Stephen Sondheim reinvented the musical, then taught others

Person: Stephen Sondheim
Lived: 1930–2021
Field: Musical Theater
From: American

The story

Stephen Sondheim was born in New York on 22 March 1930 to a Jewish family. His father manufactured dresses designed by his mother, and he grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, starting piano lessons at seven. When he was about ten, and his parents were divorcing, he moved to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and became close friends with James Hammerstein, son of the lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. The elder Hammerstein became a surrogate father to him and deepened his love of musical theatre.

At 15, while at George School in Pennsylvania, Sondheim wrote his first musical, By George, and showed it to Hammerstein. Hammerstein told him it was terrible and spent the rest of the day explaining why; Sondheim said he learned more about songwriting that afternoon than most people learn in a lifetime. Hammerstein then set him a course of four practice musicals: one based on a play he admired, one on a play he thought flawed, one on a story never dramatised, and one original. The lesson Sondheim took was that art is work, not inspiration.

He went on to study music at Williams College and composition with Milton Babbitt. Hammerstein advised him to accept the jobs of lyricist for West Side Story and Gypsy, and Sondheim then wrote music and lyrics for shows including Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods and Sunday in the Park with George, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Credited with reinventing the American musical, he won eight Tony Awards, an Academy Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Hammerstein died in 1960, having inscribed a portrait for him: "For Stevie, My Friend and Teacher".

Sondheim passed on what he had been given, saying he loved passing on what Oscar had passed on to him. In 1981 he founded Young Playwrights Inc. to introduce young people to writing for the theatre, and served as its executive vice-president. He mentored composers including Adam Guettel and Jonathan Larson, and taught master classes at Oxford in 1990.

He died in 2021 at the age of 91. Theatres on Broadway and in London's West End now bear his name.

Why it matters

Sondheim expanded what musical theatre could say, and through his teaching and Young Playwrights he helped young people find their own voices as writers.