Stephen Sondheim

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Stephen Joshua Sondheim (b. March 22, 1930) is widely seen as his generation's leading writer of the stage musical. Described by Frank Rich in the The New York Times as "the greatest and perhaps best-known artist in the American musical theater,"^[1] he is one of the few people to win an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards (seven, more than any other composer), multiple Grammy Awards, and a Pulitzer Prize. His most famous works include (as composer/lyricist) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, and Sunday in the Park with George, as well as West Side Story and Gypsy, for which he wrote the lyrics.

Stephen Sondheim
Sondheim Sings, Vol. 1: 1962-1972
Background information
Birth name	Stephen Joshua Sondheim
Born	March 22, 1930
Origin	New York City, New York, United States
Genre(s)	musical theater, lyricist, composer
Years active	1946–present

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Mentorship under Oscar Hammerstein II 2.2 Move to Broadway and work as lyricist 2.3 Maturity as composer/lyricist in the 70s 2.4 Later work 3 Trivia 4 Major works 5 Minor works 5.1 Stage 5.2 Film and TV 6 Awards and recognitions 7 Sources 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Early life

Stephen Sondheim was born to Herbert and Janet ("Foxy") Sondheim, in New York City, New York, and grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and later on a farm in Pennsylvania. Herbert was a dress manufacturer and Foxy designed the dresses. While his mother had grown up in an Orthodox Jewish family, Sondheim had no formal religious education or association, did not have a Bar Mitzvah, and reportedly did not set foot in a synagogue until he was 19. 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 Meryl Secrest's biography, Sondheim: A Life.

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 10 years old, his father Herbert, a distant figure in Stephen's life, abandoned him and his mother. Under the laws of the day, Sondheim's mother retained full custody. Unfortunately for young Stephen, he saw his mother "Foxy Sondheim" as narcissistic, emotionally abusive, and a hypochondriac.^{[citation needed]} Stephen "famously despised" Foxy;^[1] 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."^[2] When Foxy died in 1992, Sondheim refused to attend her funeral.

[edit] Career

[edit] 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 hated it. "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."^{[citation needed]}

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)
• 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. In Mark Eden Horowitz's Sondheim on Music, 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." Sondheim agreed, and despite frequent dissonance and a highly chromatic style, his music remains resolutely diatonic.

[edit] Move to Broadway and work as lyricist

"A few painful years of struggle" followed for Sondheim, during which he conditionally auditioned songs and lived in his father's dining room to save money. He also spent some time in Hollywood writing for the television series Topper.^[2] Though, to date, Sondheim has only dabbled in movie musicals, he devoured the film of the forties and fifties and has called cinema his "basic language."^[1] In the fifties, his knowledge of film got him through The $64,000 Question contestant tryouts. Though his favorite movies include classics like Citizen Kane, The Grapes of Wrath, and Stairway to Heaven, Sondheim says he dislikes movie musicals. He added 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."^[3]

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 an Off-Broadway run at Second Stage in 2000.

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. 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 by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart. Sondheim's score was not especially well-received at the time--the show won several Tony Awards, including best musical, but 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--he'd yet to taste failure on Broadway. 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.^{[citation needed]} 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 lyric was credited to "Nom De Plume").

[edit] 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 adventuresome 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 his hero, Bach; Sondheim once claimed that he listens to no one else. 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 ("Send in the Clowns"), wit ("Buddy's Blues") and urbanity ("The Little Things You Do Together.")

An avid fan of games, in 1968 and 1969 Sondheim published a series of word puzzles in New York magazine. These crossword puzzles were models of form and creativity, and started the rise of cryptic crosswords in the United States.^{[citation needed]} (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.)^[2]

Sondheim collaborated with producer/director Harold Prince on six distinctive musicals between 1970 and 1981. Company (1970) was a concept musical featuring a series of scenes rather than a traditional plot. Follies (1971) was a production filled with pastiche songs echoing styles of composers from earlier decades, and book songs in Sondheim's voice. A Little Night Music (1973) was one of his greatest successes, with Time magazine calling it "Sondheim's most brilliant accomplishment to date."^[4] Notably, the entire score was composed in waltz time (either ¾ time, or multiples thereof.) Further success was accorded to A Little Night Music when "Send in the Clowns", a song whose lyric is somewhat cryptic outside of the context of the musical, 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), arguably Sondheim's greatest score, once again explores an unlikely topic, this time murderous revenge and cannibalism. The libretto, by Hugh Wheeler, is based on Christopher Bond's 1973 stage version of the Victorian original.

[edit] Later work

Merrily We Roll Along (1981) is Sondheim's most traditional score and held 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 work, but its score endures. Sondheim had set out to write traditional songs… But after that there is nothing ordinary about the music."^{[citation needed]} 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."^{[citation needed]} Unfortunately, the collaboration between Sondheim and Prince would end after Merrily.

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. "Sondheim’s work has such reach, there is so much emotional resonance, that many observers take it personally and become as fascinated with the artist as with the art; they see him in his work."

In 1985, he won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for Sunday in the Park with George. It is one of the only six musicals that have taken this prestigious award. The Sondheim-Lapine collaboration also produced the popular fairy-tale show Into the Woods (1987) and the rhapsodic Passion (1994).

