermyn Street Theatre.
Sondheim's big break came when he wrote the lyrics to
West Side Story
, accompanying
Leonard Bernstein's music and
Arthur Laurents's book. The 1957 show, directed by
Jerome Robbins, ran for 732 performances. While this may be the best-known show Sondheim ever worked on, he has expressed some dissatisfaction with his lyrics, stating they don't always fit the characters and are sometimes too consciously poetic.
In 1959, he wrote the lyrics for another hit musical,
Gypsy
. Sondheim would have liked to write the music as well, but
Ethel Merman, the star, insisted on a composer with a track record. Thus,
Jule Styne was hired.
[8] Sondheim questioned if he should write only the lyrics for yet another show, but his mentor
Oscar Hammerstein told him it would be valuable experience to write for a star. Sondheim worked closely with book writer Arthur Laurents to create the show. It ran 702 performances.
Finally, Sondheim participated in a musical for which he wrote both the music and lyrics,
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
. It opened in 1962 and ran 964 performances. The book, based on the farces of
Plautus, was written by
Burt Shevelove and
Larry Gelbart. Sondheim's score was not especially well-received at the time. Even though the show won several
Tony Awards, including best musical, Sondheim did not even receive a nomination. In addition, some critics felt the songs were not properly integrated into the farcical action.
At this point, Sondheim had participated in three straight hits. His next show ended the streak.
Anyone Can Whistle
(1964) was a 9-performance flop, although it introduced
Angela Lansbury to musical theatre and has developed a
cult following.
In 1965 he donned his lyricist-for-hire hat for one last show,
Do I Hear a Waltz?
, with music by
Richard Rodgers—the one project he has since openly regretted working on.
In 1966, he semi-anonymously provided the lyric for "
The Boy From …," a parody of "
The Girl from Ipanema" that was a highlight of the off-Broadway revue
The Mad Show
. (The official songwriting credit went to the linguistically-minded pseudonym "Esteban Rio Nido", which translates from the Spanish to "Stephen River Nest". In the show's
Playbill, the lyrics are credited to "
Nom De Plume.")
Maturity as composer/lyricist in the 70s
Since then Sondheim has devoted himself to both composing and writing lyrics for a series of varied and adventurous musicals, beginning with the innovative "concept musical"
Company
in 1970.
Sondheim's work is notable for his use of complex
polyphony in the vocal parts, such as the chorus of five minor characters who function as a sort of
Greek chorus in 1973's
A Little Night Music
. He also displays a penchant for angular harmonies and intricate melodies reminiscent of
Bach (Sondheim has claimed that he "loves Bach" but his favorite period is
Brahms to
Stravinsky).
[9] To
aficionados, Sondheim's musical sophistication is considered to be greater than that of many of his musical theater peers, and his lyrics are likewise renowned for their
ambiguity, wit, and urbanity.
Sondheim collaborated with producer/director
Harold Prince on six distinctive musicals between 1970 and 1981.
Company
(1970) was a "concept musical", a show centered on a set of characters and themes rather than a straightforward plot.
Follies
(1971) was a similarly-structured show filled with pastiche songs echoing styles of composers from earlier decades.
A Little Night Music
(1973), a more traditionally plotted show based on the film
Smiles of a Summer Night
by
Ingmar Bergman, was one of his greatest successes, with
Time
magazine calling it "Sondheim's most brilliant accomplishment to date."
[10] Notably, the score was mostly composed in
waltz time (either ¾ time, or multiples thereof.) Further success was accorded to
A Little Night Music
when "Send in the Clowns" became a hit for
Judy Collins. Although it was Sondheim's only Top 40 hit, his songs are frequently performed and recorded by cabaret artists and theatre singers in their solo careers.
Pacific Overtures
(1976) was the most non-traditional of the Sondheim-Prince collaborations, an intellectual exploration of the westernization of Japan.
