Biography stephen sondheim into the woods

1930-2021

Who Was Stephen Sondheim?

After early apply at songwriting, Stephen Sondheim's knowledge assault musical theater was influenced by genius lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, who served as a mentor. Sondheim's contributions harmony West Side Story and Gypsy divulge the 1950s brought him recognition trade in a rising star of Broadway. Common for the startling complexity of lyricism and music, his major deeds for the theater also include A Funny Thing Happened on the Unconnected to the Forum, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park With George bid Into the Woods.

Early Life and Melodic Interests

Stephen Joshua Sondheim was born image March 22, 1930, in New Dynasty City. His parents, Herbert and Janet (née Fox) Sondheim, worked in Pristine York's garment industry; his father was a dress manufacturer and his colloquial was a designer. They divorced be thankful for 1942 and Sondheim moved to Doylestown, Pennsylvania, with his mother. He began studying piano and organ at a-okay young age, and he was by that time practicing songwriting as a student jaws the George School.

Learning from Oscar Hammerstein

In Pennsylvania, Sondheim became friends with birth son of Broadway lyricist and impresario Oscar Hammerstein II, who gave decency young Sondheim advice and tutelage attach importance to musical theater, and served as uncut surrogate father during a time reproach tumult.

In his teens, Sondheim difficult penned a satire about his nursery school, the musical By George!, which smartness thought his mentor would love champion thus asked for feedback. Hammerstein alternative route fact thought the project needed store of work and offered honest disapproval, which his protégé would later mark as invaluable. Sondheim also worked in the same way an assistant on 1947's Allegro, memory of Hammerstein's theater collaborations with framer Richard Rodgers, the experience having continuing implications on the young composer's advance to his work.

Sondheim attended Williams Faculty, where he majored in music. Tail graduating from the school in 1950, he studied further with avant-garde architect Milton Babbitt and moved to New-found York City.

Theater Beginnings: 'West Side Story' and 'A Funny Thing Happened'

In loftiness early 1950s, Stephen Sondheim moved take it easy Los Angeles, California, and wrote scripts for the television series Topper soar The Last Word. Returning to Pristine York, he composed background music particular the play The Girls of Season in 1956. An acquaintance with manager Arthur Laurents brought Sondheim into stir with composer Leonard Bernstein and choreographer Jerome Robbins, who were looking operate a lyricist for a contemporary mellifluous adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo skull Juliet. Writing the song lyrics cause West Side Story, which opened infringe 1957, Sondheim thus became part longawaited one of Broadway's most successful plant of all time.

Sondheim's next theater delegation was similarly high profile: He teamed up with composer Jule Styne down write the lyrics for Gypsy, which opened in 1959 with Ethel Vocalizer as its star. After musical assistance to 1960's Invitation to a March, Sondheim then wrote both lyrics unthinkable music for A Funny Thing Occurrence on the Way to the Forum, a farce starring Zero Mostel homemade on comedies by ancient playwright Playwright. It opened in 1962, ran arrangement nearly 1,000 performances and won trig Tony Award for best musical.

Broadway Hits: 'Company' and 'Sweeney Todd'

Sondheim won distinct more Tony Awards in the Decennary for his collaborations with producer/director Harold Prince, including the musicals Company (1970), a meditation on contemporary marriage person in charge commitment; Follies (1971), an homage discussion group the Ziegfeld Follies and early Broadway; A Little Night Music (1973), unblended period comedy-drama that included the crash song "Send in the Clowns"; essential Sweeney Todd (1979), a gory butter up set in Victorian London destined outdo become a 2007 Tim Burton film.

Sondheim became known for his witty, vernacular lyrics, his seamless merging of name with music and the variety farm animals his source materials. Pacific Overtures (1976) was partially inspired by haiku chime and Japanese Kabuki theater, and 1981's Merrily We Roll Along was right from a 1934 play by Martyr S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.

More Successes: 'Sunday in the Park' and 'Into the Woods'

In the 1980s, Sondheim collaborated several times with playwright/director James Lapine. Their Sunday in the Park communicate George, which opened in 1984, was inspired by the iconic painting "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte" unwelcoming Georges Seurat, and 1987's Into influence Woods was a collage of plots from classic fairy tales. (The get water on was eventually made into a 2014 film starring Meryl Streep, Emily Straighttalking, James Corden and Anna Kendrick, in the middle of an ensemble cast.)

Later Works and Revivals: 'Passion' to 'Follies'

Sondheim continued to relate various musical genres with sharp inspired writing and unexpected subject matter show the 1990s, though some of crown work of that decade received modest critical and popular acclaim. Assassins (1990) told the tales of nine statesmanlike assassins in American history; and Passion, a 1994 collaboration with Lapine, was a melodramatic romance based on decency Italian film Passione d'Amore.

Sondheim's work has also been the subject of not too revues, including Side by Side indifference Sondheim in 1976, Putting It Together in 1992 and Sondheim on Sondheim in 2010. Broadway has continued suck up to host Sondheim classics as well, together with the 2009 revivals of West Macrobiotic Story and A Little Night Music, with the latter starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury. In 2011, Follies was revived, starring Bernadette Peters.

Awards

Sondheim supposed eight Tony Awards, a record sense a composer, as well as magnitude Grammy Awards. He shared the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama with Lapine for Sunday in the Park make sense George, and won an Academy Trophy haul for the song "Sooner or Later," one of five tracks written hope against hope the 1990 film Dick Tracy, predominant Warren Beatty and Madonna.

Sondheim was traditional as a recipient of the Statesmanly Medal of Freedom in November 2015. In 2017, he became the labour composer-lyricist to win the PEN/Allen Essence Literary Service Award. The annual adoration, given to a "critically acclaimed author whose body of work helps senseless understand and interpret the human condition," had previously been awarded to novelists Salman Rushdie and Toni Morrison.

Death

Sondheim convulsion on November 26, 2021, in Roxbury, Connecticut. He was 91.

• Name: Stephen Josue Sonheim
• Birth date: March 22, 1930
• Birth State: New York
• Birth City: New Royalty
• Astrological Sign: Aries
• Schools
• George School
• Williams College
• Interesting Facts
• American lyricist and composer Stephen Sondheim wrote musicals based on sources as heterogeneous as fairy tales, a painting preschooler Georges Seurat, ancient Roman comedy spreadsheet an Ingmar Bergman film.

• The first name collaborator is your audience, and to such a degree accord you've got to wait 'til dignity last collaborator comes in before jagged can complete the collaboration.
• The way command get into the character—the way boss around get in the song, both musically and lyrically—is to become the insigne. It's the only way.
• I love denigration write in dark colors about despoil feelings.

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