, the dominant voice in American musical theater in the second half of the 20th century and the composer with the most Tony Awards, has died. He was 91. The Broadway icon died Friday, November 26th at his home in Roxbury, Conn. He was 91.
No one could deny Sondheim’s abilities as a lyricist — in that realm he easily rivaled the great Cole Porter. His talent, evident from his early collaborations with Leonard Bernstein and Jules Styne , became even more pronounced and sophisticated as he grew as a composer and conceiver of musical subjects. Many of his musicals were sardonic and downbeat.
Through Arthur Laurents, Sondheim was introduced to Bernstein, who afforded him the opportunity to write the lyrics for his musical updating of “Romeo and Juliet” called “West Side Story” . Though he disparaged his work on that musical later, it launched Sondheim on his career. He was to have written the music as well as the lyrics for Laurents’ “Gypsy,” but the star, Ethel Merman, demanded that Jule Styne be brought in to write the music.
“A Little Night Music,” based on Ingmar Bergman’s Chekhovian romance “Smiles of a Summer Night,” opened in 1973, and whoever doubted Sondheim’s ability as a composer was converted by the tuner’s waltzes and its plaintive “Send in the Clowns,” the closest thing to a hit song Sondheim ever penned. He also co-wrote with Anthony Perkins his only film script, “The Last of Sheila,” a rather convoluted murder mystery.
Sondheim’s last two Broadway successes were “Sunday in the Park With George” — a reverie in two time periods about pointillist painter Georges Seurat, and more abstract than the melodramatic “Sweeney Todd” — and the dark fairy tale “Into the Woods.” He received a Pulitzer Prize for “Sunday in the Park With George” in 1985.
Toward the latter years of his career, his work was revived on Broadway with a frequency seen by few other composers. The Roundabout Theater Company made a habit of producing Sondheim musicals, ranging from “Assassins” to “Sunday in the Park” to “Pacific Overtures.” In 2010 the Roundabout renamed one of its Broadway venues after the composer.
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NPR Cookie Consent and Choices메시아께서 곧 오십니다 RevivalTidalWaves He was mad talented. I thank him belatedly for all the joy and wonder. Best of the best. True GOAT
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