Stephen Sondheim :: essays research papers

Stephen Sondheim - BiographyStephen Sondheim was born on 22 March 1930, the son of a wealthy New York dress manufacturer. But, when his parents divorced, his mother moved to Bucks County, Pennsylvania and modern Stephen found himself in the right place at the right time. A neighbour of his mothers, Oscar Hammerstein II, was working on a new musical comedy called okay and it didnt take long for the adolescent boy to realise that he, too, was intrigued by musical theatre. Although he subsequently studied composition with Milton Babbitt, he chose to apply what he learned he all-or-nothing commercial hothouse of Broadway. Like Hammerstein, he has indite the occasional pop song (with Jule Styne for Tony Bennett) and dabbled in films (Stavisky, Reds, Dick Tracy), but, deal Hammerstein, he has always come back to the theatre. His initial success came as a somewhat reluctant lyricist to Leonard Bernstein on West expression Story (1957) and Jule Styne on Gypsy (1959). Exciting and adve nturous as those projects were in their day, and for all their enduring popularity, Sondheims philosophy since is encapsulated in mavin of his song titles "I Never Do Anything Twice". His first accounting as composer-lyricist was A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (1962) - a show so funny few people spotted how experimental it was its serene the only successful musical farce. In the following three decades, critics detect a Sondheim style - a fondness for the harmonic language of political campaign and Debussy a reliance on vamps and skewed harmonies to destabilise the melody a tendency to densely literate lyrics. But, all that said, its the versatility that still impresses you couldnt swap a song from the exuberantly explosive pit-band score of Anyone Can Whistle (1964) with one of the Orientally influenced musical scenes in Pacific Overtures (1976) you couldnt mistake the neurotic pop score of Company (1970) for the elegantly ever-waltzing A Little Night M usic (1973). Sondheim butt against his stride in the Seventies, forming a unique partnership of hyphenates with Hal Prince a composer-lyricist and a producer-director working together to re-invent the musical. Some were plotless (Company), some characterless (Pacific Overtures), one went backward (Merrily We Roll Along). But, as his onetime choreographer Michael Bennett put it, before you can insure the rules, you have to know what they are - and Sondheim knows Americas cultural heritage better because anybody. Follies (1971) is an