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Stephen Sondheim: Bio Stephen Joshua Sondheim was born in New York on 22 March 1930. After his parents divorced, he moved to Pennsylvania with his mother. Their neighbour, Oscar Hammerstein II, took the young Sondheim under his wing and introduced him to the magic of the theatre. Inspired by the musical theatre productions that Hammerstein was creating with his partner, Richard Rodgers, Sondheim wrote his first musical, By George. This show, which was produced for the George School, was passed on to Hammerstein for assessment. Hammerstein declared that it was the worst thing he had ever read and analysed the script intensely with his young apprentice, who later said that he had learnt more about the craft of musical theatre in that one afternoon than most people did during their entire lives. With Hammerstein overseeing Sondheim's education about the dramatic aspect of musical theatre, Sondheim studied music with Robert Barrow and Milton Babbit before embarking on his professional career as a composer/lyricist. He is currently still active as a composer-lyricist and has won several Tonies, an Academy Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In 1983 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1990 he was appointed the first Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Oxford University; in 1993 he was a recipient of the Kennedy Centre Honours, and in 1996, he received the National Medal of Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2000, he was awarded the Praemium Imperiale, Japans highest honour, for a lifetime of artistic achievement, and in December 2002 he received the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Richard Rodgers Award. In the summer of 2002, six of his shows were presented in Washington, DC as part of The Kennedy Centre's Sondheim Celebration. Sondheim has also devoted some time to teaching, composing film scores and writing screenplays, creating crossword puzzles for New York Magazine, and writing plays. He has never been married and has no children. Major Works Theatre: By George (1946 - musical), Phinney's Rainbow (1948 - musical), All That Glitters (1949 - musical), Where to From Here (1950 - revue), A Mighty Man is He (1955 - play with music), The Girls of Summer (1956 - play with music), West Side Story (1957 - musical), Gypsy (1959 - musical), Invitation to a March (1960 - play with music), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962 - musical), The World of Jules Feiffer (1962 - musical), Anyone Can Whistle (1964 - musical), Do I Hear a Waltz (1965 - musical), The Mad Show (1966 - revue), Company (1970 - musical), Follies (1971 - musical), Twigs (1971 - play with music), A Little Night Music (1973 - musical), Sondheim: a Musical Tribute (1973 - concert), The Enclave (1973 - play with music), Candide (1974 - musical), The Frogs (1974 - musical), By Bernstein (1975 - revue), Pacific Overtures (1973 - musical), Side by Side by Sondheim (1973 - revue), Sweeney Todd (1979 - musical), Marry Me a Little (1980 - musical), Merrily We Roll Along (1981 - musical), You're Gonna Love Tomorrow (1983 - revue), Sunday in the Park With George (1984 - musical), Into the Woods (1987 - musical), Being Alive (1989 - concert), Assassins (1990 - musical), Putting It Together (1992 - revue), A Celebration at Carnegie Hall (1992 - concert), Passion (1994 - musical), Getting Away With Murder (1996 - play), Saturday Night (1997 - musical), Moving On (2000 - revue), Bounce (2003/4 - musical). Films: West Side Story (1961), Gypsy (1962), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), The Last of Sheila (1973), Stavisky (1974), The Seven Percent Solution (1976), A Little Night Music (1977), Reds (1981), Dick Tracy (1990), Postcards From the Edge (1990), The Birdcage (1996). Television/Video: Topper (1953), In an Early Winter (1958), The Last Word (1958), Evening Primrose (1966), Original Cast Album: Company (1970), Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1982), Follies in Concert (1986), Sunday In the Park With George (1986), A Little Night Music (1990), Into the Woods (1991), Gypsy (1993), Sondheim: a Celebration at Carnegie Hall (1993), Sunshine Boys (1995), Passion (1996), Company (1997), Bernadette Peters in Concert (1998), Hey, Mr Producer (1998), Putting It Together (2000), Sweeney Todd: the Concert (2002). Contact Details Mr Sondheim can be contacted at the following address: Sarah L Douglas Links Serebella: Online directory - real information. Sondheim.com: Putting it together since 1994. Stephen Sondheim Reference Guide: Features listing of shows, songs, recordings, and chronology. The Sondheim Review Online: Dedicated to the work of the musical theater's foremost composer and lyricist, Stephen Sondheim. A companion to The Sondheim Review quarterly magazine. Sondheim Notes: Articles on Sondheim's musicals in the 1970s: Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd. The Quoteable Stephen Sondheim Page: He's been composing shows for Broadway for over four decades. Here we offer a little background information on the man and his music. The Stephen Sondheim Society: News of UK amateur and professional productions. Society events. Late breaking news. Purchases Disclaimer Live, Laugh, Love is an unofficial fan site for the musicals of Stephen Sondheim, who is in no way affiliated or connected with Live, Laugh, Love. Please send any comments, queries, contributions, corrections or amendments to the Webmaster. This site was last updated on 15-12-2005. |
