Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an 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 , eight Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, a Laurence Olivier Award, and a 2015 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." 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 1981 Reds. He wrote five songs for 1990's Dick Tracy, including "Sooner or Later " by Madonna, which won the Academy Award for Best Song.
The composer was president of the Dramatists Guild from 1973 to 1981. To celebrate his 80th birthday, the former Henry Miller's Theatre was renamed the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on September 15, 2010, and the BBC Proms held a concert in his honor. Cameron Mackintosh has called Sondheim "possibly the greatest lyricist ever."
“Work is what you do for others, liebchen. Art is what you do for yourself.”
Source: Sunday in the Park With George
Source: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies (2001 ed): Art. Stephen Sondheim p. 408
“Without question, Steve is the best Broadway lyricist, past or present.”
Source: Arthur Laurents; in Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies (2001 ed): Art. Stephen Sondheim p. 408
