Who is Stephen Sondheim?
by David Bianco, author of Gay Essentials (Alyson
Publications), a collection of his history columns.
Born in New York City on March 22, 1930, Stephen Sondheim was the only
child of
Herbert and "Foxy" Sondheim, who both worked in the garment industry.
His
parents' divorce in 1941 inadvertently set the boy on his career path in
musical theater.
Foxy used her divorce settlement to buy a farm in Bucks County,
Pennsylvania,
where she moved with her son. Famed songwriter Oscar Hammerstein II
and his family lived nearby, and Stephen quickly became a fixture in
their
household.
Hammerstein was at the peak of his Broadway career, and the young
Sondheim
began consciously emulating his famous neighbor. He even wrote a musical
play, but Hammerstein dashed his Broadway dreams when he read the
teenager's
work. "If you want to know why it's terrible, I'll tell you,"
Hammerstein
said, launching a relationship of master and apprentice that lasted
until the
older man's death in 1960.
At Williams College, Sondheim wrote another musical, All that
Glitters. His
drama professor knew Cole Porter, who agreed to listen to the score.
Sondheim
recalled that the composer "would come to the piano ... and say,
'Wouldn't
that sound a little better that way?'"
During college, Sondheim took a summer job as the office boy for
Hammerstein's Allegro, a highly innovative play that flopped. "It
was the
seminal influence on my life," Sondheim claimed, and the reason he was
drawn
to adventurous, experimental work throughout his career.
In the mid-'50s, Sondheim became friendly with Arthur Laurents, who was
working on the book of a new play, a modern retelling of the Romeo and
Juliet
story, with music by Leonard Bernstein and choreography by Jerome
Robbins.
Bernstein needed a lyricist and offered Sondheim the job.
West Side Story (1957) was a critical hit, and opportunities flew
Sondheim's way. Laurents wanted him as both composer and lyricist for a
new
musical about stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, but the star, Ethel Merman,
didn't
want an unproven composer. Jule Styne was enlisted for the music, and
Sondheim was offered the job of lyricist.
Gypsy (1959) was the last play for which Sondheim wrote lyrics
without also
composing the music. A string of critical and popular successes
followed,
each with increasingly complex and innovative music and lyrics: < i>A
Funny
Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Company
(1970), Follies
(1971), A Little Night Music (1973), Sweeney Todd (1979),
Sunday in the
Park with George (1984), Into the Woods (1987), and
Passion (1994).
Throughout most of his astonishing career, Sondheim's private life
remained
an enigma. In fact, Sondheim began questioning his sexuality in college,
when
he realized that there was "something different" about him. Men made
passes
at him when he first came to New York after graduation, but it took a
while
before he actually had sex with another man. "I was sexually very late
blooming," he said.
His first long-term relationship began late in life, with a younger man
named
Peter Jones, whom he met in 1991. The two eventually lived together and
exchanged wedding rings, but Jones has since moved out. In an
authorized biography published in 1998, Sondheim finally came out
publicly.
Now in his 70s, Sondheim is still a force in musical theater. His next
play
(with the working title Wise Guys) is about two enterprising
brothers.
Though the lead character in Company was a 30-something bachelor,
Wise
Guys is Sondheim's first play with a bona-fide gay character.
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