The Times, citing his lawyer and friend F Richard Pappas, reported that he died suddenly. Pappas told the Times that Sondheim had celebrated Thanksgiving the day before with dinner and friends.
Rick Miramontez, the publicist for Sondheim’s current Broadway production “The Company,” confirmed the death to The Washington Post.
As a songwriter, songwriter, conceptual artist and creative force, Sondheim probably had no equal in modern American theatre. His works include an astonishing range: the updated “Romeo and Juliet” romance (for which he wrote the lyrics) of “West Side Story”, the torment of a modern group of friends and lovers in “Company”, even That the crisis of presidential assassins (and attempted assassins) in “assassins”.
Their song lyrics, in particular, were the gold standard of theater art, whether it was defiant (“Rose Turn”), gloomy (“Send in the Clown”), ominous (“Children Will Listen”) or simply clever (“Ahhhhh”). , but below”).
They were difficult at times – full of clever verses and challenging metres, perhaps natural to a man who once described himself as a “mathematician by nature”. But he can hardly get into the heart of any character.
Sondheim was particularly good at expressing romantic longing and loss. Songs like “Send in the Clown” (from “A Little Night Music”), “Losing My Mind” (from “Follies”) and “Somewhere” (from “West Side Story”) are heartwarming in his emotions.
In fact, although his work was sometimes criticized as glib, Sondheim stated that the joy of theater was touching the audience.
Beginning
Stephen Joshua Sondheim was born on March 22, 1930, in New York, the son of a fine costume maker and his wife, a designer. His parents divorced when Sondheim was a teenager, and he moved to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia.
Thanks to the tutelage of a friend’s father — Oscar Hammerstein II, songwriter of the famed theatrical team Rodgers and Hammerstein — Sondheim, already a musical prodigy, received a master class in playwriting.
“He taught me how to structure a song, what a character was, what a scene was; he taught me how to tell a story, how not to tell a story, how to make stage directions practical,” Sondheim told the Paris Review. 1997. “I totally soaked it up, and I still practice the principles he taught me that afternoon.”
Sondheim attended Williams College in Massachusetts, where she won a fellowship for her music which allowed her to continue studying. After a short stint in Los Angeles—where he wrote the script for the TV show “Topper,” thanks to a lead from Hammerstein—he returned to New York and began his career in theatre.
His first breakthrough, at the age of 27, was the lyricism of “West Side Story” with music by Leonard Bernstein. Famous songs from the musical include “America,” “Tonight,” “I Feel Pretty” and “Somewhere.” Although Sondheim later called the song “embarrassing”, the show was a huge hit, going on for nearly 1,000 performances.
This was followed by 1959’s “Gypsy”, the story of gypsy Rose Lee and her mother, Rose, for which Sondheim worked with composer Jule Stine, and 1962’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”, for which Music and lyrics by Sondheim.
After a long drought, he finally broke up with “The Company” in 1970, which lasted more than a year and took home a Tony for Best Musical. It also marked the beginning of Sondheim’s 11-year collaboration with producer-director Hal Prince, which included hits such as “Follies” (1971), “A Little Night Music” (1973) and “Sweeney Todd” (1979). She was
“A Little Night Music” produced perhaps Sondheim’s most famous song, “Send in the Clowns”.
an adventurous body of work
As Sondheim matured, no idea seemed too far-fetched for his pen and wit.
“Company” and “Follies” were notable for their almost storyless productions; “Pacific Overtures” (1976), about the 19th-century American entry into Japan, was performed kabuki-style. “Sweeney Todd” was a romp about a murderous barber who has carved his prey into a piece of meat.
In the 80s and 90s, he wrote a musical about the French Pointillist painter Georges Seurat, “Sunday in the Park with George” (1984), which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. “Into the Woods” (1987), perhaps his most performed work, was a retelling of Grimm’s fairy tales. “Assassins” (1990) was an unexpected story about the past and present of assassins of the President.
His last new work was 2008’s “Road Show,” about a pair of social-climbing brothers. It never made it to Broadway.
Although his early works, such as “West Side Story” and “Gypsy”, were made into films, his work after the 1970s generally resisted transition.
PBS and Showtime filmed “Sunday in the Park” for television, a version later released with commentary from Sondheim. “Sweeney Todd” was made into a 2007 Tim Burton film starring Johnny Depp, and “Into the Woods”, with a cast including Meryl Streep and future late night host James Corden, was filmed in 2014.
A new adaptation of “West Side Story” is due out next month from director Steven Spielberg.
Sondheim earned her Oscar for a song she wrote for 1990’s “Dick Tracy,” “Sooner or Later.” A New Yorker in his native, he did not attend the ceremony.
However, theater was another matter. The 2010 review for his 80th birthday, “Sondheim on Sondheim,” earned encouraging reviews and reconsidered his long career. The musician, a reticent man, was generally polite about the response when not waxing rudely about his Clement Wood Rhyming Dictionary or praising his colleagues.
“It’s been a bit more in the public spotlight,” he told “Fresh Air” Terry Gross. “But the shower of enthusiasm and affection is worth it. It’s great to know that people like your stuff.”
Homage
Some of the many who did or were affected by Sondheim’s work flooded social media with tributes after news of his death.
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