Coordinates	19°45′″N96°12′″N
Name	Stephen Sondheim
Background	non_performing_personnel
Birth name	Stephen Joshua Sondheim
Born	March 22, 1930New York City, New York, U.S.
Genre	Musical theatre
Occupation	Composer, lyricist
Years active	1954–present

Stephen Joshua Sondheim (born March 22, 1930) is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards (eight, more than any other composer) including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, and a Pulitzer Prize. His most famous scores include (as composer/lyricist) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, , Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and Assassins, as well as the lyrics for West Side Story and . He was president of the Dramatists Guild from 1973 to 1981.

Early years

Sondheim was born to a Jewish family in New York City to Etta Janet (née Fox) and Herbert Sondheim. He grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and later, after his parents divorced, on a farm near Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Herbert, his father, was a dress manufacturer and Foxy, his mother, designed the dresses. As an only child of well-to-do parents living in The San Remo on Central Park West, he is described in Meryle Secrest's biography, Stephen Sondheim: A Life, as having had an isolated and emotionally neglected childhood. While living in New York, Stephen Sondheim attended the Ethical Culture affiliated Fieldston School. Later, Sondheim attended George School, a private Quaker preparatory school in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where he wrote his first musical ("By George!"). He attended Camp Androscoggin. He graduated from the New York Military Academy in 1946.

Sondheim traces his interest in theater to Very Warm for May, a Broadway musical he saw at age nine. "The curtain went up and revealed a piano," Sondheim recalled. "A butler took a duster and brushed it up, tinkling the keys. I thought that was thrilling."

When Stephen was ten, his father, a distant figure, abandoned him and his mother. Stephen famously despised Foxy; he once wrote a thank-you note to close friend Mary Rodgers that read, "Dear Mary and Hank, Thanks for the plate, but where was my mother's head? Love, Steve." His mother was allegedly psychologically abusive and distant, using Sondheim as a form of replacement for his father: for example, she would hold his hand at movies. His father sought custody of Stephen, but because he had left Foxy for another woman (Alicia), his efforts failed. Herbert and Alicia had two sons together.

Career

Mentored by Oscar Hammerstein II

At about the age of ten, around the time of his parents' divorce, Sondheim became friends with Jimmy Hammerstein, son of the lyricist and playwright Oscar Hammerstein II. The elder Hammerstein became Sondheim's surrogate father, helping the young man stay away from home as much as possible. Hammerstein had a profound influence on the young Sondheim, especially in developing a love for musical theater. Indeed, it was at the opening of Hammerstein's hit show South Pacific that Sondheim met Harold Prince, who would later direct many of Sondheim's most famous shows. While at the George School, Sondheim wrote a comic musical based on the goings-on of his school, entitled By George. It was a major success among his peers, and it considerably buoyed the young songwriter's ego; he took it to Hammerstein, and asked him to evaluate it as though he had no knowledge of its author. Hammerstein said it was the worst thing he had ever seen. "But if you want to know why it's terrible," Hammerstein offered, "I'll tell you." The rest of the day was spent going over the musical, and Sondheim would later say that "in that afternoon I learned more about songwriting and the musical theater than most people learn in a lifetime."

Thus began one of the most famous apprenticeships in the musical theatre, as Hammerstein designed a kind of course for Sondheim on the construction of a musical. This training primarily involved having Sondheim write four musicals, each with one of the following preconditions:

Based on a play he admired (which became All That Glitters)

Based on a play he thought was flawed (which became High Tor)

Based on an existing novel or short story not previously dramatized (which became his unfinished Mary Poppins, not connected to the musical film and stage play scored by the Sherman Brothers.)

An original (which became Climb High)

None of these "assignment" musicals were ever produced professionally. High Tor and Mary Poppins have never been produced at all, because the rights holders for the original works refused permission.

In 1950, Sondheim graduated magna cum laude from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He went on to study composition with the composer Milton Babbitt. Sondheim says that when he asked Babbitt if he could study atonality, Babbitt replied “You haven’t exhausted tonal resources for yourself yet, so I’m not going to teach you atonal." Sondheim agreed, and despite frequent dissonance and a highly chromatic style, his music remains resolutely tonal.

Broadway lyricist

"A few painful years of struggle" followed for Sondheim, during which he continually auditioned songs, living in his father's dining room to save money; he also spent time in Hollywood writing for the television series Topper.

In 1954, Sondheim wrote both music and lyrics for Saturday Night, which was never produced on Broadway and was shelved until a 1997 production at London's Bridewell Theatre. In 1998 Saturday Night received a professional recording, followed by a revised version with two new songs and an Off-Broadway run at Second Stage Theatre in 2000 and a full British premiere with the new songs due in 2009 at London's Jermyn Street Theatre.

Sondheim's big break came when he wrote the lyrics to West Side Story, lyricizing Leonard Bernstein's music and Arthur Laurents's book. The 1957 show, directed by Jerome Robbins, ran for 732 performances. While this may be the best-known show Sondheim ever worked on, he has expressed dissatisfaction with his lyrics, stating they don't always fit the characters and are sometimes too consciously poetic. It has been rumored that while Bernstein was off trying to fix the musical Candide, Sondheim wrote some of the music for West Side Story, and that Bernstein’s co-lyricist billing mysteriously disappeared from the credits of West Side Story during the tryout, presumably as a trade-off.

In 1959, he wrote the lyrics for the musical, . Sondheim would have liked to write the music as well, but Ethel Merman, the star, insisted on a composer with a track record. Thus, Jule Styne was hired. Sondheim questioned if he should write only the lyrics for yet another show, but Hammerstein told him writing for a star would be valuable experience. Sondheim worked closely with book writer Arthur Laurents to create the show. It ran 702 performances.

Eventually Sondheim wrote both the music and lyrics, for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. It opened in 1962 and ran 964 performances. The book, based on the farces of Plautus, was written by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart. Sondheim's score was not especially well-received at the time. Even though the show won several Tony Awards, including best musical, Sondheim did not even receive a nomination. In addition, some critics felt the songs were not properly integrated into the farcical action.

At this point, Sondheim had participated in three straight hits. His next show ended the streak. Anyone Can Whistle (1964) was a 9-performance flop, although it introduced Angela Lansbury to musical theatre and has developed a cult following.

In 1965 he wrote the lyrics only for Do I Hear a Waltz?, with music by Richard Rodgers. He has said that this is the one project he has regretted. To aficionados, Sondheim's musical sophistication is considered to be greater than that of many of his musical theater peers, and his lyrics are likewise renowned for their ambiguity, wit, and urbanity.

Sondheim collaborated with producer/director Harold Prince on six musicals between 1970 and 1981. Company (1970) centered on a set of characters and themes rather than a straightforward plot. Follies (1971) was similarly-structured, filled with pastiche songs echoing styles of earlier composers. A Little Night Music (1973), a more traditionally plotted show based on the film Smiles of a Summer Night by Ingmar Bergman, was one of his greatest successes. Time magazine called it "Sondheim's most brilliant accomplishment to date." Notably, the score was mostly composed in waltz time (either ¾ time, or multiples thereof.) Further success was accorded to A Little Night Music when "Send in the Clowns" became a hit single for Judy Collins. Although it was Sondheim's only Top 40 hit, his songs are frequently performed and recorded by cabaret artists and theatre singers in their solo careers.

By Bernstein premiered at the off-broadway Westside Theatre on November 23, 1975 and closed on December 7, 1975. It ran for 17 performances and 40 previews. The lyrics and music were by Leonard Bernstein, with additional lyrics from other lyricists, including Sondheim. It was conceived and written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The production was directed by Michael Bawtree with a cast of Jack Bittner, Margery Cohen, Jim Corti, Ed Dixon, Patricia Elliott, Kurt Peterson, and Janie Sell. The two known songs that had Sondheim contributions are "In There" from the adaption of The Exception and the Rule (which would later be named The Race to Urga) and a cut song from West Side Story "Kids Ain't (Like Everybody Else)".

