In Memoriam: Stephen Sondheim (1930 – 2021)

Broadway composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim (March 22, 1930 – November 26, 2021), famous for musicals like West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, and Assassins, passed away on Friday of undisclosed causes. He was 91.

Tributes from the theater community are pouring in, calling him without hyperbole the greatest Broadway legend in history. Actress Patti Lupone lauded him on Twitter, calling him the “last of the great Musical Comedy composers” and “the Gold Standard.” Lupone won a Tony Award for his show Gypsy and a Tony nomination for his show Sweeney Todd. She also performed in his show Sunday in the Park with George, and is currently appearing in a revival of his show Company.

The New York Times opened their obituary with:

He was the theater’s most revered and influential composer-lyricist of the last half of the 20th century and the driving force behind some of Broadway’s most beloved and celebrated shows.

The New York Times, November 26, 2021

He was a creator of 19 Broadway musicals, writing the lyrics for three and both the music and lyrics for the other 16. President Obama awarded him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.

Most of the cinematic adaptations of his musicals predated the Cosmique Movie Awards, but West Side Story (1961), for which he wrote the lyrics but not the music, nevertheless received two nominations: a Best Movie Musical of All Time nomination at the first awards, and a Best Films Lifetime Achievement nomination at the 2017 awards.

Sweeny Todd was adapted in in 2007, a year the Cosmos were on hiatus. Only Into the Woods was adapted in a year we were holding awards. It won Best Musical of 2014 and received another ten other nominations, including Supporting Actress nominations for both Meryl Streep and Anna Kendrick.

Kenrick was introduced to film audiences with the musical film Camp, for which Sondheim was awarded Favorite Cameo in a 2003 film. (He tied with Marilyn Manson for Party Monster.)

Stephen Spielberg’s newest adaptation of West Side Story is expected to be released on December 10, 2021. Director Richard Linklater (Boyhood) is in the process of adapting Merrily We Roll Along. Other film adaptations of Sondheim’s works include Gypsy (1962), A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum (1966), and A Little Night Music (1977).