Sweeney Todd
(1979), Sondheim's most operatic score and
libretto (which, along with "A Little Night Music," found a definite foothold in opera houses), once again explores an unlikely topic, this time murderous revenge and
cannibalism. The book, by
Hugh Wheeler, is based on
Christopher Bond's 1973 stage version of the
Victorian original.
Later work
Merrily We Roll Along
(1981), with a book by
George Furth, is one of Sondheim's more "traditional" scores and was thought to hold potential to generate some hit songs (
Frank Sinatra and
Carly Simon each recorded a different song from the show). Sondheim's
music director,
Paul Gemignani, said, “Part of Steve’s ability is this extraordinary versatility.”
Merrily
, however, was a 16-performance flop. "
Merrily
did not succeed, but its score endures thanks to subsequent productions and recordings. According to Martin Gottfried, "Sondheim had set out to write traditional songs… But [despite] that there is nothing ordinary about the music."
[11] Sondheim and Furth have extensively revised the show since its initial opening.
The failure of
Merrily
greatly affected Sondheim; he was ready to quit theater and do movies or create
video games or write mysteries. He was later quoted as saying, "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."
[12] The collaboration between Sondheim and Prince would largely end after
Merrily
- until the 2003 production of
Bounce
, another failure.
However, instead of quitting the theater following the failure of
Merrily
, Sondheim decided "that there are better places to start a show", and found a new collaborator in the "artsy"
James Lapine. Lapine has a taste "for the
avant-garde and for visually oriented theater in particular."
Sunday in the Park with George
(1984), their first collaboration, was very much the avant-garde, but they had blended it together with the professionalism of the commercial theater to make a different kind of musical. Sondheim again was able to show his versatility and his adaptability. His music took on the style of the artist
Georges Seurat's painting techniques. In doing so, Sondheim was able to bring his work to another level.
In 1985, he and Lapine won the
Pulitzer Prize in Drama for
Sunday in the Park with George
. It is one of only seven musicals that have received this prestigious award. The show had its first revival on Broadway in 2008. The Sondheim-Lapine collaboration also produced the popular
fairy-tale show
Into the Woods
(1987) and the rhapsodic
Passion
(1994). 1990 saw the opening of Sondheim's
Assassins
off-Broadway.
In the late nineties, Sondheim reunited with Hal Prince for
Wise Guys
, a long-in-the-works musical comedy about brothers
Addison and
Wilson Mizner. Though a Broadway production starring
Nathan Lane and
Victor Garber and directed by
Sam Mendes was announced for Spring 2000,
[13] the New York debut of the musical was delayed. Rechristened
Bounce
in 2003, the show was mounted at the
Goodman Theatre in
Chicago, and at the
Kennedy Center in
Washington, D.C..
Bounce
received disappointing reviews and never reached Broadway. A revised version of
Bounce
premiered off-Broadway at
The Public Theater under the new name
Road Show
from October 28, 2008 through December 28, 2008, under the direction of
John Doyle.
Regarding whether he had any interest in writing new work, Sondheim was quoted in a 2006
Time Out: London
interview as saying, "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."
[14] In December 2007, however, Sondheim said that, along with continued work on
Bounce
, he was "nibbling at a couple of things with
John Weidman and
James Lapine."
[15]
According to a 2008 interview with
Playbill.com
, he is currently working on a book of annotations of his lyrics. Sondheim said "It's going to be long. I'm not, by nature, a prose writer, but I'm literate, and I have a couple of people who are vetting it for me, whom I trust, who are excellent prose writers."
[16] [17]
Lapine has created a "multimedia revue", titled
iSondheim: aMusical Revue
, which had been scheduled to premiere in April 2009 at the
Alliance Theatre,
Atlanta, Georgia. However that production was canceled, due to "difficulties encountered by the commercial producers attached to the project...in raising the necessary funds".
[18] [19]
In Conversation with Frank Rich
In March 2008, Sondheim and
Frank Rich of the
New York Times
appeared in four interviews/conversations in
California [20] [21] [22] and
Portland, Oregon [23] titled "A Little Night Conversation with Stephen Sondheim".
