How Stephen Sondheim became a Broadway legend

Storyteller. Composer. Lyricist. Who was Stephen Sondheim? Stephen Joshua Sondheim was born March 22, 1930, in New York, New York. His early interest in music was encouraged by family friend Oscar Hammerstein II—one half of Rodgers and Hammerstein, the musical duo responsible for shows like Carousel and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Oklahoma! In addition to his studies with Hammerstein, Sondheim learned piano and organ, wrote school musicals, and studied music at Williams College in Massachusetts. After graduation he returned to New York, where he studied under composer Milton Babbitt. After a few years of writing TV scripts in Hollywood, Sondheim received his first call to Broadway: he was hired as the lyricist on Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story. When the musical opened, Sondheim was only 27 years old. West Side Story was a fortuitous beginning. Sondheim worked on a few more projects as a lyricist before deciding to focus on shows where he had full control of music and lyrics as both a composer and a lyricist. Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, and Sweeney Todd—all these won Tony Awards, and they are just some of the productions with music and lyrics by Sondheim. In 2008 Sondheim was granted a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. Stephen Sondheim died on November 26, 2021, at age 91. A few days later, hundreds of Broadway performers gathered in New York City’s Duffy Square to sing from Sondheim’s catalog and honor his legacy.