There are Broadway legends, and then there is The Broadway Legend. Today in 1930, Stephen Sondheim was born, and with him, much of the Broadway we know today.
Of course, any Broadway fan will know that today is actually the birthday of two major Broadway legends. Andrew Lloyd Webber—the composer behind Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, and Sunset Boulevard—was also born today in 1948. We're focusing on Sondheim today, but you can celebrate them both with this fun 1998 tribute to producer Cameron Mackintosh they did, mashing-up Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns" with Lloyd Webber's "Music of the Night."
That Sondheim would become a genius of the American musical theatre seemed almost pre-ordained. He lived much of his youth in Bucks County, Pennsylvania; the father of one of his local friends turned out to be Broadway royalty Oscar Hammerstein II. The Oklahoma! and South Pacific book writer and lyricist would become a surrogate father to Sondheim after his parents divorced. And when the young Sondheim developed an interest in writing musicals, Hammerstein would become an important mentor, too. He helped craft Sondheim's early work, and even gave him valuable counsel as the young composer/lyricist was beginning his career.
Sondheim was supposed to begin his career with a musical titled Saturday Night, but that fell apart when its producer unexpectedly died. The next Broadway opportunity came via Sondheim's friend Arthur Laurents, who was writing the book to a new modernized version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet with composer Leonard Bernstein and a concept, direction, and choreography by Jerome Robbins. Sondheim was asked to write lyrics to Bernstein's score, but he had his heart set on being a composer-lyricist. Hammerstein urged him to take the gig, advising him that working with artists of that caliber would be far more valuable than waiting for a chance to write both music and lyrics. The resulting musical would, of course, turn out to be 1957's West Side Story, a musical that has gone on to become one of the most beloved in Broadway history and a landmark moment on the musical stage.
He then planned for his composer-lyricist debut to come with Gypsy, a musical based on the memoir of burlesque icon Gypsy Rose Lee. But Gypsy was always devised to star Ethel Merman as Lee's mother Rose, and Merman had suffered a bad experience starring in a musical with unknown songwriters. She nixed Sondheim as the sole songwriter, and had Gentlemen Prefer Blondes composer Jule Styne brought in. Again, Hammerstein encouraged Sondheim to continue with the project, this time so he'd have the experience of writing for a specific star performer. That musical, too, has become an oft-revived classic of the stage, including a current revival at the Majestic Theatre starring six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald.
Writing Gypsy's act one closer, Sondheim racked his brain for a phrase that sounded like a theatrical saying, but also something that could take on a double meaning later in the show. He came up with "Everything's Coming Up Roses," and was so successful that the phrase has entered the cultural lexicon, with many not aware that it was first uttered in Gypsy.
Though West Side Story and Gypsy are bonafide perennial classics, Sondheim would make his largest impacts on the art form when he got his wish and started writing musicals as a single composer-lyricist. His first such outing would be 1962's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, a riotous farce set in ancient Greece—"Comedy Tonight" is its most famous tune. His sophomore effort Anyone Can Whistle was less successful, running for just 12 previews and nine performances, but Sondheim's score (including "Everybody Says Don't," "With So Little to Be Sure Of," and the title song) was well received and has amassed a cult fanbase over the years.
Then Sondheim began a long-standing collaboration with director and producer Hal Prince. The two had been friends and contemporaries for years—Prince even produced West Side Story and Forum. Their first work collaborating as songwriter and director would be 1970's Company, arguably the first-ever concept musical to become a big Broadway success. With a book by George Furth, the plotless musical follows the serially single Bobby as he visits his various married friends, most of whom are eager to get him hitched. Through a series of scenes connected only by themes and not a linear plot, Bobby explores the foibles of marriage, ultimately discovering that he does want that kind of connection after all. Sondheim's score was as fresh and new as the musical itself, introducing such songs as "The Ladies Who Lunch," "Barcelona," "Another Hundred People," and "Being Alive." The show won Sondheim his first two Tony Awards, for the show's music and lyrics. The show won Best Musical, too. Sondheim as a composer-lyricist had undeniably arrived.
Sondheim and Prince would go on to create a string of musicals in 1970s that pushed the boundaries of what musical theatre could be. Their shows were not exactly known for having super long runs, but they were often massive artistic (and often Tony-winning) successes—and have become some of the most frequently revived works on Broadway and around the world. After Company was Follies, A Little Night Music (which introduced his most mainstream popular song, "Send in the Clowns"), Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, and, finally, Merrily We Roll Along. The latter would be the least successful of Sondheim and Prince's collaborations, running for just 16 performances. But in a sign of how ahead of their time Sondheim and Prince were, 42 years later, the Broadway revival Merrily became a top grosser on Broadway and won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.
Unfortunately, Merrily largely ended Sondheim's professional relationship with Prince. With director-book writer James Lapine, he moved into the even more experimental Sunday in the Park With George, Into the Woods (which has become a popular high school and community theatre favorite), and Passion. Then with John Weidman, he wrote Assassins, a concept musical focused on various presidential assassins and would-be assassins that has become a huge cult favorite.
Sondheim's output slowed after the mid '90s, with only two major shows produced after that. After a tumultuous and long development process, a musical about the Mizner Brothers written with book writer Weidman premiered in 2008 titled Road Show. His final musical would come posthumously in 2023, an adaptation of two Luis Buñuel films titled Here We Are that played Off-Broadway's The Shed and is currently readying to make its London premiere at The National.
When Sondheim died peacefully in his sleep in 2021 at the age of 91, Broadway went into deep mourning. The industry had lost a legend, an artist whose beautiful music and incredible wordplay taught generations of musical theatre fans how to process their own lives. The consolation to the loss will always be the body of work that Sondheim left behind, a body of work that has only grown in its esteem and popularity since each work originally premiered. Once edgy, daring, and unconventional, Sondheim musicals have now become reliable hits, with recent revivals like Merrily We Roll Along, Into the Woods,and Sweeney Todd selling out.
In the spring, Broadway will soon have a starry revue of his work play the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends, produced by Manhattan Theatre Club and Cameron Mackintosh. We may have lost the man coming up on four years ago, but his work is here to stay.
Happy birthday, Steve! May your memory forever be a blessing.