Despite a popularity among musical theater insiders that continues to grow, it was noted in 2002 that "Sondheim has never quite escaped the ghetto of cult enthusiasm....[he] has always been an acquired taste. He's never achieved the sort of popularity of Andrew Lloyd Webber or had a megahit on the order of a Cats."^[5] (Incidentally, Lloyd Webber, who is sometimes inaccurately characterized as a rival of Sondheim's, shares his birthday with Sondheim, though Lloyd Webber is 18 years younger.)

In the late nineties, Sondheim reunited with Hal Prince for Wise Guys, a long-in-the-works musical comedy about Addison and Wilson Mizner. Though a Broadway production starring Nathan Lane and Victor Garber and directed by Sam Mendes was announced for Spring 2000,^[6] 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.. Unfortunately, Bounce received disappointing reviews and never reached Broadway. Sondheim has continued to work on Bounce. When, in 2002, he was asked what he wished to accomplish in the future, the songwriter replied:

“

Gee, I wish I had a dramatic answer. The fact is, I really like writing shows. It gets harder as time goes on. I thought I'd get more confident….I think you get a view of yourself and somehow the weaknesses, the dangers of things like repetition, the feeling that you've written it all before, makes it harder to write. But in a way that also makes me want to write more because I want to overcome it. And, to put it sentimentally, there are just so many wonderful stories to tell, and I would really like to find some that would lend themselves to music that I haven't heard before. That's what I want. And that's what I'm afraid of: writing music I've heard before.[5]

”

[edit] Trivia

• Evaluating his own work, Sondheim asserts that Gypsy is one of the greatest musicals written in the Rodgers & Hammerstein mode. As for his songs, Sondheim cites "Someone in a Tree" from Pacific Overtures as his favorite, with "The Miller's Son" from A Little Night Music coming in a close second.

• Many of the titles of songs in Sondheim's musicals have been used as episode titles for the American TV series Desperate Housewives.

• In 2006, he became the official patron of Matthew Chandler's Songtime Theatre Arts.

• In 2007, Sondheim made a guest appearance in an episode of The Simpsons entitled "Yokel Chords," where he is hired by Krusty the Clown to write songs for a special musical episode of Krusty's television series.

[edit] 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 Epstein)
• West Side Story (1957) (lyrics by Sondheim; music by Leonard Bernstein; book by Arthur Laurents)
• Gypsy (1959) (lyrics by Sondheim; music by Jule Styne; book by Arthur Laurents)
• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962) (book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart)
• Anyone Can Whistle (1964) (book by Arthur Laurents)
• Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965) (lyrics by Sondheim; music by Richard Rodgers; book by Arthur Laurents)
• Company (1970) (book by George Furth)
• Follies (1971) (book by James Goldman)
• A Little Night Music (1973) (book by Hugh Wheeler)
• Pacific Overtures (1976) (book by John Weidman)
• Sweeney Todd (1979) (book by Hugh Wheeler)
• Merrily We Roll Along (1981) (book by George Furth)
• Sunday in the Park with George (1984) (book by James Lapine)
• Into the Woods (1987) (book by James Lapine)
• Assassins (1990) (book by John Weidman)
• Passion (1994) (book by James Lapine)
• Bounce (book by John Weidman)
• The Frogs - Second version (2004) (revised book by Nathan Lane, from Burt Shevelove's 1974 book. Contains seven new songs)

Side by Side by Sondheim, Marry Me A Little, You're Gonna Love Tomorrow and Putting It Together are anthologies of Sondheim's work as composer and lyricist.

[edit] Minor works

[edit] Stage

• By George (1945), a musical Sondheim wrote at age 15 lampooning the denizens of George School, which he attended at the time.
• Phinney's Rainbow (1948), a musical satire on college life that Sondheim wrote at age 18 lampooning the denizens of Williams College, which he attended at the time.
• All That Glitters (1948), based on Beggar on Horseback by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly.
• Climb High (1951), an original musical about a college student moving to New York City to become an actor.
• 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) (sketches by Jules Feiffer)
• Hot Spot (musical) (1963) (music mostly by Mary Rodgers; lyrics mostly by Martin Charnin)
• 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 is directed by James Lapine and stars Kevin Kline.

[edit] 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.
• 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.
• "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).
• 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.

[edit] Awards and recognitions

Eight year presidency for the Dramatists Guild of America

Grammy Award, Sweeney Todd (1979)

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

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)

[edit] Sources

• Gottfried, Martin. Sondheim. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1993.
• Secrest, Meryle. Stephen Sondheim: A Life. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1998.
• Zadan, Craig. Sondheim & Co. (2nd ed.). New York: Harper & Row, 1986.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Quotable Stephen Sondhiem Page
• Simply Sondheim discussion forums
• Sondheim Review magazine
• Stephen Sondheim online-with Finishing The Chat
• Fresh Air NPR radio interview with Sondheim from 2000 (20 minutes, streaming audio)
• Kennedy Center interview with Sondheim, conducted by Frank Rich in 2002 (90 minutes, streaming video)