Stephen Sondheim died, Broadway's legend :: The coast - News - Santa Fe - Argentina - Ellitoral.com ::

Stephen Sondheim, legend of the American musical comedy and co -author of films such as "West Side Story" (love without barriers) or "Gypsy", died Friday at age 91, his lawyer told the newspaper New York Times.Sondheim suddenly died in the morning hours at his residence in Roxbury, in the state of Connecticut (Northeast), after having celebrated on the eve the Thanksgiving with his friends, said lawyer Richard Papspas.

Born on March 22, 1930 in New York City, Sondheim was involved in the musical theater from an early age.He started playing piano at age seven and was a friend of the family of Oscar Hammerstein II, a member of the famous duo of writers of the Musical Theater Rodgers and Hammerstein, who wrote works such as "Oklahoma!"and "The Sound of Music" (the rebel novice).

From television writer to author of Musicals

His first work as a professional writer was for the "Topper" television comedy in the 1950s.The great advance of Sondheim on Broadway came with "West Side Story" in 1957, in which he composed the lyrics of the songs, with music by Lonard Bernstein, quickly followed by "Gypsy" two years later.West Side Story was taken to the cinema in 1961, starring Rita Moreno, and the premiere is expected next month from a new version directed by Steven Spielberg.

Other Sondheim successful musicals became films, such as "Into The Woods", 2014, starring Meryl Streep, and "Sweeney Todd", 2007, with Johnny Depp.His songs did not usually reach the lists of successes, although he did with "Send in the Clowns", from his 1973 musical "to Little Night Music".It was recorded by Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan and Judy Collins, among others.

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Awards and honours

The first work in which Stephen Sondheim composed both music and the lyrics was the 1962 comedy "Funny Thing Happened on the way to the forum", which won a Tony and was represented for more than two years on Broadway.In the 70s and 80s, his most productive years, he developed works considered varied and original, including "Company" (1970), "Follies" (1971), "A Little Night Music" (1973), "Pacific Overtures"(1976), "Sweeney Todd" (1979), "Merrily We Roll Along" (1981), and "Into The Woods" (1987).

In total, Sondheim composed both the lyrics and the music of 12 Broadway shows, of which five took a Tony to the best musical, and six of them a Tony for the best soundtrack, while the show "Sunday in the park", who did not receive any of those two awards, he was awarded with a Pulitzer.In the course of his long career, Sondheim won eight Grammy Awards, eight Tony - including the special to the theater trajectory - and an Oscar of the Academy.

He was nominated for other Grammy and Tony, as well as two golden balloons.In 1993 he received an award for his career from the prestigious Kennedy Center and, in 2015, the then president of the United States, Barack Obama, awarded Sondheim the presidential medal of Freedom for his work for his work.

His name is still in the theater and his music, in the cinema

In 2010, one of Broadway theaters, until then known as the Henry Miller, was named in his honor.In 2020, the Mecca of the United Kingdom Theater, the West End of London, also wanted to pay tribute to his name one of his theaters, but Sondheim could not go to that event, after having suffered a spectacular fall.

That same year, his 90th birthday was celebrated in style at a virtual party, courtesy of the Coronavirus pandemic, in which figures like Meryl Streep, Bernadette Peters, Patti Lupone and Audra McDonald participated.His music continues to appear in the cinema.Recently, three films nominated for several awards contained their music: "Knives out", "Joker" and "Marriage Story", which precisely contained a scene in which the protagonist, played by Adam Driver, sang "Being Alive", of theshow "Company (1970).