Sondheim << SAHND hym >>, Stephen (1930-2021), was one of the most creative and praised composers and lyricists in the American musical theater. Sondheim’s sophisticated scores feature brilliant, often witty lyrics and complex, unsentimental music. Most of Sondheim’s musicals were heavily influenced by his collaboration with such American writers as James Lapine, John Weidman, and Hugh Wheeler. Sondheim won many awards, including the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for drama for Sunday in the Park with George (1984). He also won the 1990 Academy Award for his song “Sooner or Later” from the motion picture Dick Tracy (1990).
Stephen Joshua Sondheim was born on March 22, 1930, in New York City. He gained early recognition as a lyricist with West Side Story (1957), with music by the American composer Leonard Bernstein. Sondheim next wrote the lyrics for Gypsy (1959), with music by the American composer Jule Styne. Sondheim wrote his first complete score to be performed on Broadway, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, in 1962. He pieced this broad comedy together from various ancient Roman comedies. Sondheim’s other significant musicals include Anyone Can Whistle (1964), Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), Pacific Overtures (1976), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), Into the Woods (1987), and Assassins (1991).
Finishing the Hat (2010) is a collection of lyrics from Sondheim’s musicals from 1954 to 1981, accompanied by the composer’s observations about his life and career. A companion volume, Look, I Made a Hat (2011), covers Sondheim’s musicals from 1981 to 2011. Sondheim died on Nov. 26, 2021.
