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Stephen Sondheim - Wikipedia. Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim in c. 1. Background information.

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Mad Men is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. The series premiered on July 19, 2007, on the. Internet Movie Database entry. Includes picture gallery, filmography, and list of guest appearances on TV. Stephen Joshua Sondheim (/ ˈ s ɒ n d. h aɪ m /; born March 22, 1930) is an American composer and lyricist known for more than a half-century of contributions to.

Birth name. Stephen Joshua Sondheim. Born(1. 93. 0- 0. March 2. 2, 1. 93. New York City, New York, U. A Night To Remember Full Movie Part 1 more. S. Genres. Musical theatre.

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Occupation(s)Years active. Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; born March 2. American composer and lyricist known for more than a half- century of contributions to musical theatre. Sondheim has received an Academy Award, eight Tony Awards (more than any other composer,[1] including a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre), eight Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, a Laurence Olivier Award, and a 2. Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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."[2] 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. He also wrote the lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy. Sondheim has also written film music, contributing "Goodbye for Now" to Warren Beatty's 1. Reds. He wrote five songs for 1.

Dick Tracy, including "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)" by Madonna, which won the Academy Award for Best Song. The composer was president of the Dramatists Guild from 1. To celebrate his 8. Henry Miller's Theatre was renamed the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on September 1.

BBC Proms held a concert in his honor. Cameron Mackintosh has called Sondheim "possibly the greatest lyricist ever."[3]Early years[edit]Sondheim was born into a Jewish family in New York City, the son of Etta Janet ("Foxy," née Fox; 1. Herbert Sondheim (1.

His father manufactured dresses designed by his mother. The composer grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and, after his parents divorced, on a farm near Doylestown, Pennsylvania. 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. 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 1. Sondheim spent several summers at Camp Androscoggin.[4]He traces his interest in theatre to Very Warm for May, a Broadway musical he saw when he was nine. The curtain went up and revealed a piano," Sondheim recalled.

A butler took a duster and brushed it up, tinkling the keys. I thought that was thrilling."[5]When Sondheim was ten, his father (already a distant figure) left his mother for another woman (Alicia, with whom he had two sons). Herbert sought custody of Stephen but was unsuccessful. Sondheim explained to biographer Secrest that he was "what they call an institutionalized child, meaning one who has no contact with any kind of family. You're in, though it's luxurious, you're in an environment that supplies you with everything but human contact.

No brothers and sisters, no parents, and yet plenty to eat, and friends to play with and a warm bed, you know?"Sondheim detested his mother,[6] who was said to be psychologically abusive[7] and projected her anger from her failed marriage on her son: [8] "When my father left her, she substituted me for him. And she used me the way she used him, to come on to and to berate, beat up on, you see. What she did for five years was treat me like dirt, but come on to me at the same time."[9] She once wrote him a letter saying that the "only regret [she] ever had was giving him birth."[1. When his mother died in the spring of 1. Sondheim did not attend her funeral.[6][1.

Mentorship by Oscar Hammerstein II[edit]When Sondheim was about ten years old (around the time of his parents' divorce), he became friends with James Hammerstein, son of lyricist and playwright Oscar Hammerstein II. The elder Hammerstein became Sondheim's surrogate father, influencing him profoundly and developing his love of musical theatre. Sondheim met Hal Prince, who would direct many of his shows, at the opening of South Pacific, Hammerstein's musical with Richard Rodgers. The comic musical he wrote at George School, By George, was a success among his peers and buoyed the young songwriter's self- esteem. When Sondheim asked Hammerstein to evaluate it as though he had no knowledge of its author, he said it was the worst thing he had ever seen: "But if you want to know why it's terrible, I'll tell you." They spent the rest of the day going over the musical, and Sondheim later said, "In that afternoon I learned more about songwriting and the musical theater than most people learn in a lifetime."[1.

Hammerstein designed a course of sorts for Sondheim on constructing a musical. He had the young composer write four musicals, each with one of the following conditions: Based on a play he admired (which became All That Glitters)Based on a play he liked but thought flawed; Sondheim chose Maxwell Anderson's High Tor. Based on an existing novel or short story not previously dramatized, which became his unfinished version of Mary Poppins (Bad Tuesday,[1. Sherman Brothers)An original, which became Climb High.

None of the "assignment" musicals was produced professionally. High Tor and Mary Poppins have never been produced: The rights holder for the original High Tor refused permission, and Mary Poppins was unfinished.[1. College and early career[edit]Sondheim began attending Williams College, a liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts whose theatre program attracted him. His first teacher there was Robert Barrow: ..

I thought he was wonderful because he was very dry. And Barrow made me realize that all my romantic views of art were nonsense. I had always thought an angel came down and sat on your shoulder and whispered in your ear 'dah- dah- dah- DUM.' Never occurred to me that art was something worked out. And suddenly it was skies opening up. As soon as you find out what a leading tone is, you think, Oh my God. What a diatonic scale is – Oh my God!

The logic of it. And, of course, what that meant to me was: Well, I can do that. Because you just don't know. You think it's a talent, you think you're born with this thing. What I've found out and what I believed is that everybody is talented. It's just that some people get it developed and some don't.[1.

The composer told Meryle Secrest, "I just wanted to study composition, theory, and harmony without the attendant musicology that comes in graduate school. But I knew I wanted to write for the theatre, so I wanted someone who did not disdain theatre music."[1. Barrow suggested that Sondheim study with Milton Babbitt, who Sondheim described as "a frustrated show composer" with whom he formed "a perfect combination."[1.

When he met Babbitt, he was working on a musical for Mary Martin based on the myth of Helen of Troy. Sondheim and Babbitt would meet once a week in New York City for four hours (at the time, Babbitt was teaching at Princeton University).

According to Sondheim, they spent the first hour dissecting Rodgers and Hart or George Gershwin or studying Babbitt's favorites (Buddy De. Sylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson).