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Sondheim was born in New York City and grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and later on a farm in Pennsylvania. An only child in a well-to-do family, Sondheim's childhood has been described as isolated and emotionally-neglected. His parents, Herbert and Janet "Foxy" Sondheim, were non-religious Jews, though Foxy had grown up in an Orthodox family; Sondheim had no formal religious education or association, did not have a Bar Mitzvah, and reportedly did not set foot in a synagogue until he was 17.
Herbert and Foxy Sondheim divorced when their son was young, a traumatic event which would have major repercussions on both his private life and his public work. Under the laws of the day, Sondheim's mother retained full custody, which was perhaps unfortunate; Foxy Sondheim was narcissistic, emotionally abusive, a hypochondriac, and became sexually predatory towards her son as a substitute for his absent father. Many have speculated that it was this early intense love/hate relationship with his monstrous mother that would re-emerge in many of Sondheim's later works, which often treat love and commitment as claustrophobic and smothering, most notably in his musical Company. Perhaps also as a result of his relationship with his mother, Sondheim would become known for giving words and/or music to a series of strong, manipulative, somewhat unstable female characters, including Mamma Rose in Gypsy, Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, and the Witch in Into the Woods, all of whom are obsessive about keeping a hold on their child or love interest.
At about the age of ten, around the time of his parents' divorce, Sondheim became friends with Jimmy Hammerstein. Jimmy's father was the well-known lyricist/playwright Oscar Hammerstein II. Hammerstein taught Sondheim the basics of the musical after the boy came to him with a show he had written for a school performance. Though Hammerstein's reaction was negative, he saw the youngster's potential. As a training exercise, Hammerstein told Sondheim to write four pieces:
None of these "assignment" musicals was produced professionally. High Tor and Mary Poppins have never been produced at all, because the rights holders for the original works refused to grant permission for a musical to be made.
Sondheim went on to study composition with the composer Milton Babbitt. In 1954Events January events January 14 The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator forming the American Motors Corporation January 14 Marilyn Monroe weds Joe DiMaggio. January 15 Mau Mau leader Waruhiu Itote is captured in Kenya January 20 The Nati, he wrote both music and lyrics for Saturday NightSaturday Night can refer to: Saturday Night, a 1950s Broadway musical by Stephen Sondheim. Saturday Night, a movie by James Benning based on the muscial Saturday Night Magazine, a Canadian magazine., which was never produced on Broadway and was shelved until a 19971997 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar), and was designated the International Year of the Reef''. Events January January 3 NBC's Today Show Bryant Gumbel signs off for the last time January 8 Mister Rogers receives a star on t production at LondonLondon is the capital of the United Kingdom and of England, and with over seven million inhabitants in the Greater London area, is the second-most populous conurbation in Europe (after Moscow). From being Londinium the capital of the Roman province of Bri's Bridewell Theatre .
At the age of 25, Sondheim wrote the lyrics to West Side StoryWest Side Story is a musical written by Arthur Laurents (book), Leonard Bernstein (music) and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics), and originally produced, choreographed and directed by Jerome Robbins. West Side Story debuted on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theate, accompanying Leonard BernsteinLeonard Bernstein ( August 25, 1918 October 14, 1990) was an American Jewish composer and orchestra conductor. Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts and studied at Harvard. He was highly regarded as a conductor, composer, pianist, and educator.'s music and Arthur LaurentsArthur Laurents (born July 14, 1918) is an American playwright, novelist, screenwriter, librettist and stage director. He was born in New York City and after studying at Cornell University and a stint in the Army, he began writing scripts for radio, and i's book. In 1959Events January-February January 1 Cultivars of plants named after this date must be named in a modern language, not in Latin. January 1 Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when forces of Fidel Castro advance January 2 CBS Radio cuts four soap operas: Bac he wrote the lyrics to the musical Gypsy, with music by Jule Styne and a book again by Laurents. Finally in 1962 Sondheim saw a musical for which he wrote both the music and lyrics, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, open on Broadway. His next musical, Anyone Can Whistle, was a financial failure, though it has developed a cult following. He donned his lyricist-for-hire hat for one last show, Do I Hear a Waltz? , with music by Richard Rodgers, and since then has devoted himself to both composing and writing lyrics for a series of critically acclaimed musicals.
Sondheim's work is most notable for his use of complex polyphony in the vocal parts, such as the chorus of five minor characters who function as a sort of "Greek Chorus" in A Little Night Music. He also displays a penchant for angular harmonies and intricate melodies reminiscent of his hero, Bach (he once claimed that he listened to no-one else). To aficionados, Sondheim's musical sophistication is considered to be greater than that of many of his musical theater peers, and his lyrics are likewise renowned for their ambiguity ( "Send In The Clowns"), wit ("Buddy's Blues") and urbanity ("The Little Things You Do Together"); he employs various literary techniques and devices that make his writing more akin to poetry than Tin Pan Alley.
Indeed, in 1968 and 1969, Sondheim published an astonishingly inventive series of word puzzles in New York magazine . These are sometimes inadequately referred to as mere crosswords; in fact, the form and construction of the puzzles was every bit as creative and diabolical as the clues.
Regarded by some as the anti- Andrew Lloyd Webber (though Lloyd Webber composed the distinctly Sondheimesque Tell Me On A Sunday), Sondheim is nevertheless no stranger to popular as well as critical success. In 1985, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Sunday in the Park with George, one of the few times that a musical has taken the award.