Described by theatre critic Ben Brantley as "maybe the greatest of all American musicals", the role of Mama Rose is an absolute gem in the musical theatre canon and has been played by some of its biggest and best stars, including Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters, Betty Buckley, Patti LuPone, and Imelda Staunton. The song "Rose's Turn", which ends the show, is an absolute tour-de-force as Rose reckons with what she's done to her family in the pursuit of fame.
Sondheim's first musical writing both music and lyrics was A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, inspired by farces by ancient Roman playwright Plautus. In it, the slave Pseudolus attempts to win his freedom by helping his young master, Hero, woo the girl next door. Full of puns and all the trappings of a traditional farce- such as slamming of doors, mistaken identity, cross-dressing, long-lost relatives- the best-known songs from it are "Comedy Tonight" and the wonderfully playful "Everybody Ought To Have A Maid". A film version, directed by Richard Lester and starring Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, Jack Gilford, Michael Crawford, and Leon Greene, was released in 1966.
Sondheim's next two shows Anyone Can Whistle (1964) and Do I Hear A Waltz? (1965) were not successful and have seldom been revived. However, Sondheim's next four major shows- all directed by Harold 'Hal' Prince- would prove to be some of the most enduring and best-loved American musicals.
1970's
Company- a series of interconnected vignettes about a single man and his married friends- has a superb and varied selection of songs. From the hysterical patter song of a frazzled bride-to-be ("Getting Married Today") to a potent judgment on a certain type of woman ("The Ladies Who Lunch"), through the charming chastisement of "You Could Drive A Person Crazy" to the powerhouse final song "Being Alive", it's as eclectic as the characters it presents. In a 2018 West End revival, the lead character was changed to be female- Bobbie instead of Bobby- which lends an interesting twist to the piece. Sondheim won the first of his eight Grammy Awards when
Company won the Best Musical Theater Album award in 1971. He also won two Tony Awards for Best Lyrics and Best Original Score; he would go on to win another six Tonys across the course of his career.
His next show- Follies (1971)- is set at a reunion for the performers of a musical revue in a theatre about to be knocked down. The relationship between two couples and their friendships with the other performers form the backbone of a piece practically stuffed with hit songs. Even if you're not a particular fan of musical theatre, the songs "Broadway Baby", "I'm Still Here", and "Losing My Mind" will probably ring bells. But beneath the glitz, there's a dark beating heart of loss and unrequited love, of sacrifices made and the path not taken. It's a show that's been frequently revived in both concert and full-stage versions since its inception, and a highly-regarded 2017 National Theatre revival was broadcast to cinemas as part of the National Theatre Live programme.
1973's A Little Night Music takes Ingmar Bergman's 1955 film Smiles Of A Summer Night as inspiration. Familiar stories of love, loss, and desire play out during a weekend in the country. This show contains Sondheim's biggest hit song, the mournful ballad "Send In The Clowns". Sung by actress Desiree after she is rejected by her old lover, it is a heartbreaking meditation on the ironies of life. Recorded by artists like Judy Collins, Frank Sinatra, and Barbra Streisand, it's become a song in its own right, winning a Grammy Award in 1976 for Song Of The Year. Hal Prince directed a film adaptation of the play in 1977, with Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Rigg, Len Cariou, and Hermione Gingold in the cast.
Also in 1973, Sondheim co-wrote a film with his longtime friend Anthony Perkins (
Psycho). Entitled
The Last Of Sheila, it's an intricate whodunit set on a Mediterranean cruise where seven friends must play a parlour game which has deadly consequences... Directed by Herbert Ross, the film stars James Coburn, James Mason, Ian McShane, Dyan Cannon, and Raquel Welch. Perkins and Sondheim won an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture from the Mystery Writers Of America in 1974.
A musical adaptation of Aristophanes' The Frogs followed in 1974, followed by Pacific Overtures- an ambitious piece about the Westernisation of Japan- in 1976.
In 1976, a revue of Sondheim's work, called Side By Side By Sondheim, was curated by David Kernan as a fundraising benefit. Cameron Mackintosh went on to produce a full run, which sees some of Sondheim's better-known works alongside songs cut from other shows, or songs written for television and film. The show is revived occasionally, sometimes with a variation in the songs included.