[24] [25]
In September 2008, they appeared at
Oberlin College in
Oberlin, Ohio. The "Cleveland Jewish News" reported on the Oberlin event, writing: "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 includes "Carousel," "She Loves Me," and "The 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."
[26] [27]
An earlier conversation took place on April 28, 2002, during the Sondheim Celebration at the
Kennedy Center.
[28] [29]
Sondheim and Rich had more conversations on January 18, 2009 at
Avery Fisher Hall [30]; on February 2, 2009 at the Landmark Theater,
Richmond, Virginia,
[31]; on February 21, 2009 at the
Kimmel Center,
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania,
[32], and on April 20, 2009 at the University of Akron College of Fine and Applied Arts, EJ Thomas Hall,
Akron,
Ohio.
[33]
Sondheim had an additional "conversation with" Sean Patrick Flahaven (associate editor of
The Sondheim Review) at the Kravis Center in
West Palm Beach,
Florida, on February 4, 2009, during which he spoke of many of his songs and shows. "On the perennial struggles of Broadway: 'I don’t see any solution for Broadway's problems except subsidized theater, as in most civilized countries of the world.' "
[34]
Work away from Broadway
Sondheim's mature career has been varied, encompassing much beyond composition of musicals.
An avid fan of games, in 1968 and 1969 Sondheim published a series of
cryptic crossword puzzles in
New York
magazine. (In 1987,
Time
referred to his love of puzzlemaking as "legendary in theater circles," adding that the
central character in
Anthony Shaffer's hit play
Sleuth
was inspired by Sondheim. That the show was given the working title
Who's Afraid of Stephen Sondheim?
is an urban legend. In a
New York Times
interview on
March 10,
1996, Shaffer denied ever using the title, and Sondheim speculated that it was the invention of producer
Morton Gottlieb.)
He parlayed this talent into a film script, written with longtime friend
Anthony Perkins, called
The Last of Sheila
. The 1973 film, directed by
Herbert Ross, starred
Dyan Cannon,
Raquel Welch,
Richard Benjamin, and others.
He tried his hand at playwriting one more time - in 1996 he collaborated with
Company
librettist
George Furth on a play called
Getting Away with Murder
. It was not a success, and the Broadway production closed after 29 previews and 17 performances.
His compositional efforts have included a number of film scores, notably a set of songs written for
Warren Beatty's 1990 film version of
Dick Tracy
; one song, "
Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)" (as performed by
Madonna), won Sondheim an
Academy Award.
Major works
Unless otherwise noted, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.
- Saturday Night
(1954, though unproduced until 1997) (book by Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein)
- West Side Story
(1957) (music by Leonard Bernstein; book by Arthur Laurents; directed by Jerome Robbins)
- Gypsy
(1959) (music by Jule Styne; book by Arthur Laurents; directed by Jerome Robbins)
- A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
(1962) (book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart; directed by George Abbott)
- Anyone Can Whistle
(1964) (book by Arthur Laurents; directed by Arthur Laurents)
- Do I Hear a Waltz?
(1965) (music by Richard Rodgers; book by Arthur Laurents; directed by John Dexter)
- Company
(1970) (book by George Furth; directed by Hal Prince)
- Follies
(1971) (book by James Goldman; directed by Hal Prince)
- A Little Night Music
(1973) (book by Hugh Wheeler; directed by Hal Prince)
- Pacific Overtures
(1976) (book by John Weidman; directed by Hal Prince)
- Sweeney Todd
(1979) (book by Hugh Wheeler; directed by Hal Prince)
- Merrily We Roll Along
(1981) (book by George Furth; directed by Hal Prince)
- Sunday in the Park with George
(1984) (book by James Lapine; directed by James Lapine)
- Into the Woods
(1987) (book by James Lapine; directed by James Lapine)
- Assassins
(1990) (book by John Weidman; directed by Jerry Zaks)
- Passion
(1994) (book by James Lapine; directed by James Lapine)
- Bounce
(2003) (book by John Weidman; directed by Hal Prince); retitled Road Show
- The Frogs
- Second version (2004) (revised book by Nathan Lane, from Burt Shevelove's 1974 book. Contains seven new songs)
- Road Show
(2008) (book by John Weidman; directed by John Doyle); (formerly titled Bounce
)
Side By Side By Sondheim
(1976),
Marry Me A Little
(1980),
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow
(1983) and
Putting It Together
(1993) are anthologies or revues of Sondheim's work as composer and lyricist, featuring both produced songs and songs cut from productions.