Pacific Overtures (1976) was the most non-traditional of the Sondheim-Prince collaborations, an intellectual exploration of the westernization of Japan. (1979), Sondheim's most operatic score and libretto (which, along with A Little Night Music, has been seen in opera houses), once again explores an unlikely topic, this time murderous revenge and cannibalism. The book, by Hugh Wheeler, is based on Christopher Bond's 1973 stage version of the Victorian original.

Merrily We Roll Along (1981), with a book by George Furth, is one of Sondheim's more "traditional" scores and was thought to hold potential to generate some hit songs (Frank Sinatra and Carly Simon each recorded a different song from the show). Sondheim's music director, Paul Gemignani, said, “Part of Steve’s ability is this extraordinary versatility.” Merrily, however, was a 16-performance flop. "Merrily did not succeed, but its score endures thanks to subsequent productions and recordings. According to Martin Gottfried, "Sondheim had set out to write traditional songs… But [despite] that there is nothing ordinary about the music." Sondheim and Furth have extensively revised the show since its initial opening.

Collaborations with James Lapine (1984–1994)

The failure of Merrily greatly affected Sondheim; he was ready to quit theater and do movies or create video games or write mysteries. He was later quoted as saying, "I wanted to find something to satisfy myself that does not involve Broadway and dealing with all those people who hate me and hate Hal." The collaboration between Sondheim and Prince would largely end after Merrily - until the 2003 production of Bounce, another failure.

However, instead of quitting the theater following the failure of Merrily, Sondheim decided "that there are better places to start a show", and found a new collaborator in the "artsy" James Lapine. Lapine has a taste "for the avant-garde and for visually oriented theater in particular." Sunday in the Park with George (1984), their first collaboration, was avant-garde, but they approached it with the commercial theater's professionalism and made a real musical. Sondheim's music evoked the pointillist painting technique of its subject, Georges Seurat.

In 1985, he and Lapine won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Sunday in the Park with George. It is one of only nine musicals to receive this prestigious award. The show had its first revival on Broadway in 2008. The Sondheim-Lapine collaboration also produced the fairy-tale show Into the Woods (1987) and the rhapsodic Passion (1994). 1990 saw the opening of Sondheim's Assassins off-Broadway.

Later work

In the late nineties, Sondheim reunited with Hal Prince for Wise Guys, a long-in-the-works musical comedy about brothers Addison and Wilson Mizner. Though a Broadway production starring Nathan Lane and Victor Garber and directed by Sam Mendes was announced for Spring 2000, the New York debut of the musical was delayed. Rechristened Bounce in 2003, the show was mounted at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.. Bounce received disappointing reviews and never reached Broadway. A revised version of Bounce premiered off-Broadway at The Public Theater under the new name Road Show from October 28, 2008 through December 28, 2008, under the direction of John Doyle.

Regarding his interest in writing new work, Sondheim was quoted in a 2006 Time Out: London interview as saying, "No... It's age. It's a diminution of energy and the worry that there are no new ideas. It’s also an increasing lack of confidence. I’m not the only one. I’ve checked with other people. People expect more of you and you’re aware of it and you shouldn’t be." In December 2007, however, Sondheim said that, along with continued work on Bounce, he was "nibbling at a couple of things with John Weidman and James Lapine."

Lapine created a "multimedia revue", formerly titled Sondheim: a Musical Revue, which had been scheduled to premiere in April 2009 at the Alliance Theatre, Atlanta, Georgia. However that production was canceled, due to "difficulties encountered by the commercial producers attached to the project...in raising the necessary funds". A revised version, Sondheim on Sondheim, was produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company and premiered on Broadway at Studio 54 in a limited engagement from March 19, 2010 in previews, opening April 22 through June 13. The cast featured Barbara Cook, Vanessa L. Williams, Tom Wopat, Norm Lewis and Leslie Kritzer.

Conversation with Frank Rich

On April 28, 2002, during the Sondheim Celebration at the Kennedy Center, Sondheim and Frank Rich of the New York Times held a "conversation".

In March 2008, Sondheim and Rich appeared in four interviews/conversations in California and Portland, Oregon titled "A Little Night Conversation with Stephen Sondheim".

In September 2008, they appeared at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. The Cleveland Jewish News reported on the Oberlin event, writing: "Sondheim said: 'Movies are photographs; the stage is larger than life.' What musicals does Sondheim admire the most? Porgy and Bess tops a list which includes Carousel, She Loves Me, and The Wiz, which he saw six times. Sondheim took a dim view of today’s musicals. What works now, he said, are musicals that are easy to take; audiences don’t want to be challenged."

Sondheim and Rich had more conversations on January 18, 2009 at Avery Fisher Hall, on February 2, 2009 at the Landmark Theater, Richmond, Virginia, on February 21, 2009 at the Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and on April 20, 2009 at the University of Akron College of Fine and Applied Arts, EJ Thomas Hall, Akron, Ohio. The conversations were reprised at Tufts and Brown Universities in February 2010 and the University of Tulsa in April 2010.

Sondheim had an additional "conversation with" Sean Patrick Flahaven (associate editor of The Sondheim Review) at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, on February 4, 2009, during which he spoke of many of his songs and shows. "On the perennial struggles of Broadway: 'I don’t see any solution for Broadway's problems except subsidized theater, as in most civilized countries of the world.'"

Work away from Broadway

Sondheim's career has been varied, encompassing much beyond the composition of musicals.

An avid fan of games, in 1968 and 1969 Sondheim published a series of cryptic crossword puzzles in New York magazine. In 1987, Time referred to his love of puzzlemaking as "legendary in theater circles," adding that the central character in Anthony Shaffer's hit play Sleuth was inspired by Sondheim. (There was a rumor that Sleuth was given the working title Who's Afraid of Stephen Sondheim?, but in a New York Times interview on March 10, 1996, Shaffer denied ever using the title.)

Sondheim worked with William Goldman on Singing Out Loud, a movie musical. Sondheim states that Goldman wrote 1-2 drafts of the script and Sondheim wrote six and a half songs, only to have director Rob Reiner lose interest in the project. The songs Dawn and Sand from the project were recorded for the albums Sondheim at the Movies and Unsung Sondheim.

Sondheim also wrote some new songs for a proposed Into the Woods film, including one song entitled Rainbows, which Sondheim claims will be in his second book. The project never got further than a readthrough. Sondheim said "It's going to be long. I'm not, by nature, a prose writer, but I'm literate, and I have a couple of people who are vetting it for me, whom I trust, who are excellent prose writers." The first volume, Finishing the Hat, was published in October 2010. Sondheim later appeared on The Colbert Report to promote it. The review of the book in The New York Times stated that "The lyrics under consideration here, written during a 27-year period, aren’t presented as fixed and sacred paradigms, carefully removed from tissue paper for our reverent inspection. They’re living, evolving, flawed organisms, still being shaped and poked and talked to by the man who created them." The book was number 11 on The New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction list for November 5, 2010. A second volume, Look, I Made a Hat: Volume Two, will follow.

