Stephen Sondheim, the renowned author of "Into the Woods," "Sweeney Todd," "Gypsy," "Sunday in the Park with George" and also other vital works of musical theater, died early Friday morning, according to Aaron Meier at DKC O&M, the producers of Sondheim's current production "Company." He was 91.
Sondheim dropped dead, the New york city Times reported, mentioning his legal representative and pal F. Richard Pappas. Sondheim had actually just celebrated Thanksgiving with a dinner as well as friends the day before, Pappas told the Times.
As lyricist, songwriter, conceptual musician and innovative pressure, Sondheim was probably without the same level in the modern-day American cinema. His works incorporated amazing variety: the updated "Romeo and also Juliet" love of "West Side Story" (for which he created the verses), the travails of a modern group of good friends as well as fans in "Company," even the problems of governmental killers (as well as attempted killers) in "Assassins.".
Throughout his occupation, he won an Oscar, a Pulitzer, 8 Grammy Awards, eight Tony Honors, a Kennedy Center honor and also the Governmental Medal of Liberty. The Stephen Sondheim Movie theater in Manhattan's Cinema Area is called for him.
His song lyrics, specifically, were the gold standard of the theater art, whether bold (" Rose's Turn"), depressing (" Send in the Clowns"), threatening (" Children Will Listen") or simply brilliant (" Ah, however Underneath").
Funny Stephen Sondheim Smoking T-Shirt
They were occasionally difficult-- full of creative rhymes and also difficult meters, perhaps natural for a guy that as soon as described himself as "a mathematician by nature." Yet they rarely stopped working to get to the heart of a character.
" What's funny regarding Steve's songs is you believe, 'Oh, this has to do with something,' and afterwards you begin servicing it, and also you go, 'No, it's about SOMETHING,'" actress Bernadette Peters, among Sondheim's leading interpreters, told ABC Information in 2010. "It goes also much deeper than you visualized.".
Sondheim was specifically proficient at expressing charming hoping as well as loss. Songs such as "Send in the Clowns" (from "A Little Night Music"), "Losing My Mind" (from "Follies") and also "Somewhere" (from "West Side Story") are heartbreaking in their feeling.
" For many movie theater enthusiasts, there are musicals, then there are Sondheim musicals," wrote Garry Nunn in the Guardian. "The last is a classification of its very own because with Sondheim, each and every single word, every rhyme has actually been struggled over to the point that it's mellifluous as well as express (if a little garrulous).".
Undoubtedly, though his job was occasionally criticized as glib, Sondheim said the pleasure of the theater was touching target markets.
" I'm interested in the theater due to the fact that I have an interest in interaction with audiences," he told NPR's "Fresh Air" in 2010. "Or else, I would remain in concert music. I 'd remain in an additional type of profession. I like the theater as high as music, and also rationale of getting across to a target market and making them laugh, making them cry-- simply making them really feel-- is paramount to me.".
Starts.
Rip Stephen Sondheim T-Shirt
Stephen Joshua Sondheim was born March 22, 1930, in New york city, the child of a rich outfit manufacturer as well as his better half, a designer. His parents divorced when Sondheim was an adolescent, and he moved to Bucks Region, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia.
Thanks to the tutelage of a pal's papa-- lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II of the well known theatrical group Rodgers as well as Hammerstein-- Sondheim, already a musical natural born player, got a master course in play writing.
" He instructed me just how to structure a song, what a character was, what a scene was; he showed me how to tell a story, just how not to narrate, how to make phase directions functional," Sondheim told the Paris Testimonial in 1997. "I saturated it all up, and also I still exercise the principles he instructed me that mid-day.".
Sondheim went to Williams College in Massachusetts, where he won a fellowship for his music that enabled him to continue study. After a short job in Los Angeles-- where he created scripts for the TV program "Mattress topper," thanks to a lead from Hammerstein-- he returned to New york city and also started a career in the theater.
His initial success, at age 27, was as lyricist to "West Side Story," with music by Leonard Bernstein. The musical's famous songs consist of "America," "Tonight," "I Feel Pretty" and "Somewhere." Though Sondheim later called the lyrics "awkward," the show was an enormous hit, competing virtually 1,000 performances.
Next came 1959's "Gypsy," the story of Gypsy Rose Lee as well as her mother, Rose, for which Sondheim worked with composer Jule Styne, and also 1962's "A Funny Point Occurred en route to the Forum," for which Sondheim composed both music and also lyrics.
A long drought followed, ultimately broken in 1970 with "Company," which ran for greater than a year and took home a Tony for ideal musical. It additionally noted the start of Sondheim's 11-year cooperation with producer-director Hal Prince, which included such hits as "Follies" (1971 ), "A Little Night Music" (1973) and "Sweeney Todd" (1979 ).
" A Little Night Music" created what is maybe Sondheim's best-known song, "Send in the Clowns.".
A bold body of work.
As Sondheim matured, no idea seemed too improbable for his pen and also intellect.
Panther Like A Panther – Run The Jewels T-Shirt
" Company" and also "Follies" were noteworthy for their almost plotless presentations; "Pacific Overtures" (1976 ), about the 19th-century American access right into Japan, was done kabuki-style. "Sweeney Todd" was a romp concerning a homicidal barber who has his sufferers made right into meat pies.
In the '80s as well as '90s, he created a music about French pointillist painter Georges Seurat, "Sunday in the Park with George" (1984 ), which won the Pulitzer Reward for Dramatization. "Into the Woods" (1987 ), most likely his most-performed work, was a recasting of Grimm's fairy tales. "Assassins" (1990) was an unlikely story about governmental assassins previous as well as existing.
His last new work was 2008's "Roadway Show," regarding a pair of social-climbing siblings. It never ever made it to Broadway.
Though his early works, such as "West Side Story" as well as "Gypsy," were made into motion pictures, his post-1970 job generally withstood the shift.
PBS and also Outset filmed "Sunday in the Park" for television, a version later launched with Sondheim's commentary. "Sweeney Todd" was made into a 2007 Tim Burton film starring Johnny Depp, as well as "Into the Woods," with a cast including Meryl Streep and future late-night host James Corden, was shot in 2014.
A brand-new adaptation of "West Side Story" schedules out following month from director Steven Spielberg.
Sondheim earned his Oscar for a song he composed for 1990's "Dick Tracy," "Sooner or Later." A New Yorker to his core, he really did not participate in the ceremony.
The theater, nevertheless, was another issue. A 2010 testimonial for his 80th birthday, "Sondheim on Sondheim," earned rapturous reviews and also a reconsideration of his lengthy occupation. The composer, a reserved male when not waxing rhapsodically regarding his Clement Timber rhyming dictionary or commending his partners, was generally modest regarding the response.
An online performance commemorating Sondheim's 90th birthday celebration as well as body of work was arranged last year amid the global pandemic. The performance, which raised money for Artists Aiming to End Destitution, featured appearances and performances from Broadway heavyweights like Lin-Manuel Miranda, Audra McDonald and also Patti LuPone.
" It's been a little way too much in the public spotlight," he told "Fresh Air's" Terry Gross. "But the cascade of enthusiasm as well as affection has actually deserved it. It's great to know that individuals like your things.".
Comments
Post a Comment