Minor works
Stage
- Girls of Summer
(1956) (incidental music by Sondheim; play by N. Richard Nash)
- Invitation to a March
(1960) (incidental music by Sondheim; play by Arthur Laurents)
- The World of Jules Feiffer
(1962) (incidental music by Sondheim; sketches by Jules Feiffer)
- Hot Spot
(1963) (music mostly by Mary Rodgers; lyrics mostly by Martin Charnin)
- The Enclave
(1973) (incidental music to the play by Arthur Laurents)
- The Mad Show
(1966) (music mostly by Mary Rodgers; lyrics mostly by Marshall Barer) wrote the lyric for "The Boy From...", a parody of The Girl from Ipanema.
- Candide
- Second Version (1974) (new lyrics by Sondheim; original lyrics by Richard Wilbur; music by Leonard Bernstein; Book by Hugh Wheeler)
- The Frogs
(1974), a musical version of Aristophanes' comedy with a book by Burt Shevelove. Performed in the Yale University swimming pool.
- Getting Away With Murder
(1996), a "comedy thriller" (non-musical play), co-written with George Furth.
- King Lear
(2007), incidental music for a Public Theater production of the Shakespeare tragedy, composed with orchestrator Michael Starobin. The production was directed by James Lapine and starred Kevin Kline.
Film and TV
- Topper
(circa 1953), a non-musical television comedy series for which Sondheim wrote about ten episodes.
- Evening Primrose
(1966), a made-for-TV musical about a secret society of people living in department stores and the romance between Ella, a department store denizen, and Charles, a poet who decides to live in the department store after renouncing the world. Four songs, including the cabaret standard "Take Me To The World" and the well-loved, if lesser-known, ballad "I Remember".
- The Last of Sheila
(1973), a nonmusical film mystery written with Anthony Perkins. Perkins and Sondheim received a 1974 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Motion Picture Screenplay.
- Sondheim appears in the 1974 PBS television version of the play June Moon
by George S. Kaufman and Ring Lardner. In the film, Sondheim plays a wise-cracking pianist named Maxie Schwartz.
- "The Madam's Song", also called "I Never Do Anything Twice", for the film The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
(1976).
- The score for Alain Resnais's film Stavisky
(1974).
- A Little Night Music
, (1977) a movie adaptation of the stage work. Several of Sondheim's songs were dropped for the film version. However, he wrote a completely new song entitled "The Glamorous Life" to take the place of the song by the same name from the stage version. Sondheim also wrote new lyrics to "Night Waltz."
- Music for the film Reds
starring Warren Beatty (1981), including the song "Goodbye For Now."
- Five songs for Warren Beatty's film Dick Tracy
(1990), including "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)", which won the Academy Award for Best Song.
- Two songs for the film The Birdcage
(1996) "It Takes All Kinds" (not used) and "Little Dream".
- Cameo as himself in the 2003 film Camp
.
- Sondheim had a guest part on The Simpsons
episode "Yokel Chords" as himself (2007).
- Sweeney Todd
, (2007) a movie adaptation of the stage work, made with Sondheim's participation and approval, was directed by Tim Burton, featuring a largely-nonmusical cast led by Johnny Depp (who was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actor) and Helena Bonham Carter. All choral numbers were cut in order to focus more on the primary characters. The movie, in the USA and abroad, grossed over $150 million.
