Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim is a master of biting wit, brilliant music, and the best of Broadway. Born in 1930, New York, Sondheim's divorced mother moved the family to Doylestown, PA, where they lived near a residence of the Hammerstein family. Sondheim become friendly with James, a son and future director, and the father, Oscar, who would become his Broadway musical mentor. Sondheim majored in music at Williams College and continued his composition studies with Milton Babbitt. His lyrics to Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story (1957) put Sondheim on the map of Broadway's new talents. He also wrote lyrics to the Broadway hits Gypsy (1959), Do I Hear a Waltz (1965), and Candide (1973). However, Sondheim's best storytelling is in the landmark shows of his music and lyrics, including A Funny Thing Happened on The Way to the Forum (1962), Anyone Can Whistle (1964), Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973) with the often recorded song "Send in the Clowns," Pacific Overtures (1976), Sweeney Todd (1979), later adapted for a Tim Burton film, Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), which won a Pulitzer Prize, Into the Woods (1987), Assassins (1990), and Passion (1994). Sondheim has also written music for revues, and for Warren Beatty's Reds (1981) and Dick Tracy (1990), which won Sondheim an Academy Award for best song, "Sooner or Later," to go along with his seven - and counting - Tony Awards.
