Composer Stephen Sondheim
in Work Shops
Overview
Date: 04/19/2010 - 04/20/2010
Location: Allen Chapman Activity Center
800 South Tucker Drive Tulsa, OKContact Information
Phone: 918-631-2315
Description
Stephen Sondheim wrote music or lyrics for Stephen Sondheim, Company, A Little Night Music and nearly a dozen other hit Broadway musicals of the late 20th century. His break came in the early 1940's when he and his divorced mother moved from New York City to rural Doylestown, Pa. They lived near the summer residence of Oscar Hammerstein II, who became the boy's mentor and taught him the craft of composing musical plays. Sondheim wrote lyrics to Leonard Bernstein's music for the huge hit West Side Story (1957). He went on to compose music, lyrics or both for hits of his own, including Gypsy (1959), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Company (1970), Follies (1971), Sweeney Todd (1979), Sunday in the Park with George (1984) and Into the Woods (1987). His theatrical influence lay not only in his skill as a composer but also in his innovative story-telling and musical styles and unexpected subject matter. Examples include controversial discussions of relationships through non-linear vignettes in Company, the blending of contemporary theater with classical Japanese poetry and music in Pacific Overtures (1976), and Sweeney Todd's operatic, dark portrayal of 19th-century England.
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