Stephen Sondheim circa 1970

Stephen Sondheim was an American composer and lyricist whose most famous work includes A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), and Into the Woods (1987). He is also known for writing the lyrics for West Side Story (1957) and Gypsy (1959).

Major works

Year Title Role Music Lyrics Ref.
1954 Saturday NightMusic & lyricsStephen Sondheim
1957 West Side StoryLyricsLeonard BernsteinStephen Sondheim
1959 GypsyLyricsJule Styne
1962 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the ForumMusic & lyricsStephen Sondheim
1964 Anyone Can WhistleMusic & lyrics
1965 Do I Hear a Waltz?LyricsRichard RodgersStephen Sondheim
1966 Evening PrimroseMusic & lyricsStephen Sondheim
1970 CompanyMusic & lyrics
1971 FolliesMusic & lyrics
1973 A Little Night MusicMusic & lyrics
1974 The FrogsMusic & lyrics[1]
1976 Pacific OverturesMusic & lyrics
1979 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet StreetMusic & lyrics
1981 Merrily We Roll AlongMusic & lyrics
1984 Sunday in the Park with GeorgeMusic & lyrics
1987 Into the WoodsMusic & lyrics
1990 AssassinsMusic & lyrics
1994 PassionMusic & lyrics
2008 Road ShowMusic & lyrics
2023 Here We AreMusic & lyrics

Revues and anthologies

Side by Side by Sondheim (1976), Marry Me a Little (1980), Putting It Together (1993), Sondheim on Sondheim (2010), and Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends (2022) are revues of Sondheim's work as composer and lyricist, with songs performed in or cut from productions. Jerome Robbins' Broadway features "You Gotta Have a Gimmick" from Gypsy, "Suite of Dances" from West Side Story and "Comedy Tonight" from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. The 2010 revue Classic Moments, Hidden Treasures was conceived and directed by Tim McArthur, first produced at the Jermyn Street Theatre.[2][3] Sondheim's "Pretty Women" and "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid" are featured in The Madwoman of Central Park West.[4]

Film and TV adaptations

Year Title Director Notes
1961 West Side StoryRobert Wise
Jerome Robbins
Film adaptation
1962 GypsyMervyn LeRoy
1966 A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the ForumRichard Lester
1966 Evening Primrose Paul Bogart Television musical
1977 A Little Night MusicHarold PrinceFilm adaptation
1993 GypsyEmile ArdolinoTelevision adaptation
2007 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet StreetTim BurtonFilm adaptation
2014 Into the WoodsRob Marshall
2021 West Side StorySteven Spielberg
TBA Merrily We Roll AlongRichard Linklater

Other works

Theatre

Year Title Role Notes
1951 I Know My LoveChristmas carol arrangement
1955 A Mighty Man is He"Rag Me That Mendelssohn March"
1956 Girls of SummerIncidental music
1957 Take FiveRevue
1960 Invitation to a MarchIncidental music
1962 The World of Jules FeifferIncidental music
1966 The Mad Show"The Boy From…" (lyrics)
1967 Illya Darling"I Think She Needs Me" (lyrics; unused)
1971 Twigs"Hollywood and Vine" (music)
1973 The EnclaveIncidental music
1974 CandideNew lyrics
1975 By BernsteinAdditional lyrics[5]
1996 Getting Away with MurderCo-writer with George Furth[6]
2007 King LearIncidental music for Public Theater production

Film and television

Year Title Notes
1953 TopperCo-writer of eleven episodes
1973 The Last of SheilaCo-writer with Anthony Perkins
1974 June MoonPlays the role of Maxie Schwartz on PBS television version
StaviskyScore (Alain Resnais film)
1976 The Seven-Per-Cent SolutionWrote "The Madam's Song", also known as "I Never Do Anything Twice"
1981 RedsMusic for and includes "Goodbye For Now"
1990 Dick TracyWrote five songs
1996 The BirdcageTwo songs for the film: "It Takes All Kinds" (unused) and "Little Dream"
2003 CampCameo as himself
2007 The SimpsonsGuest appearance as himself, Episode: "Yokel Chords"
2013 Six by SondheimHBO documentary by James Lapine[7][8]
2016 Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have HappenedDocumentary about original Merrily We Roll Along production[9]
2021 Tick, Tick... Boom!Vocal cameo as himself[10]
2022 Glass Onion: A Knives Out MysteryCameo as himself (Posthumous release)

