Stephen Sondheim Dead at 91- Page 4

[MattieIce2018]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 12:23am

Rob McClure honored Sondheim at the curtain call for MRS DOUBTFIRE tonight, which is playing at the theatre named for him. https://www.instagram.com/tv/CWw73Y9AMi-/?utm_medium=copy_link

[Robbie2]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 12:31am

Sunday from Sunday In The Park with George - Sondheim: The Birthday Concert - His 80th!

One of my favorites - check out precious reactions from Steve at: 0:47 , 3:08- 3:14 

RIP 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSUx5SjNSiU

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 12:32am

I don’t want to go to bed knowing that when I wake up it will be our first “tomorrow” without Stephen Sondheim. 😞

[Robbie2]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 12:37am

From Vanity Fair - 

IN MEMORIAM

Stephen Sondheim, Musical Theater Giant, Dies at 91

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/11/stephen-sondheim-dies?utm_source=facebook&utm_brand=vf&utm_social-type=owned&utm_medium=social&mbid=social_facebook&fbclid=IwAR2LQyyD0mx7Exq8L9KpjfrzzVN9lUf9ltO_RemxUTsTRsDNvqRKxzN1NOI

[Robbie2]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 12:39am

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 12:41am

^My favorite 

[Robbie2]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 12:45am

From Vulture - 

The Measureless, Omnipresent Influence of Stephen Sondheim Children will listen.

https://www.vulture.com/article/stephen-sondheim-influence-tribute-obituary.html?fbclid=IwAR2LQyyD0mx7Exq8L9KpjfrzzVN9lUf9ltO_RemxUTsTRsDNvqRKxzN1NOI

[uncageg]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 12:52am

I will never forget those last moments of "Sweeney Todd" when I saw it in the summer of '79 at the, then, Uris Theater. When those final notes were sung and played and that door slammed, it was a done deal. I instantly knew that I was to be a part of the theatre community in any way I could. I sat in the empty theater just staring at the stage until an usher told me that I had to leave. I had gone to school for theater and continued taking classes. But the floodgates opened on that day and the waters have flowed ever since. Those moments really changed my life in a lot of ways.

I have been lucky enough to be in his presence twice. I never got the chance to speak directly to him to tell him what happened to me on that day I saw "Sweeney". Something I was wishing all my life I could do. He left us with SO much. All of it brilliant whether it was a favorite or not. And even knowing were probably were not going to be getting a lot more from him. Just knowing he was still with us gave us hope that we might get a bit of something new (And we might) or just that as long as he was here, his era would not go away.  But yes, jacobsnchz14, it will be a sad day tomorrow knowing we will wake up without him being alive. He was a titan who touched many lives in the theater community and beyond. To say he will be missed is an understatement. May we rest in peace and may we cherish all that he has left us. Gonna turn on "A Little Night Music" pour a drink (And one for Sondheim) and be thankful that as an avid theater lover, I lived in a time that he created all he did.

Updated On: 11/27/21 at 12:52 AM

[Robbie2]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 12:57am

Stephen Sondheim, Titan of the American Musical, Is Dead at 91

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.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/26/theater/stephen-sondheim-dead.html?fbclid=IwAR1_H2T-9vNVaXjTgUz_e1VoiRktNYThfK-BoaFKDc3LnM9wjbJBayt5g8Y

[image removed by moderators for copyright violation]

Updated On: 11/27/21 at 12:57 AM

[illiniparkie]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 1:52am

My condolences to Mr. Sondheim’s family, friends and colleagues.  The theater world lost a giant.  But his words and music will continue to challenge and give pleasure to audiences and performers for generations to come.  Thank you, sir, for a life well lived.

Updated On: 11/27/21 at 01:52 AM

[brdwybound04]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 2:08am

RIP Stephen Sondheim (I’ve dreaded writing these words for many years&hellip I can’t think of a more prolific composer to ever grace the Broadway Stages with his shows, save for the exception of Rodgers & Hammerstein… I first entered your world in a regional production of “Into The Woods” @ The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in 1999. I then made it my mission to see as many of your shows as possible on Broadway. Below is the list of your Broadway & Regional productions I’ve been fortunate enough to see thus far:

“Company” (2006) Starring Raul Esparza.

“Sunday in the Park With George” (2008 London Transfer).

“Gypsy” (2008) Starring Patti LuPone.

“Sweeney Todd” (2008 National Tour).

“West Side Story” (2009 Bilingual Production).

“A Little Night Music” (2010) Starring Catherine Zeta-Jones & Angela Lansbury!

“West Side Story” (2010 National Tour).

