Stephen Sondheim, peerless Broadway songsmith behind ‘West Side Story’ and ‘Sweeney Todd,’ dead at 91
Larry McShane
Stephen Sondheim, the nonpareil Broadway composer whose decades-long career delivered brilliant musical productions from “West Side Story” to “Sweeney Todd” to “Into the Woods,” died Friday. The oft-honored songwriter was 91.
His sudden death at his Roxbury, Conn., home, was announced by his friend and lawyer, Richard Pappas, who said Sondheim had celebrated Thanksgiving in Connecticut at a dinner with friends. Sondheim’s death was first reported in The New York Times.
FILE - In this Dec. 28, 1964 file photo, composer Richard Rodgers, at the piano, his new collaborator, lyricist Stephen Sondheim, right, and playwright Arthur Laurents are shown as they begin work on the new musical "Do I Hear a Waltz?" in New York. The musical was being adapted from Laurents' book "Summertime."
FILE - In this Dec. 28, 1964 file photo, composer Richard Rodgers, at the piano, his new collaborator, lyricist Stephen Sondheim, right, and playwright Arthur Laurents are shown as they begin work on the new musical "Do I Hear a Waltz?" in New York. The musical was being adapted from Laurents' book "Summertime." (Anonymous/)
Sondheim, a protege of acclaimed songwriter Oscar Hammerstein II, collected a record eight Tony Awards — including best original Broadway score for three straight years in 1971-73 and a lifetime achievement Tony in 2008. He earned another eight Grammys, with singer Judy Collins’ version of Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns” winning song of the year in 1975.
And Sondheim captured an Oscar for his contribution to the 1990 soundtrack of “Dick Tracy," leaving him only an Emmy away from EGOT status.
There was also a Pulitzer Prize for his Broadway smash “Sunday in the Park with George,” and a Presidential Medal of Freedom presented by President Barack Obama in 2015.
“As a composer and a lyricist, and a genre unto himself, Sondheim challenges his audiences,” said Obama. “His greatest hits aren’t tunes you can hum, they’re reflections on roads we didn’t take and wishes gone wrong. Relationships so frayed and fractured, there’s nothing left to do but send in the clowns.”
Composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim, center, is flanked by performers, from left, Glenn Close, Bernadette Peters, Liza Minnelli, right, and Billy Stritch during a curtain call for the evening's gala dress rehearsal in New York in June 1992. The Gala benefit honoring Sondheim's shows and film scores, "Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall," will featured a Broadway chorus and the American Theater Orchestra conducted by music director Paul Gemignani.
Composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim, center, is flanked by performers, from left, Glenn Close, Bernadette Peters, Liza Minnelli, right, and Billy Stritch during a curtain call for the evening's gala dress rehearsal in New York in June 1992. The Gala benefit honoring Sondheim's shows and film scores, "Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall," will featured a Broadway chorus and the American Theater Orchestra conducted by music director Paul Gemignani.
His songwriting prowess, as both collaborator and sole creator, delivered timeless musicals that entertained generations of fans, with Oscar-winning director Stephen Spielberg working on a new film version of “West Side Story” in 2020.
Sondheim’s oft-acerbic and conversational lyrics signaled a break with the old theater, the mawkish sort of Broadway comedies spawned in the first half of the 20th century. Character development, plot and emotion replaced the outdated productions of the past.
“The whole idea of getting across to an audience and making them laugh, making them cry — just making them feel — is paramount to me,” he once said.
Stephen Sondheim at the Avery Fisher hall in Lincoln Center on Sept. 7, 1985, during the finale and curtain call of "Follies."
Stephen Sondheim at the Avery Fisher hall in Lincoln Center on Sept. 7, 1985, during the finale and curtain call of "Follies." (Mario Suriani/)
Early in his career, Sondheim was famously mentored by Oscar Hammerstein II, who paired with composer Richard Rodgers to redefine musical theater — starting with “Oklahoma!” in 1943.
“Hammerstein taught me, ‘Don’t write what I feel — write what you feel!’” recalled Sondheim, who took the advice and proceeded to do just that into the new millennium, and worked well into his 80s.
Stephen Joshua Sondheim was born in Manhattan, the only child of dress manufacturer Herbert Sondheim and his chief designer/wife Etta.
The precocious Sondheim showed an aptitude for music as a child, studying piano at age seven before writing his first musical at 15. By then, his parents had divorced and Sondheim relocated with his mother to Doylestown, Pa., where the neighbors included the Hammersteins. Sondheim became friendly with Hammerstein’s son, and soon developed his own surrogate father-son relationship with the composer.
Hammerstein also became a guru to the aspiring composer, inviting Sondheim to work as an assistant on the Hammerstein/Rodgers collaboration “Allegro.”
The ambitious young Sondheim graduated with a major in music from Williams College and received his alma mater’s prestigious Hutchinson Prize for the arts, but improbably landed in Los Angeles as a television scriptwriter for the program “Topper” — the tale of a grumpy banker visited by a pair of ghosts.
President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Stephen Sondheim during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in November 2015.
President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Stephen Sondheim during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in November 2015. (Evan Vucci/)
Sondheim didn’t stay out west for long, returning to New York City and composing background music for a play called “The Girls of Summer.” It was his next project, writing the lyrics for a musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” that thrust Sondheim into the spotlight.
“West Side Story,” with Sondheim writing lyrics to Leonard Bernstein’s music, debuted on Sept. 26, 1957, and was a smash. Songs like “Maria,” “Tonight” and “I Feel Pretty” became instant classics. Choreographer Jerome Robbins rounded out the creative team of a show that ran for 732 performances before going on a national tour and becoming a hit movie.
Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer in the film adaptation of "West Side Story."
Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer in the film adaptation of "West Side Story."
The soundtrack album spent over a year on the charts. Composer Sondheim would replicate the Broadway success over and over again.
He returned in 1959 with another triumph as the lyricist for the hit musical “Gypsy,” starring Ethel Merman. He wrote both music and lyrics for “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" in 1962, and the farce starring Zero Mostel won the Tony for best musical. He started the next decade by winning the best original score in consecutive years, for “Company” in 1971, “Follies” in 1972 and “A Little Night Music” in 1973.
The last of the three included the classic “Send In the Clowns,” later recorded by singers from Frank Sinatra to Barbra Streisand, from Bryan Ferry to Chet Baker (with help from Van Morrison).
Johnny Depp in the film adaptation of "Sweeney Todd."
Johnny Depp in the film adaptation of "Sweeney Todd."
Sondheim rounded out the ’70s with another original score Tony for the gory melodrama “Sweeney Todd” in 1979, adding a fifth for “Into The Woods” in 1988 and “Passion” in 1994.
The ’80s produced “Sunday in the Park With George,” a collaboration with playwright/director James Lapine — inspired by painter George Seurat’s famed work “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte." The pair, after sharing the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, scored again in 1987 with “Into The Woods” — a slightly twisted take on the classic fairy tales of “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Cinderella" and “Little Red Riding Hood.”
The musical was turned into a 2014 movie with a star-studded cast featuring Meryl Streep, Anna Kendrick, Johnny Depp and Tracey Ullman. Streep earned an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress.
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As the decades passed, he helped pass the torch to a new generation of composers like Lin-Manuel Miranda, offering encouragement for the younger man’s idea of a show about Alexander Hamilton.
Broadway luminaries, including stage star Bernadette Peters, paid tribute to the musical icon.
