Works of Stephen Sondheim

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Stephen Sondheim circa 1970

Stephen Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist whose most famous work includes A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), and Into the Woods (1987). He is also known for writing the lyrics for West Side Story (1957) and Gypsy (1959).

Major works[]

Year Title Role Music Lyrics Ref.
1954 Saturday Night Music & lyrics Stephen Sondheim
1957 West Side Story Lyrics Leonard Bernstein Stephen Sondheim
1959 Gypsy Lyrics Jule Styne Stephen Sondheim
1962 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum Music & lyrics Stephen Sondheim
1964 Anyone Can Whistle Music & lyrics Stephen Sondheim
1965 Do I Hear a Waltz? Lyrics Richard Rodgers Stephen Sondheim
1966 Evening Primrose Music & lyrics Stephen Sondheim
1970 Company Music & lyrics Stephen Sondheim
1971 Follies Music & lyrics Stephen Sondheim
1973 A Little Night Music Music & lyrics Stephen Sondheim
1974 The Frogs Music & lyrics Stephen Sondheim [1]
1976 Pacific Overtures Music & lyrics Stephen Sondheim
1979 Sweeney Todd Music & lyrics Stephen Sondheim
1981 Merrily We Roll Along Music & lyrics Stephen Sondheim
1984 Sunday in the Park with George Music & lyrics Stephen Sondheim
1987 Into the Woods Music & lyrics Stephen Sondheim
1990 Assassins Music & lyrics Stephen Sondheim
1994 Passion Music & lyrics Stephen Sondheim
2008 Road Show Music & lyrics Stephen Sondheim

Revues and anthologies[]

Side by Side by Sondheim (1976), Marry Me a Little (1980), Putting It Together (1993), and Sondheim on Sondheim (2010) are anthologies or revues of Sondheim's work as composer and lyricist, with songs performed in or cut from productions. Jerome Robbins' Broadway features "You Gotta Have a Gimmick" from Gypsy, "Suite of Dances" from West Side Story and "Comedy Tonight" from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. A new revue, Secret Sondheim ... a celebration of his lesser known work, conceived and directed by Tim McArthur, was produced at the Jermyn Street Theatre in July 2010.[2] Sondheim's "Pretty Women" and "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid" are featured in The Madwoman of Central Park West.[3]

Film and TV adaptations[]

Year Title Director Notes
1961 West Side Story Robert Wise
Jerome Robbins		 Film adaptation
1962 Gypsy Mervyn LeRoy Film adaptation
1966 A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum Richard Lester Film adaptation
1977 A Little Night Music Harold Prince Film adaptation
1993 Gypsy Emile Ardolino Television adaptation
2007 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Tim Burton Film adaptation
2014 Into the Woods Rob Marshall Film adaptation
2021 West Side Story Steven Spielberg Film adaptation
TBA Merrily We Roll Along Richard Linklater Film adaptation

Other works[]

Theatre[]

Year Title Role Notes
1951 I Know My Love Christmas carol arrangement
1955 A Mighty Man is He "Rag Me That Mendelssohn March"
1956 Girls of Summer Incidental music
1957 Take Five Revue
1960 Invitation to a March Incidental music
1962 The World of Jules Feiffer Incidental music
1967 Illya Darling "I Think She Needs Me" (lyrics; unused)
1971 Twigs "Hollywood and Vine" (music)
1973 The Enclave Incidental music
1974 Candide New lyrics
1975 By Bernstein Additional lyrics [4]
1996 Getting Away with Murder Written with George Furth [5]
2007 King Lear Incidental music for Public Theater production

Film and television[]

