Stephen Sondheim Summary

Sondheim, Stephen (1930—) Stephen Sondheim is one of the most important creative personalities in the American musical theater of the late twentieth century. Like George M. Cohan and Cole Porte... Read more

Active in major Broadway productions of American musical theater beginning in 1957, composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim (born 1930) redefined the Broadway musical form with his innovative and award... Read more

Critical Essay by Martin Gottfried ["A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum"] has a book that is not only marvelous but without period in respect to its style. The Burt Shevelov... Read more

Critical Essay by Stephen Sondheim It's hard to talk about lyrics independently of music, but I will try. Obviously, all the principles of writing apply to lyrics: grace, affinity for words, a... Read more

Critical Essay by Peter Reilly [The album] "Side by Side by Sondheim" is a tribute, bouquet, what-have-you to the work of Stephen Sondheim, probably the most gifted and productive creat... Read more

Critical Essay by William Anderson Sondheim based his musical version [of Sweeney Todd] on a recent London stage play, and it is a positive feast (!) for English majors. There are traces of Jonathan ... Read more

Critical Essay by Edith Oliver [In "Marry Me a Little"], a single young woman and a single young man, each living alone in an apartment in New York …, sing seventeen songs by Ste... Read more

Critical Essay by Samuel G. Freedman In his 13 shows—he wrote only lyrics for three, music and lyrics for the rest—Sondheim has staked out a turf as big as the emotional landscape of po... Read more

In the following essay, Leithauser examines Sondheim's strong professional recognition despite the lack of finality in his productions, his dark motifs, his use of rhyme, and his complex charac... Read more

In the following essay, Adler utilizes a number of critical approaches, including generic, formalist, and thematic, to assess Sondheim's dramatic philosophy as well as his contribution to Ameri... Read more

In the following essay, Van Leer elucidates the reasons for the mixed critical and popular reaction to Sondheim's musicals. It may be hard these days to care much one way or the other about ... Read more

In the following essay, Block assesses Sondheim's dramatic output and investigates his place within the American musical theater tradition. Running Long on Broadway After 1960 By 1960 Broadw... Read more

In the following essay, Lovensheimer argues that Sondheim dramatizes the figure of the outsider or outlaw in American musicals using “popular song styles in ways that subvert the connotations t... Read more