Honors and awards
- Hutchinson Prize for Music Composition
- Grammy Awards, Sweeney Todd
(1979); "Send in the Clowns" Song of the Year (1976)
- Elected to The American Academy of Arts and Letters (1983)
- Pulitzer Prize in Drama, Sunday in the Park with George
(1985)
- Academy Award for Best Song, "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)" from Dick Tracy
(1990)
- Kennedy Center Honors, Lifetime Achievement, (1993)
- Multiple Drama Desk Awards and other smaller awards for his Off Broadway productions
- Tony Awards
- *A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
(1963, Best Musical)
- *Company
(1971, Best Score, Best Lyrics)
- *Follies
(1972, Best Score)
- *A Little Night Music
(1973 Best Score)
- *Sweeney Todd
(1979, Best Score)
- *Into The Woods
(1988, Best Score)
- *Passion
(1994 Best Score)
- *Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre (2008)
Legacy
;Young Playwrights
This organization, founded by Sondheim in 1981, is intended to introduce young people to writing for the theatre. He is the Executive Vice President.
[35]
;The Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts
The Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts opened December 7-9, 2007, located at the
Fairfield Arts & Convention Center in
Fairfield, Iowa. The Center opened with performances from seven notable Broadway performers, including
Len Cariou,
Liz Callaway and
Richard Kind, all of whom had taken part in the musicals of Sondheim.
[36] [37] The center is the first one in the world named after him.
;Media
In 1993 was set up to promote and provide information about the works of Stephen Sondheim. "
The Sondheim Review" is a quarterly magazine totally devoted to Sondheim's work.
[38] Most of the episode titles from the popular television series
Desperate Housewives
reference his work in some way, through the use of either song titles or lyrics.
[39] [40] [41] [42]
;Musical Theatre Development
In 1990, Sondheim took the Cameron Mackintosh chair in musical theatre at Oxford, and in this capacity ran workshops with promising writers of musicals, such as
George Stiles,
Anthony Drewe, Andrew Peggie, Paul James,
Stephen Keeling and others. These writers jointly set up the Mercury Workshop in 1992, which eventually merged with the New Musicals Alliance to become , a UK-based organisation developing new musical theatre, of which Sondheim continues to be patron.
;The Sondheim Award
The
Signature Theatre, Arlington, Virginia, has announced a new award, "The Sondheim Award", "as a tribute to America's most influential contemporary musical theatre composer." The first award will be presented at a gala fund-raiser on April 27, 2009, with help from performers Bernadette Peters, Michael Cerveris, Will Gartshore and Eleasha Gamble. Sondheim himself will be the first recipient of the award, which also includes a $5000 honorarium for the recipients' choice of a nonprofit organization.
[43] [44] [45]
See also
- Assassinations in fiction
- The Sondheim Review
Notes
- Conversations With Sondheim
- Master of the Musical; Stephen Sondheim Applies a Relentless
- Secrest, p 272, "Sondheim was in London when his mother died and did not return for her funeral."