“Follies” (2011) Starring Bernadette Peters & Danny Burstein.

“Sunday in the Park With George” (2017) Starring Jake Gyllenhaal & Analeigh Ashford.

“Sweeney Todd” (2018 Off-Broadway) Starring Norm Lewis & Carolee Carmelo.

Upcoming: “Company” (2021) Starring Patti LuPone & Katrina Lenk.

Regional Productions: 
“Into The Woods” (1999, Ordway)
“West Side Story” (2017, Ordway)
“Company” (2012, Theatre Latte Da)
“Into The Woods” (2015, Theatre Latte Da)
“Gypsy” (2016, Theatre Latte Da)
“Sweeney Todd” (2017, Theatre Latte Da)
“Assassins” (2018, Theatre Latte Da)
“A Little Night Music” (2019, Theatre Latte Da)
“Sunday in the Park With George” (2017, Guthrie Theater)
“West Side Story” (2018, Guthrie Theater)

The world will never be the same from this day forward, this is the equivalent to the musical theatre world as losing Beethoven… however, these two moments I will forever treasure for the rest of my life…

    1.    Getting to Meet Stephen Sondheim when The Hennepin Theatre Trust hosted him in Minneapolis Spring 2010.
    2.    Attending the inaugural Broadway production (“Bye Bye Birdie” Starting John Stamos) at the newly rechristened “Stephen Sondheim Theatre” at 43rd/Broadway! What an honor to go to a Broadway Theatre that commemorated a living legend!

Your legacy will forever live on in your lyrics: “Children and Art”… 
“Sometimes people leave you/Halfway through the wood…
Others may decieve you/You decide what's good…
You decide alone/But no one is alone…”

Thank you!❤️🎼🎭🎹

[joevitus]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 2:26am

It's really tough, as he was not just a great talent but a genuinely good man who worked so hard to make a place for the next generation in the world of musical theater. But with Sondheim gone, it feels like we enter the Dark Ages of the musical in full, where dollar is the bottom line and pre-sold hits the norm and empty glitz over substance or even simple craft. Ugh.

His work was so important to me, and the world he represented--which was, admittedly, mostly the world of the late 50's, the 60's and the 70's, a touch of the 80's--was "the theater" to me. All my ideas about Broadway and "the biz" revolve around it. A world we all know has been gone for a long, long time, and admittedly quite a world away from that of Rodgers and Hammerstein and their era of Broadway masters. But who takes the torch? Hammerstein passed it to Sondheim. Where does it go now?

I know it probably sounds hokey, but I hope it was Oscar Hammerstein (Ockie), who greeted him in Heaven today. 

[Rudy2]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 3:18am

uncageg said: "I will never forget those last moments of "Sweeney Todd" when I saw it in the summer of '79 at the, then, Uris Theater. When those final notes were sung and played and that door slammed, it was a done deal. I instantly knew that I was to be a part of the theatre community in any way I could. I sat in the empty theater just staring at the stage until an usher told me that I had to leave. I had gone to school for theater and continued taking classes. But the floodgates opened on that day and the waters have flowed ever since. Those moments really changed my life in a lot of ways.

I have been lucky enough to be in his presence twice. I never got the chance to speak directly to him to tell him what happened to me on that day I saw "Sweeney". Something I was wishing all my life I could do. He left us with SO much. All of it brilliant whether it was a favorite or not. And even knowing were probably were not going to be getting a lot more from him. Just knowing he was still with us gave us hope that we might get a bit of something new (And we might) or just that as long as he was here, his era would not go away. But yes, jacobsnchz14, it will be a sad day tomorrow knowing we will wake up without him being alive. He was a titan who touched many lives in the theater community and beyond. To say he will be missed is an understatement. May we rest in peace and may we cherish all that he has left us. Gonna turn on "A Little Night Music" pour a drink (And one for Sondheim) and be thankful that as an avid theater lover, I lived in a time that he created all he did."

What a beautiful thing you shared. Thank you for taking the time to articulate it for us. You brought me right there with you to 1979.

I write for a local (NJ) gay magazine, and I just made my first attempt to write a tribute to Sondheim that can sum up his significance to the LGBT community and the broader culture.

I’ll give myself a few days to see if I can come up with anything that has any twinge of significance and isn’t tragically sophomoric.

I clutched my chest when I saw the news tonight and cried all the way home playing pieces of “Anyone Can Whistle” and “Sunday in the Park With George.”

I got to meet and speak to Sondheim twice. I have only an idea what I said - certainly I said nothing he hadn’t heard before as I gushed about what “Sweeney Todd” means to me. What does one say to the Shakespeare of his generation?

