- Born
- Died
- Birth nameStephen Joshua Sondheim
- Height5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
- He did his pre college training at George School, Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, then was in a class of 50 at Williams College majoring in music as an undergraduate distinguishing himself by writing a book, lyrics and music for two college shows based on the adaption of 'Beggar on Horseback'. He won the Hutchinson prize to study music composition for 2 years. His first professional writing was in 1953 when he co authored the script for the television series'Topper'. A year later he wrote all the music and lyrics for'Saturday night' . In 1955 he started work on 'West Side Story' and also found time to writ scripts for 'The Last Word' for Columbia Broadcasting and the background music for' The Party Girls of Summer' For the film of 'West Side Story' he created new and powerful lyrics for the 'America' sequence, which is the only major alteration from the Broadway production.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tonyman 5
- Stephen Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist known for his work in musical theater.
One of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theater, Sondheim has been praised as having reinvented the American musical with shows that tackle unexpected themes that range far beyond the genre's traditional subjects with music and lyrics of unprecedented complexity and sophistication. His shows have been praised for addressing darker, more harrowing elements of the human experience, with songs often tinged with ambivalence about various aspects of life. His best-known works as composer and lyricist include A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), Original Cast Album: Company (1970), Follies, A Little Night Music (1977), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1982), and Into the Woods (1987). He is also known for writing the lyrics for West Side Story (1961) and Gypsy (1962).
He has received an Academy Award, eight Tony Awards (more than any other composer, including a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre), eight Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, a Laurence Olivier Award, and a 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom. 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.
Sondheim has written film music, contributing 'Goodbye for Now' for Warren Beatty's Reds (1981). He wrote five songs for Dick Tracy (1990), including 'Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)', sung in the film by Madonna, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Film adaptations of Sondheim's work include Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), and Into the Woods (2014).- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tango Papa
- SpouseJeffrey Romley(2017 - November 26, 2021) (his death)
- He stated that his original ambition was to become a mathematician and that he became a composer largely by chance. A big influence was the fact that famed lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II (of Rodgers & Hammerstein) was a neighbor of his when Sondheim was a boy. When he wrote a musical for a school production, he showed it to Hammerstein who told him it was the worst musical he had ever read. However, Hammerstein also told him that nonetheless it showed a lot of latent talent and proceeded to tell him everything that was wrong with it and how to fix it, for which Sondheim was always grateful.
- Shares birthday with fellow musical composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.
- Was mentor to the late Jonathan Larson, creator of Rent and Tick, Tick . . . BOOM!.
- Was taught by broadway legend, Oscar Hammerstein II.
- Provides the voice of Rose's father on the original cast album to Gypsy (1962) in the song, Some People. He practically snarls the line "You ain't getting eighty-eight cents from me, Rose!" Sondheim claims this is because he was incredibly frustrated with Ethel Merman, who refused to read the line "...and you can go to hell!".
- My idea of heaven is not writing.
- On stage, generally speaking, the story is stopped or held back by songs, because that's the convention. Audiences enjoy the song and the singer, that's the point. Static action - if that's not an oxymoron - is accepted. It's what writer Burt Shevelove used to call "savouring the moment". That's a very tricky business on film. It's fine if the songs are presentational, as in a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers-style movie where you watch them for the fun of it, but not with storytelling songs. When the song is part of the action and working as dialogue, even two minutes is way too long.
- My mother had a lot of pretensions. One of them that she picked up from some of her tonier friends was 'luncheon' which always struck me as a screamingly funny word. 'I'm having a luncheon at 21' she would say. I think 'lunch' is one of the funniest words in the world. That's one of the reasons I used it.
- For those of you who have not had the pleasure of hearing my voice before, I tend to sing very loud, often off-pitch, and always write in keys that are just out of my range.
- Oscar Hammerstein really believed that there was 'A bright golden haze in the meadow'. I never have.
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