Major works

Unless otherwise noted, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

Saturday Night (1954, though unproduced until 1997) (book by Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein)

West Side Story (1957) (music by Leonard Bernstein; book by Arthur Laurents; directed by Jerome Robbins)

(1959) (music by Jule Styne; book by Arthur Laurents; directed by Jerome Robbins)

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962) (book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart; directed by George Abbott)

Anyone Can Whistle (1964) (book by Arthur Laurents; directed by Arthur Laurents)

Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965) (music by Richard Rodgers; book by Arthur Laurents; directed by John Dexter)

Company (1970) (book by George Furth; directed by Hal Prince)

Follies (1971) (book by James Goldman; directed by Hal Prince)

A Little Night Music (1973) (book by Hugh Wheeler; directed by Hal Prince)

Pacific Overtures (1976) (book by John Weidman; directed by Hal Prince)

(1979) (book by Hugh Wheeler; directed by Hal Prince)

Merrily We Roll Along (1981) (book by George Furth; directed by Hal Prince)

Sunday in the Park with George (1984) (book by James Lapine; directed by James Lapine)

Into the Woods (1987) (book by James Lapine; directed by James Lapine)

Assassins (1990) (book by John Weidman; directed by Jerry Zaks)

Passion (1994) (book by James Lapine; directed by James Lapine)

Bounce (2003) (book by John Weidman; directed by Hal Prince); retitled Road Show

The Frogs - a musical version of Aristophanes' comedy with book by Burt Shevelove (1974). Second version (2004) with revised book by Nathan Lane, contains seven new songs. First performed in the Yale University swimming pool in May 1974.

Road Show (2008) (book by John Weidman; directed by John Doyle); (formerly titled Bounce)

Revues and anthologies

Side By Side By Sondheim (1976), Marry Me A Little (1980), You're Gonna Love Tomorrow (1983) Putting It Together (1993), and Sondheim on Sondheim (2010) are anthologies or revues of Sondheim's work as composer and lyricist, featuring both songs performed and cut from productions. Jerome Robbins' Broadway features "You Gotta Have a Gimmick" from Gypsy, "Suite of Dances" from West Side Story, and "Comedy Tonight" from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. A new revue, Secret Sondheim . . . a celebration of his lesser known work, conceived and directed by Tim McArthur, plays the Jermyn Street Theatre, London, in July 2010.

Sondheim's work is also featured in The Madwoman of Central Park West, including the songs "Pretty Women" and "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid".

Minor works

Stage

Girls of Summer (1956) (incidental music by Sondheim; play by N. Richard Nash)

Invitation to a March (1960) (incidental music by Sondheim; play by Arthur Laurents)

The World of Jules Feiffer (1962) (incidental music by Sondheim; sketches by Jules Feiffer)

Hot Spot (1963) (music mostly by Mary Rodgers; lyrics mostly by Martin Charnin)

The Mad Show (1966) (music mostly by Mary Rodgers; lyrics mostly by Marshall Barer) wrote the lyric for "The Boy From...", a parody of ''The Girl from Ipanema.'(Credited as Esteban Rio Nido [a translation of Stephen Sondheim])

The Enclave (1973) (incidental music to the play by Arthur Laurents)

Candide - Second Version (1974) (new lyrics by Sondheim; original lyrics by Richard Wilbur; music by Leonard Bernstein; Book by Hugh Wheeler)

By Bernstein (1975) (music and lyrics by Leonard Bernstein, written and conceived by Betty Comden and Adolph Green)

Getting Away With Murder (1996), a "comedy thriller" (non-musical play), co-written with George Furth.

King Lear (2007), incidental music for a Public Theater production of the Shakespeare tragedy, composed with orchestrator Michael Starobin. The production was directed by James Lapine and starred Kevin Kline.

Film and TV

Topper (circa 1953), a non-musical television comedy series for which Sondheim co-wrote eleven episodes.

Evening Primrose (1966), a made-for-TV musical about a secret society of people living in department stores and the romance between Ella, a department store denizen, and Charles, a poet who decides to live in the department store after renouncing the world. Four songs, including the cabaret standard "Take Me To The World" and the well-loved, if lesser-known, ballad "I Remember".

The Last of Sheila (1973), a nonmusical film mystery written with Anthony Perkins. Perkins and Sondheim received a 1974 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Motion Picture Screenplay.

Sondheim appears in the 1974 PBS television version of the play June Moon by George S. Kaufman and Ring Lardner. In the film, Sondheim plays a wise-cracking pianist named Maxie Schwartz.

"The Madam's Song", also called "I Never Do Anything Twice", for the film The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976).

The score for Alain Resnais's film Stavisky (1974).

In 1976 Sondheim appeared, together with theater critic Frank Rich, John Weidman (book for "Pacific Overtures") and members of the original cast of "Pacific Overtures" in a television program titled "Anatomy of a Song." Sondheim plays piano as cast sings the song "Someone in a Tree". Sondheim discusses his working methods, the genesis of the show, and names "Someone in a Tree" his favorite song to date.

A Little Night Music, (1977) a movie adaptation of the stage work. Several of Sondheim's songs were dropped for the film version. However, he wrote a completely new song entitled "The Glamorous Life" to take the place of the song by the same name from the stage version. Sondheim also wrote new lyrics to "Night Waltz."

Music for the film Reds starring Warren Beatty (1981), including the song "Goodbye For Now."

Five songs for Warren Beatty's film Dick Tracy (1990), including "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)", which won the Academy Award for Best Song.

Two songs for the film The Birdcage (1996) "It Takes All Kinds" (not used) and "Little Dream".

Cameo as himself in the 2003 film Camp.

Sondheim had a guest part on The Simpsons episode "Yokel Chords" as himself (2007).

Sweeney Todd, (2007) a movie adaptation of the stage work, made with Sondheim's participation and approval, was directed by Tim Burton, featuring a largely-nonmusical cast led by Johnny Depp (who was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actor) and Helena Bonham Carter. All choral numbers were cut to focus more on the primary characters. The movie, in the USA and abroad, grossed over $150 million.

Honors and awards

;Sondheim at 80 Several benefits and concerts were performed to celebrate Sondheim's 80th birthday in 2010. Among them were the New York Philharmonic's Sondheim: The Birthday Concert, which was held March 15 and 16, 2010 at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall and hosted by David Hyde Pierce. The concert included Sondheim music and songs performed, in some cases, by the original performers. Lonny Price directed, with Paul Gemignani conducting. A few of the many performers included Michael Cerveris, Joanna Gleason, Nathan Gunn, George Hearn, Patti LuPone, Marin Mazzie, Audra McDonald, John McMartin, Donna Murphy, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Elaine Stritch and Chip Zien. The concert was telecast on the PBS "Great Performances" show during November 2010, and the DVD of the performance was released on November 16, 2010.

The Roundabout Theatre Company benefit Sondheim 80 was held on March 22, 2010. The evening included a performance of Sondheim on Sondheim, plus dinner and a show at the New York Sheraton. There was "a very personal star-studded musical tribute" with new songs by contemporary musical theatre writers. The composers, who sang their own songs, included Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, Michael John LaChiusa, Andrew Lippa, Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Lin-Manuel Miranda (accompanied by Rita Moreno), Duncan Sheik, and Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire. Bernadette Peters performed a song (unnamed) that was dropped from a Sondheim show.

The New York City Center birthday celebration and benefit concert on April 26, 2010 featured about twenty principal performers from Sondheim's shows, such as Nathan Lane, Angela Lansbury, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Len Cariou, Raul Esparza, Joanna Gleason, Donna Murphy, and B. D. Wong, with direction by John Doyle and co-hosted by Mia Farrow. One of the beneficiaries of the concert was Young Playwrights Inc.

On 31 July 2010, a BBC Proms concert was held to celebrate Sondheim's 80th Birthday at the Royal Albert Hall in London. It featured songs from many of his musicals, including a performance of "Send in the Clowns" from A Little Night Music by Dame Judi Dench (reprising her role as Desirée from the 1995 production of that musical), and performances from many other stars of opera, Broadway, stage and screen, including Bryn Terfel and Maria Friedman.

On November 19, 2010, The New York Pops performed at Carnegie Hall to celebrate Sondheim's 80th birthday, led by Steven Reineke. Kate Baldwin, Aaron Lazar, Christiane Noll, Paul Betz, Renee Rakelle, Marilyn Maye (singing "I’m Still Here"), and Alexander Gemignani were all on hand to sing songs including "I Remember", "Another Hundred People", "Children Will Listen", and "Getting Married Today". Sondheim made an on-stage appearance during the concert's encore of his song "Old Friends".

