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.
Sondheim鈥檚 death was announced by Rick Miramontez, president of DKC/O&M. Sondheim鈥檚 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 鈥淐ompany,鈥� 鈥淔ollies鈥� and 鈥淪weeney Todd,鈥� which are considered among his best work. His most famous ballad, 鈥淪end in the Clowns,鈥� 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 (鈥淎 Little Night Music鈥�), the opening of Japan to the West (鈥淧acific Overtures鈥�), French painter Georges Seurat (鈥淪unday in the Park With George鈥�), Grimm鈥檚 fairy tales (鈥淚nto the Woods鈥�) and even the killers of American presidents (鈥淎ssassins鈥�), among others.
Tributes quickly flooded social media as performers and writers alike saluted a giant of the theatre. 鈥淲e shall be singing your songs forever,鈥� wrote Lea Salonga. Aaron Tveit wrote: 鈥淲e are so lucky to have what you鈥檝e given the world.鈥�
鈥淭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,鈥� producer Cameron Mackintosh wrote in tribute. Music supervisor, arranger and orchestrator Alex Lacamoire tweeted: 鈥淔or those of us who love new musical theatre: we live in a world that Sondheim built.鈥�
Six of Sondheim鈥檚 musicals won Tony Awards for best score, and he also received a Pulitzer Prize (鈥淪unday in the Park鈥�), an Academy Award (for the song 鈥淪ooner or Later鈥� from the film 鈥淒ick Tracy鈥�), five Olivier Awards and the Presidential Medal of Honor. In 2008, he received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement.
Sondheim鈥檚 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 didn鈥檛 bother Sondheim. Frank Sinatra, who had a hit with Sondheim鈥檚 鈥淪end in the Clowns,鈥� once complained: 鈥淗e could make me a lot happier if he鈥檇 write more songs for saloon singers like me.鈥�
To theatre fans, Sondheim鈥檚 sophistication and brilliance made him an icon. A Broadway theatre was named after him. A New York magazine cover asked 鈥淚s Sondheim God?鈥� The Guardian newspaper once offered this question: 鈥淚s Stephen Sondheim the Shakespeare of musical theatre?鈥�
A supreme wordsmith 鈥� and an avid player of word games 鈥� Sondheim鈥檚 joy of language shone through. 鈥淭he opposite of left is right/The opposite of right is wrong/So anyone who鈥檚 left is wrong, right?鈥� he wrote in 鈥淎nyone Can Whistle.鈥� In 鈥淐ompany,鈥� he penned the lines: 鈥淕ood things get better/Bad gets worse/Wait 鈥� I think I meant that in reverse.鈥�
He offered the three principles necessary for a songwriter in his first volume of collected lyrics 鈥� Content Dictates Form, Less Is More, and God Is in the Details. All these truisms, he wrote, were 鈥渋n the service of Clarity, without which nothing else matters.鈥� Together they led to stunning lines like: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very short road from the pinch and the punch to the paunch and the pouch and the pension.鈥�
Taught by no less a genius than Oscar Hammerstein, Sondheim pushed the musical into a darker, richer and more intellectual place. 鈥淚f you think of a theatre lyric as a short story, as I do, then every line has the weight of a paragraph,鈥� he wrote in his 2010 book, 鈥淔inishing the Hat,鈥� 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, 鈥淲est Side Story鈥� (1957) and 鈥淕ypsy鈥� (1959). 鈥淲est Side Story,鈥� with music by Leonard Bernstein, transplanted Shakespeare鈥檚 鈥淩omeo and Juliet鈥� to the streets and gangs of modern-day New York. 鈥淕ypsy,鈥� 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 鈥� the bawdy 鈥淎 Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,鈥� starring Zero Mostel as a wily slave in ancient Rome yearning to be free.
Yet his next show, 鈥淎nyone Can Whistle鈥� (1964), flopped, running only nine performances but achieving cult status after its cast recording was released. Sondheim鈥檚 1965 lyric collaboration with composer Richard Rodgers 鈥� 鈥淒o I Hear a Waltz?鈥� 鈥� also turned out to be problematic. The musical, based on the play 鈥淭he Time of the Cuckoo,鈥� ran for six months but was an unhappy experience for both men, who did not get along.
It was 鈥淐ompany,鈥� which opened on Broadway in April 1970, that cemented Sondheim鈥檚 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. 鈥淭he Ladies Who Lunch鈥� became a standard for Elaine Stritch.