Year Title Notes
1953 Topper Co-writer of eleven episodes
1973 The Last of Sheila Co-writer with Anthony Perkins
1974 June Moon Plays the role of Maxie Schwartz on PBS television version
1974 Stavisky Score (Alain Resnais film)
1976 The Seven-Per-Cent Solution Wrote "The Madam's Song", also known as "I Never Do Anything Twice"
1981 Reds Music for and includes "Goodbye For Now"
1990 Dick Tracy Wrote five songs
1996 The Birdcage Two songs for the film: "It Takes All Kinds" (unused) and "Little Dream"
2003 Camp Cameo as himself
2007 The Simpsons Guest appearance as himself, Episode: "Yokel Chords"
2013 Six by Sondheim HBO documentary by James Lapine[6][7]
2016 Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened Documentary about original Merrily We Roll Along production[8]

Books[]

Sondheim's 2010 Finishing the Hat annotates his lyrics "from productions dating 1954–1981. In addition to published and unpublished lyrics from West Side Story, Follies and Company, the tome finds Sondheim discussing his relationship with Oscar Hammerstein II and his collaborations with composers, actors and directors throughout his lengthy career".[9][10] The book, first of a two-part series, is named after a song from Sunday in the Park With George. Sondheim said, "It's going to be long. I'm not, by nature, a prose writer, but I'm literate, and I have a couple of people who are vetting it for me, whom I trust, who are excellent prose writers".[11][12] Finishing the Hat was published in October 2010. According to a New York Times review, "The lyrics under consideration here, written during a 27-year period, aren't presented as fixed and sacred paradigms, carefully removed from tissue paper for our reverent inspection. They're living, evolving, flawed organisms, still being shaped and poked and talked to by the man who created them".[13] The book was 11th on the New York Times' Hardcover Nonfiction list for November 5, 2010.[14]

Its sequel, Look, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics (1981–2011) with Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes and Miscellany, was published on November 22, 2011. The book, continuing from Sunday in the Park With George (where Finishing the Hat ended), includes sections on Sondheim's work in film and television.[15]

References[]

  1. ^ "'The Frogs', 1974 Yale University Production". Sondheimguide.com. Archived from the original on August 26, 2014. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
  2. ^ Gans, Andrew."London's Jermyn Street Theatre to Offer Secret Sondheim with Cutko, Armstrong and McArthur" Archived July 26, 2014, at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, May 27, 2010
  3. ^ "'The Madwoman Of Central Park West' cast album list". Castalbumcollector.com. Archived from the original on June 5, 2010. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
  4. ^ "By Bernstein". Sondheimguide.com. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
  5. ^ "'Getting Away With Murder' Listing". Sondheimguide.com. Archived from the original on August 28, 2013. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
  6. ^ Champion, Lindsay. "HBO to Air Six By Sondheim Documentary, Featuring Jeremy Jordan, Audra McDonald, Darren Criss & More" Archived December 13, 2013, at the Wayback Machine broadway.com, July 26, 2013
  7. ^ McNulty, Charles. Review: HBO's 'Six by Sondheim' is a stylish salute to a Broadway legend" Archived December 22, 2013, at the Wayback Machine LA Times, December 6, 2013
  8. ^ "::: A t l a s m e d i a . T v". Archived from the original on September 11, 2018. Retrieved September 11, 2018.
  9. ^ Hetrick, Adam."Stephen Sondheim and James Earl Jones Set for TimesTalks This Fall" Archived October 18, 2012, at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, August 16, 2010
  10. ^ "Table of Contents". Randomhouse.com. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
  11. ^ Haun, Harry."Exclusive! Sondheim Explains Evolution from Bounce to Road Show" Archived December 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Playbill.com, August 12, 2008
  12. ^ Gardner, Elysa. "Sondheim sounds off about writing songs" Archived March 5, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. USA Today, October 9, 2008
  13. ^ Brantley, Ben. "Sondheim's Rhymes and Reasons". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 29, 2015. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
  14. ^ "Hardcover Nonfiction list". The New York Times. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
  15. ^ Jones, Kenneth."Stephen Sondheim's "Look, I Made a Hat", Part Two of His Career in Lyrics, in Stores Nov. 22" Archived August 26, 2013, at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, November 22, 2011
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