Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheimis an American composer and lyricist known for more than a half-century of contributions to musical theatre. Sondheim has received an Academy Award, eight Tony Awards, eight Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, the Laurence Olivier Award, and a 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom. He has been described by Frank Rich of The New York Times as "now the greatest and perhaps best-known artist in the American musical theater." His best-known works as composer and lyricist include A Funny...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionComposer
Date of Birth22 March 1930
CountryUnited States of America
It should be interesting to see two entirely different ways to treat a story, geared for two entirely different kinds of audience.
Almost all the shows I've been connected with have been extremely well cast. They're playing the show, not just doing the songs.
When you trance out properly, when you're completely in that world, there is no other world, so there's no conflict.
The Tonys ignored West Side Story. The Tonys ignored Gypsy. It's a kind of public humiliation.
The difference between a cow and a bean is a bean can begin an adventure.
Oscar Hammerstein was a surrogate father during all those many days, and weeks and months when I didn't see my own father.
Music is structure out of Chaos
Lyrics have to be underwritten. That's why poets generally make poor lyric writers because the language is too rich. You get drowned in it.
If people have split views about your work, I think it's flattering. I'd rather have them feel something about it than dismiss it.
I firmly believe lyrics have to breathe and give the audience's ear a chance to understand what's going on. Particularly in the theater, where you have costume, story, acting, orchestra.
By the time I was 22, I was a professional. A young and flawed professional, but not an amateur.
Musicals are, by nature, theatrical, meaning poetic, meaning having to move the audience's imagination and create a suspension of disbelief, by which I mean there's no fourth wall.
I've always preferred actors who sing to singers who act in all the shows I've done.
Gotta watch out for directors.