His next major work was the 1979 grand guignol melodrama Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, based on a 1973 play by Christopher Bond (in turn based on a story which first appeared in the Victoria penny dreadfuls). The murderous barber and his pie-making accomplice Mrs Lovett are a fascinating pair of characters- she grim and vengeful, she lighter but no less dangerous- and have been played by Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury, Denis Quilley and Sheila Hancock, Michael Cerveris and Patti Lupone, and Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton amongst others. The end of the first act- where Sweeney and Mrs Lovett concoct the plan to put his victims into her pies- culminates in the frankly hilarious "A Little Priest" which does something nearly impossible: making murder and cannibalism seem like fun! It's a shame that the 2007 film version- directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter- couldn't capture some of that enthusiasm.
Sondheim started the 1980s with a rare flop: his version of the George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart play Merrily We Roll Along- telling the story of three friends and their twenty-year friendship- lasted only 16 performances (although it has been subsequently reworked and revived to greater acclaim). A second revue-type show used cut songs from Follies, A Little Night Music, and Company to create a piece about the relationship between two singletons, called Marry Me A Little. He also composed the score for the 1981 drama Reds.
Greatly affected by the failure of Merrily We Roll Along, Sondheim was ready to quit theatre but found a new collaborator in playwright and librettist James Lapine. Their first collaboration was Sunday In The Park With George (1984). Taking its inspiration from Georges Seurat's pointillist masterpiece A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, the plot shows a fictionalised Seurat immersing himself in his work with the second act showing his great-grandson, who is a frustrated contemporary artist. Several of the main cast play double roles (across the two timeframes). Leonard Bernstein called it "brilliant, deeply conceived, canny, magisterial", and it has enjoyed several major revivals in both London and New York. Sondheim and Lapine won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the show.
Sondheim and Lapine's second collaboration was
Into The Woods, a mad mash-up of several fairytales from the Brothers Grimm, where Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Jack (from Jack And The Beanstalk) find their stories combine together with that of a childless Baker and his Wife who have been cursed by a Witch. It's playful and broad, although its message is clear: actions have consequences, be careful what you wish for, and happily ever after might not be all its cracked up to be.
Rob Marshall's 2014 film adaptation is a bit of a mixed bag but there are several strong performances in it, especially Meryl Streep as the Witch and Anna Kendrick as Cinderella.
In 1990, Sondheim was hired by Warren Beatty to provide five original songs for the big-screen adaptation of Dick Tracy. One of them- "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)", sung by Madonna as the femme fatale Breathless Mahoney- won Sondheim the Oscar for Best Original Song. The song also received Golden Globe and Grammy Award nominations, and his other songs "More" and "What Can You Lose?" received a further Grammy Award and Golden Globe nomination respectively.
Sondheim's next stage show raised a few eyebrows. As the title suggests, Assassins (1990) portrays a group of real-life people who attempted (successfully or not) to kill the President of the USA. Using the device of a shooting gallery carnival game, the revue-style introduces each of the characters- including John Hinckley, Charles Guiteau, and John Wilkes Booth- in turn and turns an eye onto the wider ideals of the American dream, and what each of the nine (would-be) assassins hoped to achieve with their actions. Expecting some backlash against the project, Sondheim nevertheless persisted, saying "we're not going to apologize for dealing with such a volatile subject".
In 1993, Sondheim agreed to a new revue of his work (as many requests had been made for an updated version of Side By Side By Sondheim). The result was Putting It Together, in which an older couple (facing marital troubles) hosts a party for a younger couple (struggling with their feelings for one another). An observer/commentator acts as a kind of emcee to wrangle the slightly nebulous plot together. A recording of the 1999 Broadway production- starring Carol Burnett, George Hearn, Ruthie Henshall, John Barrowman, and Bronson Pinchot is available, and well worth seeking out.
Sondheim's third collaboration with Lapine was the one-act musical Passion, based on Ettore Scola's 1981 film Passione d'Amore which premiered in 1994. His final project was 2008's Road Show, a long-gestating project about the life and adventures of brothers Addison and Wilson Mizner which initially began life as a show called Bounce in 2003.
In 2003, Sondheim made a cameo appearance as himself in the musical comedy-drama Camp (which includes "Losing My Mind", "I'm Still Here", and "The Ladies Who Lunch") and- just like any important figure in the American cultural landscape in the last 30+ years- appeared in The Simpsons (in a 2007 episode called "Yokel Cords")
Sondheim's 80th birthday in 2010 led to several major concerts and benefits around the world, including a BBC Proms concert at the Royal Albert Hall and concerts at the New York City Center and the Lincoln Center. In 2010, to celebrate his 80th birthday, Henry Miller's Theatre on Broadway was renamed the Stephen Sondheim Theatre; the Queen's Theatre in the West End was renamed the Sondheim Theatre in 2019. In 2015, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama.
