Stephen Sondheim has died at 91. The songwriter had a hand in enduring musicals, including ‘West Side Story’ and ‘Sweeney Todd.’ https://t.co/tTWBJI72AN
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 26, 2021
Stephen Sondheim, whose intricate and powerful lyrics, venturesome melodies and sweeping stage visions made him a central figure in contemporary American musical theater, died Nov. 26 at his home in Roxbury, Conn. He was 91.
Rick Miramontez, a publicist for the current Broadway production of Mr. Sondheim’s musical “Company,” confirmed his death but did not cite a cause.
In a career spanning more than five decades, Mr. Sondheim was associated with many of the most celebrated and enduring musicals of his time.
He won his initial fame as the lyricist for “West Side Story” (1957), with music by Leonard Bernstein, and followed up by writing the lyrics for Jule Styne’s “Gypsy” (1959). His primary achievement lies in the works for which he created both music and lyrics, including “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (1962), “Company” (1970), “Follies” (1971), “A Little Night Music” (1973), “Sweeney Todd” (1979), “Sunday in the Park With George” (1984), “Into the Woods” (1987) and “Passion” (1994).
Unlike most of the earlier Broadway songwriters, including George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II (the last of whom was his first great mentor), Mr. Sondheim was less interested in creating stand-alone popular “hits” than in fashioning unified works that maintained a firm, near-operatic structural integrity throughout…
He won the Kennedy Center Honors for Lifetime Achievement in 1993 and was the subject of a “Sondheim Celebration” there in 2002, where six of his works were presented in repertory staging, to exhilarated reviews and sold-out houses; the Signature Theater in Arlington, Va., meanwhile, became a major staging ground for many of his works. He and James Lapine shared the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1985 for “Sunday in the Park With George.”
In addition to a 2008 Tony Award for lifetime achievement, Mr. Sondheim received eight Tonys for his music and several others for his lyrics. In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor…