Tragedy tonight! Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim has died.
The composer and lyricist credited with having reinvented the American musical was the recipient of every major honor, including nine Tony Awards, an Academy Award, eight Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, a Laurence Olivier Award, and a 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Sondheim’s passing occurs only two weeks before Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” is set to introduce him to a whole new generation of fans. He was only 27 when he collaborated with Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents on the original 1957 production.
It was the beginning of a storied career that included music and lyrics for “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “Company,” “Follies,” “A Little Night Music,” “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” “Sunday in the Park with George,” and “Into the Woods.” He also provided the words for Laurents’ “Gypsy,” with music by Jule Styne.
Following an early mentorship with Oscar Hammerstein II – whom he had known since the age of 10, since Hammerstein turned out to be his best friend’s father – he fell in with Princeton University’s total serialist Milton Babbitt, whom he described as “a frustrated show composer.” It was an unlikely pairing, but the two clicked. Together, they dissected everything from Rodgers and Hart to Mozart.
Sondheim’s uncanny facility with words – imbued with virtuosic wit, insight, and humanity – frequently added up to more than just a stunt lyric. In any case, he always regarded himself foremost as a composer. His revitalizing approach to the American musical theater made him the most revered and influential composer-lyricist of the second half of the 20th century.
At the time of his death, he was 91 years-old.
