30 November - Stephen Sondheim Dies at 91
Stephen Sondheim, Titan of the American Musical, Is Dead at 91
Bruce Weber (The New York Times, 26/11/2021)
Stephen Sondheim, one of Broadway history’s songwriting titans, whose music and lyrics raised and reset the artistic standard for the American stage musical, died early Friday at his home in Roxbury, Conn. He was 91.
His lawyer and friend, F. Richard Pappas, announced the death. He said he did not know the cause but added that Mr. Sondheim had not been known to be ill and that the death was sudden. The day before, Mr. Sondheim had celebrated Thanksgiving with a dinner with friends in Roxbury, Mr. Pappas said.
An intellectually rigorous artist who perpetually sought new creative paths, Mr. Sondheim was the theater’s most revered and influential composer-lyricist of the last half of the 20th century, if not its most popular.
Watch Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sara Bareilles, More Members of the Broadway Community Celebrate Sondheim
(Playbill, 29/11/2021)
Broadway luminaries gathered with hundreds of members of the community and casts of Broadway shows on the iconid red steps in the Manhattan Theatre District's Duffy Square November 28 at noon to celebrate the life and art of late composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim, who died November 26 at the age of 91. Participants sang “Sunday” from Sondheim’s celebrated work, Sunday in the Park with George.
Where to start with Stephen Sondheim: 10 of the best from the maestro
Michael Billington (The Guardian, 29/11/2021)
Sondheim is gone but his songs and shows, as Cameron Mackintosh said, will be performed forever. Fortunately there is a wealth of material – recordings, documentaries, books – that give us a good idea of his impact on the culture of his times. I here offer a list of 10 of the best that is highly selective and intensely subjective; but then each of us has our own store of Sondheim memories and favoured works.
Here’s to the ladies who lunch: one of Sondheim’s greatest achievements was writing complex women
Narelle Yeo (The Conversation, 29/11/2021)
The most eclectic of music theatre composers was not only a gifted wordsmith and lyricist, but also had a truly original compositional voice.
Stephen Sondheim, who died at home on the weekend at 91, had a singular ability to craft narrative in short, poignant moments, with constantly evolving, twisting and turning motifs in melodies and harmonies that signify, place, time, feeling, emotion and sensory experience.
He built a score by taking an idea – either lyrical or musical – turning it upside down and spinning it around to reveal a different view. It is clear Sondheim enjoyed the play of words, of motifs, of reinventing musical theatre to fit the changing perspectives of contemporary life. The audience in a Sondheim show revels in each character’s complexity.