;Honors Sondheim has received the following honors:

Hutchinson Prize for Music Composition (at college graduation, 1950)

Elected to The American Academy of Arts and Letters (1983)

Kennedy Center Honors, Lifetime Achievement, (1993)

The Algur H. Meadows Award, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas (November 12, 1994, taped and televised on the A&E; television network January 12, 1995)

;Awards He has won these awards:

Pulitzer Prize in Drama, Sunday in the Park with George (1985)

Academy Award for Best Song, "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)" from Dick Tracy (1990)

;Grammy Awards

Company (1970, Best Score from an Original Cast Album)

A Little Night Music (1973, Best Score from an Original Cast Album)

"Send in the Clowns" (1975, Song of the Year)

Sweeney Todd (1979, Best Cast Show Album)

Sunday in the Park With George (1984, Best Cast Show Album)

Into the Woods (1988, Best Musical Cast Show Album)

Passion (1994, Best Musical Cast Show Album)

West Side Story (2010, Best Musical Cast Show Album)

;Tony Awards

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1963, Best Musical)

Company (1971, Best Score, Best Lyrics)

Follies (1972, Best Score)

A Little Night Music (1973 Best Score)

Sweeney Todd (1979, Best Score)

Into The Woods (1988, Best Score)

Passion (1994 Best Score)

Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre (2008)

;Drama Desk Awards

Company (1969–70, Best Musical, Outstanding Music, Outstanding Lyrics)

Follies (1970–71, Outstanding Music, Outstanding Lyrics)

A Little Night Music (1972–73, Outstanding Music and Lyrics)

Sweeney Todd (1978–79, Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Music, Outstanding Lyrics)

Sunday in the Park with George (1983–84, Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Lyrics)

Into the Woods (1987–88, Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Lyrics)

Passion (1993–94, Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Music, Outstanding Lyrics)

;OBIE Awards

Road Show (2009, Music and Lyrics)

Legacy

;Young Playwrights This organization, founded by Sondheim in 1981, is intended to introduce young people to writing for the theatre. He is the Executive Vice President.

;The Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts The Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts opened December 7–9, 2007, and is located at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center in Fairfield, Iowa. The Center opened with performances from seven Broadway performers, including Len Cariou, Liz Callaway, and Richard Kind, all of whom had taken part in the musicals of Sondheim. The center is the first one in the world named after him, with a Broadway theater the second.

;The Stephen Sondheim Society In 1993 the Stephen Sondheim Society was set up to promote and provide information about the works of Stephen Sondheim. The Sondheim Review is a quarterly magazine devoted to Sondheim's work. The Society aims to create a greater interest and appreciation of them by means of circulating information and providing a focal point where those interested can share such interests. It issues news, provides education, maintains a database of information, organizes productions, meetings, outings, and other events, assists with publicity and promotion, publishes articles, and performs other tasks.

;Media Most of the episode titles from the television series Desperate Housewives reference his work in some way, through the use of either song titles or lyrics.

;Musical Theatre Development In 1990, Sondheim took the Cameron Mackintosh chair in musical theatre at Oxford, and in this capacity ran workshops with promising writers of musicals, such as George Stiles, Anthony Drewe, Andrew Peggie, Paul James, Stephen Keeling and others. These writers jointly set up the Mercury Workshop in 1992, which eventually merged with the New Musicals Alliance to become MMD, a UK-based organisation developing new musical theatre, of which Sondheim continues to be patron.

;The Sondheim Award The Signature Theatre, Arlington, Virginia, established a new award, "The Sondheim Award", "as a tribute to America's most influential contemporary musical theatre composer." The first award was presented at a gala fund-raiser on April 27, 2009, with help from performers Bernadette Peters, Michael Cerveris, Will Gartshore and Eleasha Gamble. Sondheim himself was the first recipient of the award, which also includes a $5000 honorarium for the recipients' choice of a nonprofit organization. The 2010 honoree was Angela Lansbury, with Peters and Catherine Zeta-Jones as honorary hosts for the Gala Benefit held on April 12, 2010.

;The Stephen Sondheim Theatre A Broadway theater at West 43rd Street in New York City, The Henry Miller's Theatre, was renamed The Stephen Sondheim Theatre on September 15, 2010, in honor of his 80th birthday. The new theater's first shows were The Pee-wee Herman Show and the 2011 Broadway revival of Cole Porter's Anything Goes starring Tony Award-winner, Sutton Foster. The theater is operated by the Roundabout Theatre Company.

Personal life

In The Times in 2009, Alan Franks wrote: "Sondheim came out as gay only when he was about 40, and did not live with a partner until he was 61. This was Peter Jones, a dramatist; the two lived together for several years, until 1999." Sondheim discussed relationships in an interview with Frank Rich, who wrote, "His long solitary spell, he says, didn't faze him.... Well, in his case, does being gay play a part in it? 'Homosexuality, certainly it's a part of it. But the outsider feeling – somebody who people want to both kiss and kill – occurred quite early in my life.'" Sondheim's social life in the NYC gay scene is also discussed in many books by Alan Helms.

See also

Assassinations in fiction

The Sondheim Review

Notes

References

Gottfried, Martin. Sondheim (1993), New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., ISBN 0-8109-3844-8

Secrest, Meryle. Stephen Sondheim: A Life (1998), New York: Alfred A. Knopf, ISBN 0-679-44817-9

Zadan, Craig. Sondheim & Co (1986, 2nd ed.), New York: Harper & Row, ISBN 0-06-015649-X

Further reading

Guernsey, Otis L. (Editor). Broadway Song and Story: Playwrights/Lyricists/Composers Discuss Their Hits (1986), Dodd Mead, ISBN 0-396-08753-1

External links

The Stephen Sondheim Society Web site of The Stephen Sondheim Society

The Quotable Stephen Sondheim Page

MusicalTalk Podcast featuring interview with Sondheim, Depp, Burton, Rickman, Carter and others.

MusicalTalk Podcast discussing the concert production of Sweeney Todd held at the Royal Festival Hall in the summer of 2007 in London. This episode features Emma Williams who along with being a MusicalTalk presenter, also starred as Johanna for this concert.

MusicalTalk Podcast with an in depth introduction to the work of Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Sondheim online-with Finishing The Chat

The Stephen Sondheim Reference Guide Comprehensive listings of productions and recordings information

Fresh Air NPR radio interview with Sondheim from 2000 (20 minutes, streaming audio)

Kennedy Center interview with Sondheim, conducted by Frank Rich in 2002 (90 minutes, streaming video)

Stephen Sondheim Center for Performing Arts

MMD - developing new musical theatre with Sondheim as patron

Stephen Sondheim "The Story So Far" podcast series produced by Sony BMG Masterworks

News article "Sondheim 'Story So Far' available 9/30, including previously unreleased tracks", BroadwayWorld.com

Review "Sondheim has more story to tell" USA Today, 10/8/08

Stephen Sondeim: Alumni of Distinction – New York Military Academy archives page

Stephen Sondheim symposium held at Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2005

BroadwayWorld.com interview with Stephen Sondheim, December 20, 2007

Review of "Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981)" November 2010

Category:American musical theatre composers Category:American musical theatre lyricists Category:Drama Desk Award winners Category:Edgar Award winners Category:Ethical Culture Fieldston School alumni Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Jewish classical musicians Category:Jewish American composers and songwriters Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:LGBT composers from the United States Category:American Jews Category:LGBT Jews Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Category:New York Military Academy alumni Category:People from New York City Category:Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners Category:Puzzle designers Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:Williams College alumni Category:1930 births Category:Living people Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music

Coordinates	19°45′″N96°12′″N
Name	Tony Kushner
Caption	Kushner protesting at Columbia University in 1978
Birth name	Anthony Robert Kushner
Birth date	July 16, 1956
Birth place	New York City, New York, USA
Nationality	United States
Alma mater	Columbia UniversityNew York University
Occupation	Playwright, screenwriter
Partner	Mark Harris
Name	Kushner, Tony
Date of birth	16 July 1956
Place of birth	New York City, New York, USA

Category:1956 births Category:AIDS activists Category:American agnostics Category:American dramatists and playwrights Category:American socialists Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Gay writers Category:Jewish American writers Category:Jewish dramatists and playwrights Category:Juilliard School faculty Category:LGBT Jews Category:LGBT writers from the United States Category:Living people Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Category:People from Lake Charles, Louisiana Category:Princess Grace Awards winners Category:Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners Category:Tony Award winners Category:American Jews

Coordinates	19°45′″N96°12′″N
Name	James Lapine
Birth date	January 10, 1949
Birth place	Mansfield, Ohio, USA
Nationality	United States
Spouse	Sarah Kernochan
Awards

James Lapine (born January 10, 1949) is an American stage director and librettist.