Books

Sondheim's 2010 Finishing the Hat annotates his lyrics "from productions dating 1954–1981. In addition to published and unpublished lyrics from West Side Story, Follies and Company, the tome finds Sondheim discussing his relationship with Oscar Hammerstein II and his collaborations with composers, actors and directors throughout his lengthy career".[11][12] The book, first of a two-part series, is named after a song from Sunday in the Park With George. Sondheim said, "It's going to be long. I'm not, by nature, a prose writer, but I'm literate, and I have a couple of people who are vetting it for me, whom I trust, who are excellent prose writers".[13][14] Finishing the Hat was published in October 2010. According to a New York Times review, "The lyrics under consideration here, written during a 27-year period, aren't presented as fixed and sacred paradigms, carefully removed from tissue paper for our reverent inspection. They're living, evolving, flawed organisms, still being shaped and poked and talked to by the man who created them".[15] The book was 11th on the New York Times' Hardcover Nonfiction list for November 5, 2010.[16]

Its sequel, Look, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics (1981–2011) with Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes and Miscellany, was published on November 22, 2011. The book, continuing from Sunday in the Park With George (where Finishing the Hat ended), includes sections on Sondheim's work in film and television.[17]

After conducting a series of in-depth interviews with Sondheim focusing on his music, musicologist and Library of Congress curator Mark Eden Horowitz compiled them into a book entitled Sondheim on Music: Minor Details and Major Decisions, which was published in 2003.

References

  1. "'The Frogs', 1974 Yale University Production". Sondheimguide.com. Archived from the original on August 26, 2014. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
  2. Gans, Andrew. "London's Jermyn Street Theatre to Offer Secret Sondheim with Cutko, Armstrong and McArthur" Playbill May 27, 2010.
  3. "Review: Classic Moments – Hidden Treasures, Jermyn Street Theatre". There Ought To Be Clowns. 2010-07-13. Retrieved 2023-01-24.
  4. "'The Madwoman Of Central Park West' cast album list". Castalbumcollector.com. Archived from the original on June 5, 2010. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
  5. "By Bernstein". Sondheimguide.com. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
  6. "'Getting Away With Murder' Listing". Sondheimguide.com. Archived from the original on August 28, 2013. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
  7. Champion, Lindsay. "HBO to Air Six By Sondheim Documentary, Featuring Jeremy Jordan, Audra McDonald, Darren Criss & More" Archived December 13, 2013, at the Wayback Machine broadway.com, July 26, 2013
  8. McNulty, Charles. Review: HBO's 'Six by Sondheim' is a stylish salute to a Broadway legend" Archived December 22, 2013, at the Wayback Machine LA Times, December 6, 2013
  9. "::: A t l a s m e d i a . T v". Archived from the original on September 11, 2018. Retrieved September 11, 2018.
  10. Filsinger, Jack (November 30, 2021). "Tick, Tick…Boom! Where To Spot Stephen Sondheim's Secret Cameo". Screenrant. Retrieved January 11, 2022.
  11. Hetrick, Adam."Stephen Sondheim and James Earl Jones Set for TimesTalks This Fall" Archived October 18, 2012, at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, August 16, 2010
  12. "Table of Contents". Randomhouse.com. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
  13. Haun, Harry."Exclusive! Sondheim Explains Evolution from Bounce to Road Show" Archived December 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Playbill.com, August 12, 2008
  14. Gardner, Elysa. "Sondheim sounds off about writing songs" Archived March 5, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. USA Today, October 9, 2008
  15. Brantley, Ben. (21 October 2010). "Sondheim's Rhymes and Reasons". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 29, 2015. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
  16. "Hardcover Nonfiction list". The New York Times. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
  17. Jones, Kenneth."Stephen Sondheim's "Look, I Made a Hat", Part Two of His Career in Lyrics, in Stores Nov. 22" Archived August 26, 2013, at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, November 22, 2011
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