Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim dead at 91
- Known for hit musicals like West Side Story, Into the Woods and Sweeney Todd, the composer and lyricist died in his home on Friday
- Sondheim learned the art of musical theatre when he was just a teenager from Oscar Hammerstein II and went on to mentor others, like Lin-Manuel Miranda
Broadway composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, who helped American musical theatre evolve beyond pure entertainment and reach new artistic heights with works such as West Side Story, Into the Woods and Sweeney Todd, died early Friday at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut, at the age of 91, The New York Times reported.
Sondheim, whose eight lifetime Tony Awards surpassed the total of any other composer, started early, learning the art of musical theatre when he was just a teenager from The Sound of Music lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II.
Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who was mentored by Sondheim, has called him musical theatre’s greatest lyricist.
Sondheim’s most successful musicals included Into the Woods, which opened on Broadway in 1987 and used children’s fairy tales to untangle adult obsessions, the 1979 thriller Sweeney Todd about a murderous barber in London whose victims are served as meat pies, and 1962’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, a vaudeville-style comedy set in ancient Rome.
“I love the theatre as much as music, and the whole idea of getting across to an audience and making them laugh, making them cry – just making them feel – is paramount to me,” Sondheim said in a 2013 interview with National Public Radio.