Personal life

Lapine was born in Mansfield, Ohio and graduated from Franklin and Marshall College. He went to do graduate study in both photography and graphic design at the California Institute of the Arts. He was a photographer, graphic designer, and architectural preservationist before being introduced to theatre when he was hired as a scenic designer at Yale University. He is married to screenwriter/director Sarah Kernochan. The couple's daughter is food writer Phoebe Lapine.

Theatre work

As a director, Lapine has worked on:

Photography of Gertrude Stein (1977)

March of the Falsettos (1981) - composed by William Finn

Sunday in the Park with George (1984) - composed by Stephen Sondheim

Merrily We Roll Along (1985, La Jolla Playhouse)- composed by Stephen Sondheim

Into the Woods (1987) - composed by Stephen Sondheim

Falsettos (1992) - composed by William Finn

Passion (1994) - composed by Stephen Sondheim

Into the Woods (revival) - 1997

The Diary of Anne Frank (1997) - written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett

Golden Child (1998) - written by David Henry Hwang

Der Glockner von Notre Dame (1999, in Berlin) - composed by Alan Menken & Stephen Schwartz

Dirty Blonde (2000) - written by Claudia Shear

Into the Woods (revival) - 2002

Amour (2002) - composed by Michel Legrand

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (2005) - composed by William Finn

Sondheim on Sondheim (2010) - musical revue of Stephen Sondheim work

For film, he has directed:

Earthly Possessions (1999, TV) - starring Susan Sarandon, Stephen Dorff

Life with Mikey (1993) - starring Michael J. Fox, Cyndi Lauper

Impromptu (1991) - starring Judy Davis, Hugh Grant, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters

He has written the libretti for the following musicals:

Sunday in the Park with George - 1984

Into the Woods - 1987

Falsettos - 1992

Passion - 1994

Der Glockner von Notre Dame - 1999 (in Berlin)

A New Brain (Off-Broadway) - 1999

He has written several plays including:

Table Settings (1978)

Twelve Dreams (1978)

Luck, Pluck, and Virtue (1994)

The Moment When (2000)

Fran's Bed (2005)

It is rumoured (and unconfirmed) that Lapine will direct the upcoming 2012 Broadway revival of Annie.

Awards and nominations

; Awards

1984 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Book - Sunday in the Park with George

1984 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Musical - Sunday in the Park with George

1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama - Sunday in the Park with George

1988 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Book of a Musical - Into the Woods

1988 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical - Into the Woods

1992 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical - Falsettos

1994 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Book - Passion

1994 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical - Passion

2005 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Musical - The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

; Nominations

1984 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical - Sunday in the Park with George

1984 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical - Sunday in the Park with George

1988 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Musical - Into the Woods

1988 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical - Into the Woods

1992 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical - Falsettos

1994 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Musical - Passion

1994 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical - Passion

1999 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Book of a Musical - ''A New Brain

2000 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Play - Dirty Blonde

2000 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play - Dirty Blonde

2002 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Musical - Into the Woods

2002 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical - Into the Woods

2003 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Musical - Amour

2005 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical - The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

References

Haagensen, Erik J. "The Passion of James Lapine." SHOWmusic The Musical Theatre Magazine 1994: ppgs.11-16

External links

TonyAwards.com Interview with James Lapine

Official Site of James Lapine

Category:1949 births Category:Living people Category:American musical theatre librettists Category:American musical theatre directors Category:Drama Desk Award winners Category:Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners Category:Franklin & Marshall College alumni

Coordinates	19°45′″N96°12′″N
Name	Barbra Streisand
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Barbara Joan Streisand
Born	April 24, 1942Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Genre	Broadway, traditional pop, adult contemporary
Occupation	singer-songwriter, actress, film producer, director
Other names	Mrs. Elliotvt Gould, Barbra Streisand Gould, Mrs. Barbra Gould, Ms. Barbra Streisand, Mrs. James Brolin, Barbra Gould Brolin, Barbra Streisand Gould Brolin, Mrs. Barbra Streisand, Mrs. Barbra Brolin
Years active	1957–present
Label	Columbia Records
Url
Spouse	Elliott Gould (1963–1971)James Brolin (1998–present)

Barbra Joan Streisand (pronounced ; born April 24, 1942) is a American singer-songwriter, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, and a Peabody Award. She is the best-selling female artist on the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) Top Selling Artists list, the only female recording artist in the top ten, and the only artist outside of the rock and roll genre. Along with Frank Sinatra, Cher, and Shirley Jones, she shares the distinction of being awarded an acting Oscar and also recording a number-one single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.

According to the RIAA, Streisand holds the record for the most top ten albums of any female recording artist - a total of 31 since 1963. Streisand has the widest span (46 years) between first and latest top ten albums of any female recording artist. With her 2009 album, Love Is the Answer, she became the only artist to achieve number-one albums in five consecutive decades. According to the RIAA, she has released 51 Gold albums, 30 Platinum albums, and 13 Multi-Platinum albums in the United States. She attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn and joined the Freshman Chorus and Choral Club. Diana Rosen Streisand remarried and gave Barbra a half-sister who grew up to become a professional singer with the name Roslyn Kind.

Barbra Streisand became a nightclub singer while in her teens. She wanted to be an actress and appeared in summer stock and in a number of Off-Off-Broadway productions, including Driftwood (1959), with the then-unknown Joan Rivers. (In her autobiography, Rivers wrote that she played a lesbian with a crush on Streisand's character, but this was later refuted by the play's author.) Driftwood ran for only six weeks. When her boyfriend, Barry Dennen, helped her create a club act—first performed at The Lion, a popular gay nightclub in Manhattan's Greenwich Village in 1960—she achieved success as a singer. While singing at The Lion for several weeks, she changed her name to Barbra. One early appearance outside of New York City was at Enrico Banducci’s hungry i nightclub in San Francisco. In 1961, Streisand appeared at the Town and Country nightclub in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, but her appearance was cut short; the club owner did not appreciate her singing style. Streisand's first television appearance was on The Tonight Show, then hosted by Jack Paar, in 1961, singing Harold Arlen's A Sleepin' Bee. Orson Bean, who substituted for Paar that night, had seen the singer perform at a gay bar and booked her for the telecast. (Her older brother Sheldon paid NBC for a kinescope film so she could use it in 1961 to promote herself. Decades later the film was preserved through digitizing and is available for viewing on a website.) Streisand became a semi-regular on PM East/PM West, a talk/variety series hosted by Mike Wallace, in late 1961. Westinghouse Broadcasting, which aired PM East/PM West in a select few cities (Boston, New York, Baltimore, Washington, DC, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago and San Francisco), has since wiped all the videotapes because of the cost of videotape at the time. Audio segments from some episodes are part of the compilation CD Just for the Record, which went platinum in 1991. The singer said on 60 Minutes in 1991 that 30 years earlier Mike Wallace had been "mean" to her on PM East/PM West. He countered that she had been "self-absorbed". 60 Minutes included the audio of Streisand saying to him in 1961, "I like the fact that you are provoking. But don't provoke me."

