Stephen Joshua Sondheim (b.1930) is an American stage musical and film composer and lyricist. His witty, cynical lyrics and his brilliant music broke new ground for Broadway musical theatre. He has won an Academy Award, seven Tony Awards, multiple Grammy Awards, and a Pulitzer Prize.
Born in New York City, Sondheim grew up in Pennsylvania, where he was taken under the wing of a neighbor, the librettist Oscar Hammerstein II, who taught him to write lyrics. Sondheim wrote accompanying music for Girls of Summer (1956) before achieving fame for providing the lyrics for Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story (1957.)
Sondheim first work where he wrote both the music and the lyrics was A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962.) Later shows include Company (1970,) Follies (1971,) A Little Night Music (1973,) and Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979,) all of which won Tony awards.
Sunday in the Park with George (1984) won a Pulitzer Prize. Assassins (1990) débuted on Broadway in 2004 and won yet another Tony award.
American biographer Meryle Secrest wrote Stephen Sondheim: A Life (1998.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Stephen Sondheim
Over a period of time it’s been driven home to me that I’m not going to be the most popular writer in the world, so I’m always happy when anything in any way is accepted.
—Stephen Sondheim
Topics: Blessings
The fact is popular art dates. It grows quaint. How many people feel strongly about Gilbert and Sullivan today compared to those who felt strongly in 1890?
—Stephen Sondheim
Topics: Society
The concerts you enjoy together, neighbors you annoy together, children you destroy together, that make marriage a joy.
—Stephen Sondheim
Topics: Marriage
If I cannot fly, Let me sing.
—Stephen Sondheim
Topics: Singing
Everything depends upon execution; having just a vision is no solution.
—Stephen Sondheim
Topics: Performance
Musical comedies aren’t written, they are rewritten.
—Stephen Sondheim
When the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you’ve written.
—Stephen Sondheim
Topics: Audiences
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