"A butler took a duster and brushed it up, tinkling the keys. "The curtain went up and revealed a piano," Sondheim recalled. He traces his interest in theatre to Very Warm for May, a Broadway musical he saw when he was nine. Sondheim spent several summers at Camp Androscoggin. When he lived in New York, Sondheim attended ECFS, the Ethical Culture Fieldston School known simply as "Fieldston.” He later attended the New York Military Academy and George School, a private Quaker preparatory school in Bucks County, Pennsylvania where he wrote his first musical, By George, and from which he graduated in 1946. As the only child of well-to-do parents living in the San Remo on Central Park West, he was described in Meryle Secrest's biography ( Stephen Sondheim: A Life) as an isolated, emotionally-neglected child. The composer grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and, after his parents divorced, on a farm near Doylestown, Pennsylvania. His father manufactured dresses designed by his mother. Sondheim was born into a Jewish family in New York City, the son of Etta Janet ("Foxy," née Fox 1897–1992) and Herbert Sondheim (1895–1966). Cameron Mackintosh has called Sondheim "possibly the greatest lyricist ever." To celebrate his 80th birthday, the former Henry Miller's Theatre was renamed the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on September 15, 2010, and the BBC Proms held a concert in his honor. Sondheim was president of the Dramatists Guild from 1973 to 1981. ![]() He wrote five songs for 1990's Dick Tracy, including "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)" by Madonna, which won the Academy Award for Best Song. Sondheim has written film music, contributing "Goodbye for Now" for Warren Beatty's 1981 Reds. He also wrote the lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy. 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 Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Assassins, and Passion. Sondheim has received an Academy Award, eight Tony Awards (more than any other composer, including a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre), eight Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, a Laurence Olivier Award, and a 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom. h aɪ m/ born March 22, 1930) is an American composer and lyricist known for more than a half-century of contributions to musical theater. Īssociate Music Director: Mark Dorrell and Production Music Direct: Paddy Cunneen.įor the BBC: Recording Engineer: Mike Robinson, Sound Balancer: Tim Durham and Producer: John Langridge.įirst broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in 1994.Stephen Joshua Sondheim ( / ˈ s ɒ n d. Musicians: Colin Wray, Dean Foley, Emma Fowler, Rachel Edmunds, Julia Leighton-Jones, Judith Herbert, David Berry and Philip Hopkins. The ensemble players: Di Botcher, Megan Kelly, Mandy Moore, Martin Nelson, Peter Prentice, Ernestina Quarcoo and Rhashan Stone. Starring Denis Quilley as Sweeney Todd, Julia McKenzie as Mrs Lovett, Adrian Lester as Anthony Hope, Sheila Reid as Beggar Woman/Lucy, Carol Starks as Johanna, Philip Curtis as the Bird Seller, Christopher Benjamin as Judge Turpin, Barry James as Beadle Bamford, Adriana Lewis Morgan as Tobias Ragg, Nick Holder as Adolfo Pirelli and Stephen Hanley as Fogg. ![]() Music and lyrics written by Stephen Sondheim based on Hugh Wheeler's book, adapted by Christopher Bond. However, Sweeney doesn't limit himself to one victim, he takes revenge against the whole world for his and his daughter's suffering by slitting the throats of his customers, whose corpses are then made into meat pies by his enterprising accomplice, Mrs Lovett. Introduced by Sheridan Morley.Ī half-mad barber returns home after escaping from an unjust imprisonment, to take vengeance on the judge who sentenced him, ravished his wife and now plans to marry his daughter. Denis Quilley and Julia McKenzie star in an exclusive BBC recording of the Royal National Theatre's hit 1993 revival of Stephen Sondheim 's musical thriller.
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