In 1962, after several appearances on PM East/PM West, Streisand first appeared on Broadway, in the small but star-making role of Miss Marmelstein in the musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale. Her first album, The Barbra Streisand Album, won two Grammy Awards in 1963. Following her success in I Can Get It for You Wholesale, Streisand made several appearances on The Tonight Show in 1962. Topics covered in her interviews with host Johnny Carson included the empire-waisted dresses that she bought wholesale, to her "crazy" reputation at Erasmus Hall High School. It was at about this time that Streisand entered into a long and successful professional relationship with Lee Solters and Sheldon Roskin as her publicists with the firm Solters/Roskin (later Solters/Roskin/Friedman).

Streisand returned to Broadway in 1964 with an acclaimed performance as entertainer Fanny Brice in Funny Girl at the Winter Garden Theatre. The show introduced two of her signature songs, "People" and "Don't Rain on My Parade". Because of the play's overnight success she appeared on the cover of Time. In 1966, she repeated her success with Funny Girl in London's West End at the Prince of Wales Theatre. From 1965 to 1967 she appeared in her first four solo television specials.

Singing career

Streisand has recorded 35 studio albums, almost all with Columbia Records. Her early works in the 1960s (her debut The Barbra Streisand Album, The Second Barbra Streisand Album, The Third Album, My Name Is Barbra, etc.) are considered classic renditions of theater and cabaret standards, including her slow version of the normally uptempo Happy Days Are Here Again. She performed this in a duet with Judy Garland on The Judy Garland Show. Garland referred to her on the air as one of the last great belters. They also sang There's No Business Like Show Business, with Ethel Merman joining them.

Beginning with My Name Is Barbra, her early albums were often medley-filled keepsakes of her television specials. Starting in 1969, she began attempting more contemporary material, but like many talented singers of the day, she found herself out of her element with rock. Her vocal talents prevailed, and she gained newfound success with the pop and ballad-oriented Richard Perry-produced album Stoney End in 1971. The title track, written by Laura Nyro, was a major hit for Streisand.

During the 1970s, she was also highly prominent on the pop charts, with Top 10 recordings such as The Way We Were (US No. 1), Evergreen (US No. 1), No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) (1979, with Donna Summer), which as of 2010 is reportedly still the most commercially successful duet,(US No. 1), You Don't Bring Me Flowers (with Neil Diamond) (US No. 1) and The Main Event (US No. 3), some of which came from soundtrack recordings of her films.

As the 1970s ended, Streisand was named the most successful female singer in the U.S.—only Elvis Presley and The Beatles had sold more albums. In 1980, she released her best-selling effort to date, the Barry Gibb-produced Guilty. The album contained the hits Woman In Love (which spent several weeks atop the pop charts in the Fall of 1980), Guilty, and What Kind of Fool.

After years of largely ignoring Broadway and traditional pop music in favor of more contemporary material, Streisand returned to her musical-theater roots with 1985's The Broadway Album, which was unexpectedly successful, holding the coveted No. 1 Billboard position for three straight weeks, and being certified quadruple platinum. The album featured tunes by Rodgers & Hammerstein, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, and Stephen Sondheim, who was persuaded to rework some of his songs especially for this recording. The Broadway Album was met with acclaim, including a Grammy nomination for album of the year and, ultimately, handed Streisand her eighth Grammy as Best Female Vocalist. After releasing the live album One Voice in 1986, Streisand was set to take another musical journey along the Great White Way in 1988. She recorded several cuts for the album under the direction of Rupert Holmes, including On My Own (from Les Misérables), a medley of How Are Things in Glocca Morra? and Heather on the Hill (from Finian's Rainbow and Brigadoon, respectively), All I Ask of You (from Phantom of the Opera), Warm All Over (from The Most Happy Fella) and an unusual solo version of Make Our Garden Grow (from Candide). Streisand was not happy with the direction of the project and it was ultimately scrapped. Only Warm All Over and a reworked, lite FM-friendly version of All I Ask of You were ever released, the latter appearing on Streisand's 1988 effort, Till I Loved You.

At the beginning of the 1990s, Streisand started focusing on her film directorial efforts and became almost inactive in the recording studio. In 1991, a four-disc box set, Just for the Record, was released. A compilation spanning Streisand's entire career to date, it featured over 70 tracks of live performances, greatest hits, rarities and previously unreleased material.

The following year, Streisand's concert fundraising events helped propel former President Bill Clinton into the spotlight and into office. Streisand later introduced Clinton at his inauguration in 1993. Streisand's music career, however, was largely on hold. A 1992 appearance at an APLA benefit as well as the aforementioned inaugural performance hinted that Streisand was becoming more receptive to the idea of live performances. A tour was suggested, though Streisand would not immediately commit to it, citing her well-known stage fright as well as security concerns. During this time, Streisand finally returned to the recording studio and released Back to Broadway in June 1993. The album was not as universally lauded as its predecessor, but it did debut at No. 1 on the pop charts (a rare feat for an artist of Streisand's age, especially given that it relegated Janet Jackson's Janet to the No. 2 spot). One of the album's highlights was a medley of I Have A Love/One Hand, One Heart, a duet with the legendary Johnny Mathis, who Streisand said is one of her favorite singers.

In 1993, New York Times music critic Stephen Holden wrote that Streisand "enjoys a cultural status that only one other American entertainer, Frank Sinatra, has achieved in the last half century."

In September 1993, Streisand announced her first public concert appearances in 27 years. What began as a two-night New Year's event at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas eventually led to a multi-city tour in the summer of 1994. Tickets to the tour were sold out in under one hour. Streisand also appeared on the covers of major magazines in anticipation of what Time magazine named "The Music Event of the Century". The tour was one of the biggest all-media merchandise parlays in history. Ticket prices ranged from US$50 to US$1,500 – making Streisand the highest-paid concert performer in history. Barbra Streisand: The Concert went on to be the top-grossing concert of the year and earn five Emmy Awards and the Peabody Award, while the taped broadcast on HBO is, to date, the highest-rated concert special in HBO's 30-year history.

Following the tour's conclusion, Streisand once again kept a low profile musically, instead focusing her efforts on acting and directing duties as well as a burgeoning romance with actor James Brolin. In 1997, she finally returned to the recording studio, releasing Higher Ground, a collection of songs of a loosely-inspirational nature which also featured a duet with Celine Dion. The album received generally favorable reviews and, remarkably, once again debuted at No. 1 on the pop charts.

Following her marriage to Brolin in 1998, Streisand recorded an album of love songs entitled A Love Like Ours the following year. Reviews were mixed, with many critics carping about the somewhat syrupy sentiments and overly-lush arrangements; however, it did produce a modest hit for Streisand in the country-tinged If You Ever Leave Me, a duet with Vince Gill.

On New Year's Eve 1999, Streisand returned to the concert stage, with the highest-grossing single concert in Las Vegas history to date. At the end of the millennium, she was the number-one female singer in the U.S., with at least two No. 1 albums in each decade since she began performing. A two-disc live album of the concert entitled was released in 2000. Streisand performed versions of the "Timeless" concert in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, in early 2000.

In advance of four concerts (two each in Los Angeles and New York) in September 2000, Streisand announced she was retiring from paying public concerts. Her performance of the song People was broadcast on the Internet via America Online.

