Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Joshua Sondheim (March 22, 1930 – November 26, 2021) reshaped the American musical, earning a reputation as a titan of 20th-century theater. His career netted eight Tony Awards, eight Grammy Awards, and five Olivier Awards, alongside a 1982 induction into the American Theater Hall of Fame, a 1993 Kennedy Center Honor, and the 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom. Sondheim began by writing lyrics for *West Side Story* (1957) and *Gypsy* (1959), then moved to composing both music and lyrics. Five of his shows—*A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum* (1962), *Company* (1970), *A Little Night Music* (1973), *Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street* (1979), and *Passion* (1994)—won the Tony for Best Musical. He also created *Follies* (1971), *Pacific Overtures* (1976), *Merrily We Roll Along* (1981), *Into the Woods* (1987), and *Assassins* (1990). *Sunday in the Park with George* (1984) earned a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, a rare honor for a musical. His song “Sooner or Later” from *Dick Tracy* (1990) won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Many of his works became films, including *West Side Story* (1961 and 2021), *Gypsy* (1962), *A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum* (1966), *A Little Night Music* (1977), *Sweeney Todd* (2007), and *Into the Woods* (2014). He published two books collecting his lyrics, starting with *Finishing the Hat*. Theaters on Broadway and in London’s West End bear his name.

Born in New York City on March 22, 1930, to a Jewish family, Sondheim was the only child of Etta Janet “Foxy” Sondheim and Herbert Sondheim. His paternal grandparents, Isaac and Rosa, were German Jews; his maternal grandparents, Joseph and Bessie, were Lithuanian Jews from Vilnius. His father manufactured dresses his mother designed. Growing up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, he began piano lessons at age seven. After his parents divorced, he moved to a farm near Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Described as an isolated, emotionally neglected child, he attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York and spent summers at Camp Androscoggin, where Tom Lehrer was a counselor. His interest in musical theater sparked at age nine when he saw *Very Warm for May*: “The curtain went up and revealed a piano. A butler took a duster and brushed it up, tinkling the keys. I thought that was thrilling.” Around age ten, during his parents’ divorce, he befriended James Hammerstein, son of Oscar Hammerstein II, who lived nearby in Bucks County. Hammerstein became a surrogate father, deeply influencing Sondheim’s love of musical theater. He met Hal Prince, later a frequent collaborator, at the opening of *South Pacific*. He called the premiere of *Carousel* “a seminal experience of my life. I was completely overwhelmed.” His mother sent him to New York Military Academy in 1940, then from 1942 to 1947 he attended George School, a Quaker prep school in Bucks County, where he wrote his first musical, *By George*, in 1945.

After *By George* succeeded among peers, Sondheim asked Hammerstein to evaluate it. Hammerstein called it “the worst thing I’ve ever read,” adding, “I didn’t say that it was untalented, I said it was terrible. And if you want to know why it’s terrible, I’ll tell you.” They spent the afternoon dissecting the work, and Sondheim later said, “In that afternoon I learned more about songwriting and the musical theater than most people learn in a lifetime.” Hammerstein then designed a course: Sondheim wrote four musicals—one based on a play he admired (George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly’s *Beggar on Horseback*, becoming *All That Glitters*), one based on a play he liked but thought flawed (Maxwell Anderson’s *High Tor*), one based on an existing novel or short story not previously dramatized (an unfinished *Mary Poppins* called *Bad Tuesday*), and an original (*Climb High*). None were professionally produced; *High Tor* and *Mary Poppins* never saw the stage (the rights holder for *High Tor* refused permission, and *Mary Poppins* remained unfinished). Sondheim learned “that art is work and not inspiration, that invention comes with craft.” He worked as a gofer for Rodgers and Hammerstein’s *Allegro*, later noting, “Somebody said to me once, ‘Your whole life has been fixing *Allegro*.’ That’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve been trying to fix *Allegro* all my life.”

After high school, Sondheim attended Williams College, initially majoring in mathematics before switching to music after an elective in his first year. There, he participated in Cap.