- King, Robert A., ''The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child'' (1972), Yale University Press, ISBN 0300119968, p. 310
- Zadan, Craig, ''Sondheim & Co.'', New York: Harper & Row, 1974 & 1986 p. 4 ISBN 0-06-015649-X
- Horowitz, Mark Eden, ''Sondheim on Music''
New York: Scarecrow Press Date, (3rd Edition), page - 2003 ISBN 9780810844377 ISBN 0810844370
- Sondheim, Film Aficionado; Choices for Telluride Festival Show Nonmusical Side
- Zadan, p. 38
- interview on ''Sunday Arts'', ABC (Australia) TV August 5, 2007 ''An Audience With Stephen Sondheim''2007 ABC Australia TV interview downloadable ("Episode 26")
- A Precious Fancy
- Gottfried, Martin (photos By Martha Swope), ''Sondheim'', New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1993, pgs. 146-147 ISBN 9780810938441 ISBN 0810938448
- in Gottfried, ''Sondheim'', pg. 153
- Everything's coming up Sondheim
- 2006 Sondheim feature, Timeout.com London
- 2007 Interview: Stephen Sondheim for "Sweeney Todd", DarkHorizons.com
- Haun, Harry."Exclusive! Sondheim Explains Evolution from Bounce to Road Show",playbill.com, August 12, 2008
- Gardner, Elysa."Sondheim sounds off about writing songs",''USA oday'', October 9, 2008
- Hetrick, Adam."Liz Callaway Cast in World Premiere of iSondheim: aMusical Revue",playbill.com, February 4, 2009
- Gans, Andrew and Hetrick, Adam."Atlanta's Alliance Theatre Cancels iSondheim Revue; Brel Will Play Instead",playbill.com, February 26, 2009
- UCSB listing
- UCLA listing
- Rich schedule
- Portland listing
- ''Vanity Fair'' article about the talks, March 2008
- ''Santa Barbara Independent'', Interview with Sondheim about the talks, March 6, 2008
- Oberlin listing
- Heller, Fran."Sondheim scores a hit at Oberlin College", Cleveland Jewish News article October 10, 2008
- Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration
- Sondheim Guide listing for Kennedy Center Celebration, 2002
- Gans, Andrew."Sondheim and Rich Will Discuss A Life in the Theater in January 2009",playbill.com, November 11, 2008
- "An Evening with Stephen Sondheim listing",Modlin Center for the Arts, accessed November 16, 2008
- "An Evening with Stephen Sondheim and Frank Rich listing,phillyfunguide.com, accessed November 16, 2008
- "Stephen Sondheim with Frank Rich listing",ejthomashall.com, accessed November 16, 2008
- Maupin, Elizabeth."Sondheim talks. And talks. And talks.",orlandosentinel.com, February 5, 2009
- Young Playwrights site
- playbill.com article, Near Cornfields Worthy of Hammerstein, a Theatre Named for Sondheim Rises in Midwest, May 31,2007
- playbill.com article, Original Cast Members Fete Sondheim at New Midwest Arts Center Dec. 7-9, December 4, 2007
- Sondheim Review magazine
- Hetrick, Adam. "Tomlin to Join Fifth Season of 'Desperate Housewives'", playbill.com, September 12, 2008]
- Episode list, "Desperate Housewives", IMDB
- Widdicombe, Ben. Gossip, ''Daily News (New York)'', March 23, 2005, p. 22; "Desperate Housewives" writer Marc Cherry, who congratulated Sondheim in a filmed statement, admitted the composer was such an inspiration that each episode of his blockbuster show is named after a Sondheim song."
- Chang, Justin. ''Variety'', "Sondheim, Streisand infuse Wisteria Lane", December 20–26, 2004, p. 8; "Broadway-literate fans may have noticed the skein's first three post-pilot episodes... are all named after classic Stephen Sondheim showtunes...."
- Jones, Kenneth."Signature Creates Sondheim Award, to Be Presented at April 2009 Gala",playbill.com, October 6, 2008
- Horwitz, Jane."Backstage" column ''Washington Post'', October 8, 2008
- Lipton, Brian."Bernadette Peters and Michael Cerveris to Help Signature Theatre Honor Stephen Sondheim",theatermania.com, April 3, 2009
References
- Conversations With Sondheim
- Master of the Musical; Stephen Sondheim Applies a Relentless
- Secrest, p 272, "Sondheim was in London when his mother died and did not return for her funeral."