The following year, Sondheim wrote the score for 鈥淔ollies,鈥� 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, 鈥淎 Little Night Music,鈥� starring Glynis Johns and Len Cariou, opened. Based on Bergman鈥檚 鈥淪miles of a Summer Night,鈥� this rueful romance of middle-age lovers contains the song 鈥淪end in the Clowns,鈥� which gained popularity outside the show. A revival in 2009 starred Angela Lansbury and Catherine Zeta-Jones was nominated for a best revival Tony.
鈥淧acific Overtures,鈥� 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 Sondheim鈥檚 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 Sondheim鈥檚 masterpiece, the bloody yet often darkly funny 鈥淪weeney Todd.鈥� An ambitious work, it starred Cariou in the title role as a murderous barber whose customers end up in meat pies baked by Todd鈥檚 willing accomplice, played by Angela Lansbury.
The Sondheim-Prince partnership collapsed two years later, after 鈥淢errily We Roll Along,鈥� a musical that traced a friendship backward from its characters鈥� 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 鈥淎nyone Can Whistle,鈥� its original cast recording helped 鈥淢errily We Roll Along鈥� to become a favorite among musical-theatre buffs.
鈥淪unday in the Park,鈥� written with James Lapine, may be Sondheim鈥檚 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 鈥淪unday鈥� debuted, Sondheim collaborated again with Lapine, this time on the fairy-tale musical 鈥淚nto the Woods.鈥� 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.
鈥淎ssassins鈥� 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.
鈥淧assion鈥� 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 鈥淭he Frogs,鈥� 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 鈥淩oad Show,鈥� 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 鈥淰enus in Fur鈥� playwright David Ives, who called his collaborator a genius. 鈥淣ot only are his musicals brilliant, but I can鈥檛 think of another theatre person who has so chronicled a whole age so eloquently,鈥� Ives said in 2013. 鈥淗e is the spirit of the age in a certain way.鈥�
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 Sondheim鈥檚 mother bought a house in Doylestown, Pa., where one of their Bucks County neighbours was lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, whose son, James, was Sondheim鈥檚 roommate at boarding school. It was Oscar Hammerstein who became the young man鈥檚 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 didn鈥檛 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 Sondheim鈥檚 first jobs was writing scripts for the television show 鈥淭opper,鈥� which ran for two years (1953-1955). At the same time, Sondheim wrote his first musical, 鈥淪aturday Night,鈥� 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. 鈥淪aturday Night鈥� 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 鈥淭he Last of Sheila,鈥� and besides his work on 鈥淒ick Tracy鈥� (1990), wrote scores for such movies as Alain Resnais鈥� 鈥淪tavisky鈥� (1974) and Warren Beatty鈥檚 鈥淩eds鈥� (1981).
Over the years, there have been many Broadway revivals of Sondheim shows, especially 鈥淕ypsy,鈥� which had reincarnations starring Angela Lansbury (1974), Tyne Daly (1989) and Peters (2003). But there also were productions of 鈥淎 Funny Thing,鈥� one with Phil Silvers in 1972 and another starring Nathan Lane in 1996; 鈥淚nto the Woods鈥� with Vanessa Williams in 2002; and even of Sondheim鈥檚 less successful shows such as 鈥淎ssassins鈥� and 鈥淧acific Overtures,鈥� both in 2004. 鈥淪weeney Todd鈥� has been produced in opera houses around the world. A reimagined 鈥淲est Side Story鈥� opened on Broadway in 2020 and this year an off-Broadway 鈥淎ssassins鈥� opened off-Broadway at Classic Stage Company and a scrambled 鈥淐ompany鈥� opened on Broadway with the gender of the protagonist switched. A film version of 鈥淲est Side Story鈥� is to open this December directed by Steven Spielberg.
Sondheim鈥檚 songs have been used extensively in revues, the best-known being 鈥淪ide by Side by Sondheim鈥� (1976) on Broadway and 鈥淧utting It Together,鈥� off-Broadway with Julie Andrews in 1992 and on Broadway with Carol Burnett in 1999. The New York Philharmonic put on a star-studded 鈥淐ompany鈥� in 2011 with Neil Patrick Harris and Stephen Colbert. Tunes from his musicals have lately popped up everywhere from 鈥淢arriage Story鈥� to 鈥淭he Morning Show.鈥�
An HBO documentary directed by Lapine, 鈥淪ix by Sondheim,鈥� 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.
鈥淓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,鈥� singer and actor Hugh Jackman wrote via Twitter.
Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press