Streisand's most-recent albums have been Christmas Memories (2001), a somewhat somber collection of holiday songs (which felt entirely—albeit unintentionally—appropriate in the early post-9/11 days), and The Movie Album (2003), featuring famous film themes and backed by a large symphony orchestra. Guilty Pleasures (called Guilty Too in the UK), a collaboration with Barry Gibb and a sequel to their Guilty, was released worldwide in 2005.

In February 2006, Streisand recorded the song Smile alongside Tony Bennett at Streisand's Malibu home. The song is included on Tony Bennett's 80th birthday album, Duets. In September 2006, the pair filmed a live performance of the song for a special directed by Rob Marshall entitled Tony Bennett: An American Classic. The special aired on NBC November 21, 2006, and was released on DVD the same day. Streisand's duet with Bennett opens the special.

In 2006, Streisand announced her intent to tour again, in an effort to raise money and awareness for multiple issues. After four days of rehearsal at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, New Jersey, the tour began on October 4 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, continued with a featured stop in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, (this was the concert Streisand chose to film for a TV special), and concluded at Staples Center in Los Angeles on November 20, 2006. Special guests Il Divo were interwoven throughout the show. On stage closing night, Streisand hinted that six more concerts may follow on foreign soil. The show was known as .

Streisand's 20-concert tour set box-office records. At the age of 64, well past the prime of most performers, she grossed US$92,457,062, and set house gross records in 14 of the 16 arenas played on the tour. She set the third-place record for her October 9, 2006, show at Madison Square Garden, the first- and second-place records of which are held by her two shows in September 2000. She set the second-place record at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, with her December 31, 1999, show being the house record and the highest-grossing concert of all time. This led many people to openly criticize Streisand for price gouging, as many tickets sold for upwards of US$1,000.

A collection of performances culled from different stops on this tour, Live in Concert 2006, debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200, making it Streisand's 29th Top 10 album. In the summer of 2007, Streisand gave concerts for the first time in continental Europe. The first concert took place in Zürich (June 18), then Vienna (June 22), Paris (June 26), Berlin (June 30), Stockholm (July 4, canceled), Manchester (July 10) and Celbridge, near Dublin (July 14), followed by three concerts in London (July 18, 22 and 25), the only European city where Streisand had performed before 2007. Tickets for the London dates cost between £100.00 and GB£1,500.00 and for the Ireland date between €118 and €500. The tour included a 58-piece orchestra.

In February 2008, Forbes listed Streisand as the No. 2 earning female musician, between June 2006 and June 2007, with earnings of about US$60 million. Although Streisand's range has changed with time and her voice has deepened over the years, her vocal prowess has remained remarkably secure for a singer whose career has endured for nearly half a century. Streisand is a contralto or possibly a mezzo-soprano who has a range consisting of well over two octaves from “low E to a high G and probably a bit more that in either direction.”

On November 17, 2008, Streisand returned to the studio to begin recording what will be her sixty-third album and it was announced that Diana Krall was producing the album.

On April 25, 2009, CBS aired Streisand's latest TV special, , highlighting the aforementioned featured stop from her 2006 North American tour, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Streisand is one of the recipients of the 2008 Kennedy Center Honors. On December 7, 2008, she visited the White House as part of the ceremonies. This performance was later released on DVD as One Night Only Barbra Streisand and Quartet at The Village Vanguard.

On September 29, 2009, Streisand and Columbia Records released her newest studio album, Love is the Answer, produced by Diana Krall. On October 2, 2009, Streisand made her British television performance debut with an interview on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross to promote the album. This album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and registered her biggest weekly sales since 1997, making Streisand the only artist in history to achieve No. 1 albums in five different decades.

On February 1, 2010, Streisand joined over 80 other artists in recording a new version of the 1985 charity single "We Are the World". Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie planned to release the new version to mark the 25th anniversary of its original recording. These plans changed, however, in view of the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, 2010, and on February 12, the song, now called "We Are the World 25 for Haiti", made its debut as a charity single to support relief aid for the beleaguered island nation.

Streisand will be honored as MusiCares Person of the Year on February 11, 2011, two days prior to the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards.

Streisand is one of many singers who uses teleprompters during their live performances. Streisand has defended her choice in using teleprompters to display lyrics and, sometimes, banter.

Film career

(1969)]] Her first film was a reprise of her Broadway hit, Funny Girl (1968), an artistic and commercial success directed by Hollywood veteran William Wyler, for which she won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actress, sharing it with Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter), the first (and only) time there was a tie in this Oscar category. Her next two movies were also based on musicals, Jerry Herman's Hello, Dolly!, directed by Gene Kelly (1969), and Alan Jay Lerner's and Burton Lane's On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, directed by Vincente Minnelli (1970), while her fourth film was based on the Broadway play The Owl and the Pussycat (1970).

During the 1970s, Streisand starred in several screwball comedies, including What's Up, Doc? (1972) and The Main Event (1979), both co-starring Ryan O'Neal, and For Pete's Sake (1974) with Michael Sarrazin. One of her most famous roles during this period was in the drama The Way We Were (1973) with Robert Redford, for which she received an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. She earned her second Academy Award for Best Original Song as composer (together with lyricist Paul Williams) for the song "Evergreen", from A Star Is Born in 1976.

Along with Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier and later Steve McQueen, Streisand formed First Artists Production Company in 1969, so the actors could secure properties and develop movie projects for themselves. Streisand's initial outing with First Artists was Up the Sandbox (1972).

From a period beginning in 1969 and ending in 1980, Streisand appeared in the annual motion picture exhibitors poll of Top 10 Box Office attractions a total of 10 times, often as the only woman on the list. After the commercially disappointing All Night Long in 1981, Streisand's film output decreased considerably. She has only acted in five films since.

Streisand produced a number of her own films, setting up Barwood Films in 1972. For Yentl (1983), she was producer, director, and star, an experience she repeated for The Prince of Tides (1991) and The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996). There was controversy when Yentl received five Academy Award nominations, but none for the major categories of Best Picture, Actress, or Director. Prince of Tides received even more Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, but the director was not nominated. Streisand also scripted "Yentl", something she is not always given credit for. According to New York Times Editorial Page Editor Andrew Rosenthal in an interview (story begins at minute 16) with Allan Wolper, "the one thing that makes Barbra Streisand crazy is when nobody gives her the credit for having written 'Yentl'."

In 2004, Streisand made a return to film acting, after an eight-year hiatus, in the comedy Meet the Fockers (a sequel to Meet the Parents), playing opposite Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller, Blythe Danner and Robert De Niro.

In 2005, Streisand's Barwood Films, Gary Smith, and Sonny Murray purchased the rights to Simon Mawer's book Mendel's Dwarf. In December 2008, she stated that she was considering directing an adaptation of Larry Kramer's play The Normal Heart, a project she has worked on since the mid-1990s In 2009, Andrew Lloyd Webber stated that Streisand was one of several actresses (alongside Meryl Streep and Glenn Close) who were interested in playing the role of Norma Desmond in the film adaptation of Webber's musical version of Sunset Boulevard

In December 2010, Streisand appeared in Little Fockers, the third film from the Meet the Parents trilogy. She reprised the role of Roz Focker alongside Dustin Hoffman.

On 4 January 2011, the New York Post reported that Streisand was in negotiations to produce, direct, and star in a new film version of Gypsy. In an interview with the New York Post, Arthur Laurents said: "We've talked about it a lot, and she knows what she's doing. She has my approval." He said that he would not write the screenplay. The following day, the New York Times reported that Arthur Laurents clarified in a telephonic interview that Streisand would not direct the film "but playing Rose is enough to make her happy." Streisand's spokesperson confirmed that "there have been conversations".

Politics

Streisand has long been an active supporter of the Democratic Party and many of their causes. Streisand said, "The Democrats have always been the party of working people and minorities. I've always identified with the minorities." Streisand has personally raised $15 million for organizations through her live performances. The Streisand Foundation, established in 1986, has contributed over $16 million through its grants to "national organizations working on preservation of the environment, voter education, the protection of civil liberties and civil rights, women’s issues and nuclear disarmament." In 2006, Streisand donated $1 million to the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation in support of former President Bill Clinton’s climate change initiative.

