Stephen Sondheim Biography

Stephen Sondheim was born on 22 March 1990, to Etta Janet and Herbert Sondheim, in New York City. His father was a dress manufacturer and his mother a fashion designer. Sondheim studied at ‘Fieldston School’ and later joined the ‘New York Military Academy’. He started learning piano from a very young age.

When he was ten years old, his parents divorced and he moved to rural Pennsylvania with his mother. The famous songwriter Oscar Hammerstein II was one of his neighbours and under his tutelage, Sondheim learned a lot about musical theatre.

He studied in George School in Pennsylvania, where he also wrote his first musical, ‘By George!’ which became extremely popular in the school. He graduated in 1946.

He enrolled at ‘Williams College’ in 1946 and during these years, wrote four musicals under Hammerstein’s guidance. After his graduation, he won the ‘Hutchinson Prize’ which enabled him to study composition for two years under renowned composer Milton Babbitt.

During the next few years, Stephen Sondheim kept auditioning. He wrote for the TV show ‘Toppers’ and got his first Broadway breakthrough, ‘Saturday Night’, for which he wrote the music and lyrics. But the project was abandoned due to the producer’s death.

In 1956, he wrote lyrics for the musical ‘West Side Story’ inspired from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ for which the famous composer Leonard Bernstein had composed the music. The musical opened on Broadway the next year and achieved great success. It ran for 732 performances.

West Side Story’s success enabled him to get more opportunities. He was involved in two more successful musicals – ‘Gypsy’, for which he wrote the lyrics and ‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum’, for which he wrote both music and lyrics.

Over the next few years, he continued to write music and lyrics for musicals, such as ‘Do I Hear a Waltz?’, a romance, ‘Follies’, a story of former showgirls, and ‘Evening Primrose’, based on a short story by John Collier. He also conducted the symphony orchestra ‘New York Philharmonic’ during this time.

From 1970 to 1981, Sondheim began a partnership with famous producer/director Harold Prince. Their first work together was the concept musical ‘Company’. Over the next decade, the pair collaborated on six musicals, all of which were directed by Prince. ‘A Little Night Music’, which narrates the romantic lives of three couples, is their most famous musical.

In 1976, he forged another association with librettist John Weidman and worked on three musicals with him. Their works include ‘Pacific Overtures’, regarding the westernization of Japan, ‘Assassins’, which features people who tried to assassinate US Presidents.

In 1984, after being impressed by the show ‘Twelve Dreams’, which he saw in 1981, Sondheim began another decade-long partnership with its director, ‘James Lapine’. Their collaborations include works like ‘Sunday in the Park with George’, ‘Into the Woods’, which featured characters from popular fairy tales and ‘Passion’, a dark story of unrequited love.

In 2003, after a nine-year hiatus, Sondheim returned to theatre with the musical ‘Bounce’ which chronicles the adventures of two brothers in the early 20th century. ‘Bounce’ did not attain much success. However, a revised version of the musical was released five years later that fared much better than the original.

In 2013, Sondheim collaborated with Wynton Marsalis for a special show titled ‘A Bed and a Chair: A New York Love Affair’. It consisted of more than twenty-four of Sondheim’s compositions, each of them modified a little by Marsalis.

In 2014, Stephen Sondheim wrote a new song, "She'll Be Back", for the film adaptation of Into the Woods, but the song was eventually cut from the film.

On September 15, 2021, Stephen Sondheim announced that he was working on a new musical called Square One in collaboration with David Ives.

Stephen Sondheim endured a neglected childhood and had a bitter and difficult relationship with his mother.

Post his parents’ divorce, after moving to rural Pennsylvania in 1940, he formed a close relationship with Oscar Hammerstein II. Apart from tutoring him in musical theatre, Hammerstein was like a father-figure to Sondheim.

He was a homosexual and was involved in some short-lived relationships during the 1970s and the 1980s. His first long-term relationship was with dramatist Peter Jones.

In 2017, he married partner Jeffrey Scott Romley.

Stephen Sondheim was also a puzzle enthusiast and published many cryptic crosswords in ‘New York Magazine’.

In 2010, many concerts were held in celebration of Sondheim’s 80th birthday. The ‘New York Philharmonic’, for which Sondheim was the conductor in the 1960s, organized a concert titled ‘Sondheim: The Birthday Concert’. It featured many of Sondheim’s music and songs, some of which were performed by the original performers.