- King, Robert A., ''The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child'' (1972), Yale University Press, ISBN 0300119968, p. 310
- Zadan, Craig, ''Sondheim & Co.'', New York: Harper & Row, 1974 & 1986 p. 4 ISBN 0-06-015649-X
- Horowitz, Mark Eden, ''Sondheim on Music''
New York: Scarecrow Press Date, (3rd Edition), page - 2003 ISBN 9780810844377 ISBN 0810844370
- Sondheim, Film Aficionado; Choices for Telluride Festival Show Nonmusical Side
- Zadan, p. 38
- interview on ''Sunday Arts'', ABC (Australia) TV August 5, 2007 ''An Audience With Stephen Sondheim''2007 ABC Australia TV interview downloadable ("Episode 26")
- A Precious Fancy
- Gottfried, Martin (photos By Martha Swope), ''Sondheim'', New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1993, pgs. 146-147 ISBN 9780810938441 ISBN 0810938448
- in Gottfried, ''Sondheim'', pg. 153
- Everything's coming up Sondheim
- 2006 Sondheim feature, Timeout.com London
- 2007 Interview: Stephen Sondheim for "Sweeney Todd", DarkHorizons.com
- Haun, Harry."Exclusive! Sondheim Explains Evolution from Bounce to Road Show",playbill.com, August 12, 2008
- Gardner, Elysa."Sondheim sounds off about writing songs",''USA oday'', October 9, 2008
- Hetrick, Adam."Liz Callaway Cast in World Premiere of iSondheim: aMusical Revue",playbill.com, February 4, 2009
- Gans, Andrew and Hetrick, Adam."Atlanta's Alliance Theatre Cancels iSondheim Revue; Brel Will Play Instead",playbill.com, February 26, 2009
- UCSB listing
- UCLA listing
- Rich schedule
- Portland listing
- ''Vanity Fair'' article about the talks, March 2008
- ''Santa Barbara Independent'', Interview with Sondheim about the talks, March 6, 2008
- Oberlin listing
- Heller, Fran."Sondheim scores a hit at Oberlin College", Cleveland Jewish News article October 10, 2008
- Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration
- Sondheim Guide listing for Kennedy Center Celebration, 2002
- Gans, Andrew."Sondheim and Rich Will Discuss A Life in the Theater in January 2009",playbill.com, November 11, 2008
- "An Evening with Stephen Sondheim listing",Modlin Center for the Arts, accessed November 16, 2008
- "An Evening with Stephen Sondheim and Frank Rich listing,phillyfunguide.com, accessed November 16, 2008
- "Stephen Sondheim with Frank Rich listing",ejthomashall.com, accessed November 16, 2008
- Maupin, Elizabeth."Sondheim talks. And talks. And talks.",orlandosentinel.com, February 5, 2009
- Young Playwrights site
- playbill.com article, Near Cornfields Worthy of Hammerstein, a Theatre Named for Sondheim Rises in Midwest, May 31,2007
- playbill.com article, Original Cast Members Fete Sondheim at New Midwest Arts Center Dec. 7-9, December 4, 2007
- Sondheim Review magazine
- Hetrick, Adam. "Tomlin to Join Fifth Season of 'Desperate Housewives'", playbill.com, September 12, 2008]
- Episode list, "Desperate Housewives", IMDB
- Widdicombe, Ben. Gossip, ''Daily News (New York)'', March 23, 2005, p. 22; "Desperate Housewives" writer Marc Cherry, who congratulated Sondheim in a filmed statement, admitted the composer was such an inspiration that each episode of his blockbuster show is named after a Sondheim song."
- Chang, Justin. ''Variety'', "Sondheim, Streisand infuse Wisteria Lane", December 20–26, 2004, p. 8; "Broadway-literate fans may have noticed the skein's first three post-pilot episodes... are all named after classic Stephen Sondheim showtunes...."
- Jones, Kenneth."Signature Creates Sondheim Award, to Be Presented at April 2009 Gala",playbill.com, October 6, 2008
- Horwitz, Jane."Backstage" column ''Washington Post'', October 8, 2008
- Lipton, Brian."Bernadette Peters and Michael Cerveris to Help Signature Theatre Honor Stephen Sondheim",theatermania.com, April 3, 2009