Stephen Sondheim

1897

Film adaptations of Sondheim's work include West Side Story (1961), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Into the Woods (2014), West Side Story (2021), and Merrily We Roll Along (TBA). == Early years == Sondheim was born into a Jewish family in New York City, the son of Etta Janet ("Foxy", née Fox; 1897–1992) and Herbert Sondheim (1895–1966).

1924

At Williams, Sondheim wrote a musical adaption of Beggar on Horseback (a 1924 play by George S.

1940

His mother sent him to New York Military Academy in 1940.

He devoured 1940s and 1950s films, and has called cinema his "basic language"; his film knowledge got him through The $64,000 Question contestant tryouts.

1942

From 1942 to 1943, he attended George School, a private Quaker preparatory school in Bucks County, Pennsylvania where he wrote his first musical, By George.

1943

From 1942 to 1943, he attended George School, a private Quaker preparatory school in Bucks County, Pennsylvania where he wrote his first musical, By George.

1946

From 1946 to 1950, Sondheim attended Williams College.

1950

From 1946 to 1950, Sondheim attended Williams College.

A member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, he graduated magna cum laude in 1950. "A few painful years of struggle" followed, when Sondheim auditioned songs, lived in his father's dining room to save money and spent time in Hollywood writing for the television series Topper.

He devoured 1940s and 1950s films, and has called cinema his "basic language"; his film knowledge got him through The $64,000 Question contestant tryouts.

1952

Do I Hear a Waltz?, based on Arthur Laurents' 1952 play The Time of the Cuckoo, was intended as another Rodgers and Hammerstein musical with Mary Martin in the lead.

1954

The show, retitled Saturday Night, was intended to open during the 1954–55 Broadway season; however, Ayers died of leukemia in his early forties.

1956

High Tor and Mary Poppins have never been produced: The rights holder for the original High Tor refused permission (though a musical version by Arthur Schwartz was produced for television in 1956), and Mary Poppins was unfinished. === College and early career === Sondheim began attending Williams College, a liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts whose theatre program attracted him.

1957

In 1957, West Side Story opened; directed by Jerome Robbins, it ran for 732 performances.

1959

The show went through a number of drafts, and was interrupted briefly by Sondheim's next project. In 1959, Sondheim was approached by Laurents and Robbins for a musical version of Gypsy Rose Lee's memoir after Irving Berlin and Cole Porter turned it down.

Sondheim agreed; Gypsy opened on May 21, 1959, and ran for 702 performances. ====Hammerstein's death==== In 1960, Sondheim lost his mentor and father figure, Oscar Hammerstein II.

Eighteen years later, Sondheim refused Bernstein and Robbins' request to retry the show. He has lived in a Turtle Bay, Manhattan brownstone since writing Gypsy in 1959.

1960

Sondheim agreed; Gypsy opened on May 21, 1959, and ran for 702 performances. ====Hammerstein's death==== In 1960, Sondheim lost his mentor and father figure, Oscar Hammerstein II.

1962

He never saw his mentor again; three days later, Hammerstein died of stomach cancer and Hammerstein's protégé eulogized him at his funeral. ==As composer and lyricist== The first musical for which Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics was A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which opened in 1962 and ran for 964 performances.

1964

Sondheim's score was not well received; although the show won several Tony Awards (including best musical), he did not receive a nomination. === Broadway failures and other projects === Sondheim had participated in three straight hits, but his next show – 1964's Anyone Can Whistle – was a nine-performance bomb (although it introduced Angela Lansbury to musical theatre).

1966

Inspired by a New York Times article about a gathering of former Ziegfeld Follies showgirls, it was entitled The Girls Upstairs (and would later become Follies). In 1966, Sondheim semi-anonymously provided lyrics for "The Boy From...", a parody of "The Girl from Ipanema" in the off-Broadway revue The Mad Show.

Written for the anthology series ABC Stage 67 and produced by Hubbell Robinson, it was broadcast on November 16, 1966.

1970

It opened on April 26, 1970 at the Alvin Theatre, where it ran for 705 performances after seven previews, and won Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Music and Best Lyrics.

1971

It was revived on Broadway in 1995 and 2006, and will be revived again in 2022 (in a version where the main character is gender-swapped). Follies (1971), with a book by James Goldman, opened on April 4, 1971 at the Winter Garden Theatre and ran for 522 performances after 12 previews.

1973

The show opened on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre on February 25, 1973, and ran for 601 performances and 12 previews.

The book, by Hugh Wheeler, is based on Christopher Bond's 1973 stage version of the Victorian original.

1981

Sondheim has written film music, contributing "Goodbye for Now" for Warren Beatty's 1981 Reds.

Renamed Bounce in 2003, it was produced at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in a production directed by Harold Prince, his first collaboration with Sondheim since 1981.

1985

Sondheim and Lapine won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play, and it was revived on Broadway in 2008, and again in a limited run in 2017. They collaborated on Into the Woods (1987), a musical based on several Brothers Grimm fairy tales.

1990

He wrote five songs for 1990's Dick Tracy, including "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)", sung in the film by Madonna, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

With a run of 280 performances, Passion was the shortest-running show to win a Tony Award for Best Musical. === Later work === Assassins opened off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons on December 18, 1990, with a book by John Weidman.

The following year, its score was recorded; a revised version, with two new songs, ran off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre in 2000 and at London's Jermyn Street Theatre in 2009. During the late 1990s, Sondheim and Weidman reunited for Wise Guys, a musical comedy based on the lives of Addison and Wilson Mizner.