I truly believe he is on par with Shakespeare in terms of cultural and aesthetic significance. It’s just hard to appreciate it since we shared this crazy world with him in real time.

I truly cherish the autograph from my second encounter with him. I was very fortunate, and bold. I saw he was in the audience of a play I was seeing (Nicky Silver’s “The Lyons&rdquo and ran to Colony Records during intermission and bought a copy of “Sunday in the Park…” on CD. I got back to the theater with the CD and a Sharpie in my hand, and there he was outside, chatting with fans. As he smiled that signature smile of his - utterly cynical, yet completely benevolent - he looked at my (at the time) very young face and said “Now, how did you happen to have that?” I said “I’m no fool, when I saw you I ran over to Colony Records.” He chuckled and was so gracious.

Last summer I went to an outdoor concert production of “Side by Side by Sondheim” and a dear, talented friend of mine performed “Send in the Clowns.” I just sobbed. It was only the first time I heard the song and understood every nook and cranny of it. I am in my early 30s. I have lived that song now. I know exactly what he meant. 

I was lucky enough to be in his presence a few more times back then. What I would have given to be in the audience at the November 15 “Company” preview and see him feted - I didn’t even know the previews had started yet; that’s what graduate school will do to you. The train jumps the tracks.

I told my friends weeks ago that we have to go see the revival, if only because the music is so majestic and irreplaceable, but truth be told I have been only somewhat enthused about the entirety of the project because of the gender changes and modernization of the show.

Now, there is nothing more I would love than to be in a theater full of people hearing a Sondheim score, whether the production quality be good, bad, indifferent or superlative.

But yes, I too don’t want to wake up tomorrow in a world without Sondheim in it. I wish we had an alternative.

I got to see Sondheim sit in front of Stritch as she sang one Sondheim song after another. Now they’re both gone. So is Harold Prince. Colony Records is gone, too. So much changes around us and reminds us we’re getting older, too. It sucks, it hurts, it’s poignant as hell, and when I’m through with my tears, I’ll probably remember that there’s a Sondheim song for that.

He will never be replaced.

Let’s try to remember how lucky we were to even share this planet at the same time he did. The odds weren’t in favor of it, but it happened.

I know when I see the revival I’ll be so glad to see LuPone on that stage. All the legends I grew up revering take on more importance as time passes. They get that much more precious.

Barbra singing Sondheim: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vLHsw4eu2R4

 

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Updated On: 11/27/21 at 03:18 AM

[Owen22]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 3:39am

As sad a day...as sad as this news is...I celebrate his life. I celebrate a long life of the most exceptoonal talent.

And I celebrate the fact that Stephen Sondheim is an immortal. 

 

[Impeach2017]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 4:35am

The world sucks now, and it feels like the greats are all leaving us, which makes it even suckier.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 4:44am

"It was marvelous to know you. And it's never really through."

Updated On: 11/27/21 at 04:44 AM

[Buddy's blues2]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 4:50am

Feeling really very sorry at this news but incredibly grateful for what this genius gave us over the years - rest on your laurels and in peace.

Updated On: 11/27/21 at 04:50 AM

[binau]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 4:52am

[Play Esq.]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 10:31am

Any word on dimming the lights?

[SpiritualGangster]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 10:32am

I've been reading all of these beautiful posts with a nice cup of coffee and Sondheim in the background...keep them coming...thanks for sharing such wonderful stories! 

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 10:34am

Now that I've had some time to gather my thoughts, I find that I can't be sad, only grateful. A long and happy life lived to the fullest, spry and healthy until the end of his days. I'll drink to that.

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 10:40am

GlindatheGood22 said: "Now that I've had some time to gather my thoughts, I find that I can't be sad, only grateful. A long and happy life lived to the fullest, spry and healthy until the end of his days. I'll drink to that."

Exactly. While yesterday still feels like a dream, he definitely wouldn’t want people mourning over him. 

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 11:02am

Play Esq. said: "Any word on dimming the lights?"

If they dimmed the lights for a month, it wouldn't be long enough.

[Play Esq.]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 11:08am

I couldn’t agree with this more. We have lost a legend. I’ve never been so sad to lose someone I’ve only met on a handful of occasions. 

[Kad]

Posted: 11/27/21 at 11:21am

His real gift, beyond his work, was how he encouraged and mentored others so freely. I know so many people who have letters of support or congratulations or encouragement  from him. I know so many people who were shocked when he responded to their mail with an offer to meet and discuss their work and careers. He understood the importance of nurturing the generations that followed him, of letting directors try new things with his work. He knew that his work was not the end point, that theater is reliant on the vital contributions of so many people.