Sondheim's quick-witted lyrics made audiences sit up and listen in the 1950s, while his ground-breaking shows in the 70s and 80s thrust the American musical into the modern era.
(Bloomberg) Stephen Sondheim, whose quick-witted lyrics made Broadway audiences sit up and listen in the 1950s and whose cerebral, ground-breaking shows from “Company” in 1970 to “Merrily We Roll Along” more than a decade later thrust the American musical into the modern era, has died. He was 91.
Stephen Sondheim is renowned for his work as the lyricist for West Side Story (1957) and Gypsy (1959), as well as his work as a composer/lyricist for Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), Sweeney Todd (1979), Into the Woods (1986), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), and Assassins (1990).