After a musical career spanning eight decades, composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim has died aged 91.
My first introduction to Sondheim’s music was a Rob Guest compilation tape we had when I was a child, that included Not while I’m around from Sweeney Todd, and No one is alone from Into the Woods. Even at eight or nine, I knew that these songs were different – they weren’t immediately hummable like the more popular Andrew Lloyd Weber or Rogers & Hammerstein tracks, but once they got into your head they were the earworms to end all earworms!
Stephen Sondheim’s first big show came as a lyricist, alongside composer Leonard Bernstein, for West Side Story in 1957. He went on to create, alone and in collaboration with others, many other shows, cover a huge range of subject matter: ancient comedy (A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum, The Frogs), to contemporary social commentary (Company, Merrily we roll along); from people who have tried (successfully or not) to kill US presidents (Assassins), to the creation of a nineteenth-century painting (Sunday in the park with George).
I’ve only seen one Sondheim show live: Sweeney Todd: the demon barber of Fleet Street, which, as the title suggests, tells the story of a barber, who, seeking revenge on his enemies, kills his customers and has his neighbour make them into pies. Not, perhaps, the first subject that springs to mind when you imagine a great musical! But that was Sondheim’s great talent: taking the unexpected and putting it to music.
We have many of Stephen Sondheim’s works in our collection: 60 titles, when I searched this morning.
Some of my own favourites:
West Side Story: Score and Cast Recording. The original 1961 film is great, but I haven’t yet seen the new version that came out this year.
Into the woods: Script, Score, and Cast recording. There is also a film version, with Meryl Streep and James Corden – I have no comment…
There’s even The Oxford handbook of Sondheim Studies, if you’re looking for something a bit more academic.
If you’re looking for an introduction to Sondheim, a good place to start would be our Songs of Stephen Sondheim CD: Losing my mind, Not while I’m around, Everybody ought to have a maid…it’s got a bit of everything.
Possibly my favourite Sondheim song is Unworthy of your love, from Assassins (yes, I am a hopeless romantic, buried very deep). We have the music, and a DVD of a revue called Putting it together where this song is sung by John Barrowman (yes, him from Doctor Who) and Ruthie Henshall…sigh…
Anyway…
Rest in peace, Mr Sondheim. Thanks for the music.
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