1991

The musical closed on February 16, 1991, after 73 performances.

1992

When his mother died in the spring of 1992, Sondheim did not attend her funeral.

1995

It was revived on Broadway in 1995 and 2006, and will be revived again in 2022 (in a version where the main character is gender-swapped). Follies (1971), with a book by James Goldman, opened on April 4, 1971 at the Winter Garden Theatre and ran for 522 performances after 12 previews.

1997

The show eventually received a Broadway production in 2004. Saturday Night was shelved until its 1997 production at London's Bridewell Theatre.

2000

The rights transferred to his widow, Shirley, and due to her inexperience the show did not continue as planned; it opened off-Broadway in 2000.

The following year, its score was recorded; a revised version, with two new songs, ran off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre in 2000 and at London's Jermyn Street Theatre in 2009. During the late 1990s, Sondheim and Weidman reunited for Wise Guys, a musical comedy based on the lives of Addison and Wilson Mizner.

A Broadway production, starring Nathan Lane and Victor Garber, directed by Sam Mendes and planned for the spring of 2000, was delayed.

2001

The show enjoyed two revivals on Broadway in 2001 and 2011. A Little Night Music (1973), with a more traditional plot based on Ingmar Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night and a score primarily in waltz time, was one of the composer's greatest commercial successes.

2002

The show was revived on Broadway in 2002. Sondheim and Lapine's last work together was the rhapsodic Passion (1994), adapted from Ettore Scola's Italian film Passione D'Amore.

On April 28, 2002, in connection with the Sondheim Celebration Sondheim and Frank Rich of the New York Times had a conversation.

2003

Renamed Bounce in 2003, it was produced at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in a production directed by Harold Prince, his first collaboration with Sondheim since 1981.

2004

The show closed after a run of 193 performances, and was revived on Broadway in 2004. The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), Sondheim's most operatic score and libretto (which, with Pacific Overtures and A Little Night Music, has been produced in opera houses), explores an unlikely topic: murderous revenge and cannibalism.

The show eventually received a Broadway production in 2004. Saturday Night was shelved until its 1997 production at London's Bridewell Theatre.

2005

The show has since been revived on Broadway twice (1989, 2005), and has been performed in musical theaters and opera houses alike.

2006

It was revived on Broadway in 1995 and 2006, and will be revived again in 2022 (in a version where the main character is gender-swapped). Follies (1971), with a book by James Goldman, opened on April 4, 1971 at the Winter Garden Theatre and ran for 522 performances after 12 previews.

Directed by John Doyle, it closed on December 28, 2008. Asked about writing new work, Sondheim replied in 2006: "No ...

2008

Sondheim and Lapine won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play, and it was revived on Broadway in 2008, and again in a limited run in 2017. They collaborated on Into the Woods (1987), a musical based on several Brothers Grimm fairy tales.

Although after poor reviews Bounce never reached Broadway, a revised version opened off-Broadway as Road Show at the Public Theater on October 28, 2008.

Directed by John Doyle, it closed on December 28, 2008. Asked about writing new work, Sondheim replied in 2006: "No ...

They appeared in four interviews, entitled "A Little Night Conversation with Stephen Sondheim", in California and Portland, Oregon in March 2008 and at

2009

It was revived on Broadway in 2009. Pacific Overtures (1976), with a book by John Weidman, was the most non-traditional of the Sondheim-Prince collaborations: the show explored the westernization of Japan, and was originally presented in Kabuki style.

The following year, its score was recorded; a revised version, with two new songs, ran off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre in 2000 and at London's Jermyn Street Theatre in 2009. During the late 1990s, Sondheim and Weidman reunited for Wise Guys, a musical comedy based on the lives of Addison and Wilson Mizner.

2010

In 2010, the former Henry Miller's Theater on Broadway was renamed the Stephen Sondheim Theatre; in 2019, it was announced that the Queen's Theatre in the West End of London would be renamed the Sondheim Theatre at the end of the year.

A revised version, Sondheim on Sondheim, was produced at Studio 54 by the Roundabout Theatre Company; previews began on March 19, 2010, and it ran from April 22 to June 13.

2011

The show enjoyed two revivals on Broadway in 2001 and 2011. A Little Night Music (1973), with a more traditional plot based on Ingmar Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night and a score primarily in waltz time, was one of the composer's greatest commercial successes.

2013

Williams, Tom Wopat, Norm Lewis and Leslie Kritzer. Sondheim collaborated with Wynton Marsalis on A Bed and a Chair: A New York Love Affair, an Encores! concert on November 13–17, 2013 at New York City Center.

2015

He is also known for writing the lyrics for West Side Story (1957) and Gypsy (1959). He has received an Academy Award, eight Tony Awards (more than any other composer), a Special Tony Award, eight Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, a Laurence Olivier Award, and a 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom.

2017

Sondheim and Lapine won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play, and it was revived on Broadway in 2008, and again in a limited run in 2017. They collaborated on Into the Woods (1987), a musical based on several Brothers Grimm fairy tales.

2018

It ran off-Broadway at the Barrow Street Theatre until August 26, 2018. Merrily We Roll Along (1981), with a book by George Furth, is one of Sondheim's more traditional scores; Frank Sinatra and Carly Simon have recorded songs from the musical.

2019

In 2010, the former Henry Miller's Theater on Broadway was renamed the Stephen Sondheim Theatre; in 2019, it was announced that the Queen's Theatre in the West End of London would be renamed the Sondheim Theatre at the end of the year.




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