Musical composer Stephen Sondheim has ed away at the age of 91. The Broadway songwriter is considered one of the most distinguished and provocative trailblazers for musical theater, known for reinventing the genre in the latter half of the 20th century with famous musicals such as A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Sunday in the Park with George. He has won an astounding number of accolades, including seven Tony Awards, an Academy Award, a Pulitzer Prize, and was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Sondheim began his career being mentored by another iconic musical lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, part of the Rodgers and Hammerstein duo, with Sondheim's early musicals A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and West Side Story achieving major success. Sondheim's musical score was considered against standard formula with an experimental atonal style, hence his early contributions not being well received. Sondheim later went on to develop a collaboration with theater directors Harold Prince and James Lapine, writing the music and lyrics to shows like Company, Merrily We Roll Along, and Into the Woods.
The New York Times has now announced that Sondheim ed away Friday, November 26 in his Connecticut home, with his spokesperson confirming the news. He was 91 years old at the time of his death. Tributes to the composer have immediately poured out, with many of the Broadway community mourning his loss and expressing their iration and respect.
While Sondheim has a legacy for his unique dissonance in his music, he had blended his style to further the storytelling of musical theater, with complex themes about the dark side of humanity, back when musical subjects were known for ease and uplifting endings. As a result, his concepts allowed audiences to think and explore, while his harmonious and memorable songs captured the essence of life and did not stumble into a trap of procedure and formula. His shows have led to numerous revivals and adaptations into films, and he continued to work on new material, announcing on an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last September that he was working on a new musical called Square One.
Sondheim had a towering and extraordinary career, always pushing the creative boundary and never pandering to simplicity. The legendary titan created a new vision of what is possible in musical storytelling, and there will never be one that has not been made better by the presence of his work. With a revival of Company soon to open on Broadway on December 9, and a West Side Story, directed by Steven Spielberg, set to premiere the day after, Stephen Sondheim will continue to influence multiple generations and will always be ed as one of the driving forces and inspirational figures of Broadway.
Source: The New York Times