Lawsuit

Streisand sued aerial photographer Kenneth Adelman for displaying a photograph of her Malibu, California home, along with other photos of the California coastline. Her suit was dismissed under the anti-SLAPP provisions of California law. Mike Masnick of Techdirt.com coined the term "Streisand effect" in January 2005 to describe the publicity generated by Streisand's efforts to suppress the publication of the photograph.

Awards

In 2000, Barbra Streisand was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

Music awards

Streisand's works have been nominated for over 57 Grammy Awards; she won 8 of these, including two special awards. She has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame three times. In 2011 she will be honored as MusiCares Person of the Year.

Film awards

Personal life

Streisand has been married twice. Her first husband was actor Elliott Gould, to whom she was married from 1963 to 1971. They had one child, Jason Gould, who would go on to star as her on-screen son in The Prince of Tides. Her second husband is James Brolin, whom she married on July 1, 1998. While they have no children together, Brolin has two children from his first marriage, including Academy Award nominated actor Josh Brolin, and one child from his second marriage. Both of her husbands starred in the 1970s conspiracy sci-fi thriller Capricorn One.

Jon Peters' daughters, Caleigh Peters and Skye Peters, are her goddaughters.

Streisand shares a birthday with Shirley MacLaine, and they celebrate together every year.

Streisand is the older sister of singer/actress Roslyn Kind. Kind was born 9 January 1951 in Brooklyn, New York.

Streisand's philanthropic organization, The Streisand Foundation, gives grants to "national organizations working on preservation of the environment, voter education, the protection of civil liberties and civil rights, women’s issues and nuclear disarmament" and has given large donations to programs related to women's health. Streisand was named third most generous celebrity. The Giving Back Fund claimed Streisand donated $11 million, which The Streisand Foundation distributed.

At Julien’s Auctions in October 2009, Streisand, a long-time collector of art and furniture, sold 526 items with all the proceeds going to her foundation. Items included a costume from Funny Lady and a vintage dental cabinet purchased by the performer at 18 years old. The sale’s most valuable lot was a painting by Kees van Dongen.

Name

Streisand changed her name from Barbara to Barbra because, she said, "I hated the name, but I refused to change it.". Streisand further explained, ""Well, I was 18 and I wanted to be unique, but I didn't want to change my name because that was too false. You know, people were saying you could be Joanie Sands, or something like that. [My middle name is Joan.] And I said, 'No, let's see, if I take out the 'a,' it's still 'Barbara,' but it's unique." A 1967 biography with a concert program said, "the spelling of her first name is an instance of partial rebellion: she was advised to change her last name and retaliated by dropping an “a” from the first instead."

References in popular culture

On television

The most memorable parody of Streisand's iconic status has been on the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live in the recurring skit Coffee Talk where character Linda Richman, played by Mike Myers, hosts a talk show dedicated to, among other things, the adoration of Streisand. Streisand, in turn, made an unannounced guest appearance on the show, surprising Myers and guests, Madonna and Roseanne Barr. Mike Myers also appeared as the Linda Richman character on stage with Streisand at her 1994 MGM Grand concert, as well as a few of the 1994 Streisand tour shows.

Streisand is mentioned many times in television sitcoms. In the CBS 1993–1999 sitcom The Nanny, Fran Drescher's character Fran Fine, along with her entire family, is obsessed with the performer. And Fran is obsessed with the fact that many times she almost meets Ms. Streisand, most notably when her stepdaughter, Margret S. Sheffield, marries Michael Brolin, nephew of James Brolin who is Barbra Gould Brolin's husband.

Streisand is frequently mentioned in the sitcom Will & Grace, particularly by the character Jack McFarland. Songs made famous by Streisand, such as "Papa, Can You Hear Me?" from Yentl and "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" from The Broadway Album are reproduced by characters in the show.

The sitcom Friends refers to Streisand in at least two episodes. In "The One Where Chandler Can't Remember Which Sister", Monica names a sandwich at her 1950s-styled restaurant after Barbra Streisand. A soup is also named after Streisand's movie Yentl. Meanwhile, in The One After 'I Do', Phoebe pretends she is pregnant with James Brolin's baby, to which Chandler Bing responds "[A]s in Barbra Streisand's husband, James Brolin?" In the same episode, Gould appears on the show as Ross and Monica's father.

At least four episodes of the animated sitcom The Simpsons refer to Streisand. Outside Springfield Elementary School, announcing Lisa's jazz concert and noting tickets have been sold out, is an advertisement for a Streisand concert in the same venue for the following day, with tickets still on sale. In another episode, after Marge undergoes therapy, she informs the therapist that whenever she hears the wind blow, she'll hear it saying "Lowenstein", Streisand's therapist character in The Prince of Tides, despite Marge's therapist having a completely different name. Another reference comes in "Sleeping with the Enemy" when Bart exclaims after seeing Lisa make a snow-angel in a cake on the kitchen table, "At least she's not singing Streisand". Nelson Muntz sings a song from Yentl earlier in the episode, which is the reason for Bart's reference. In "Simple Simpson", the on-stage patriotic western-singer says that Ms. Streisand is unpatriotic and could be pleased by spitting on the flag and strangling a bald eagle.

Another enduring satirical reference is in the animated series South Park, most notably in the episode "Mecha-Streisand", where Streisand is portrayed as a self-important, evil, gigantic robotic dinosaur with a terrible singing voice about to conquer the universe before being defeated by Robert Smith of The Cure. This was because she criticized South Park saying it was bad for children. On another occasion, the Halloween episode "Spookyfish" is promoted for a week as being done in "Spooky-Vision", which involves Streisand's face seen at times during the episode in the four corners of the screen. At the end of the feature film , her name is used as a powerful curse word, a gag repeated in the episode "Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants". The Mecha-Streisand character made a return in the Season 14 episodes "200" and "201", as one of several celebrities the show had lampooned over the years.

In the episode titled "Ex in the City" from Season 2 of Sex and the City, protagonist Carrie Bradshaw likens herself and her lovelife to that of Streisand's character, Katie Morosky in The Way We Were before breaking into a rendition of the title song.

In the 2002–04 Icebox.com cartoon and animated TV series Queer Duck, the title character is obsessed with Streisand. He undergoes Christian-based conversion therapy to be made straight; only Barbra's magic nose can return him to his gayness.

In the 2005 Fox animated sitcom American Dad!, Season 5 Episode 1 shows Roger preparing to watch a Streisand special where the entertainer sings the collected works of Celine Dion in Las Vegas.

In Season 1 Episode 12 of Boston Legal aired in August 2005, Denny Crane boasts that he once had a threesome with Shirley Schmidt and Barbra Streisand. Schmidt corrects him by reminding him that "Barbra Streisand" was actually a female impersonator, whose penis should have been a clue.

In the 2007 Fox animated sitcom Family Guy, one episode shows Lois singing a cabaret act with "Don't Rain on My Parade"—originally sung by Streisand in Funny Girl—only slowed down and jazzier, as an act of defiance to Peter. In another episode, Peter received life insurance after Lois died and claimed that he has more money than Streisand. This was followed by a cut scene showing Streisand and her husband in their home. The husband asked for money and Streisand pressed one nostril of her nose and dollar bills came out the other nostril. Another earlier episode shows Streisand and husband James Brolin, with Streisand remarking "I'm glad I married you and not a celebrity".

Streisand is referenced frequently on the Fox TV musical series Glee. The character Rachel (Lea Michele) mentions that Streisand refused to alter her nose in order to become famous in the show's third episode Acafellas. Also, in the mid-season finale of Glee, Rachel sings the Streisand anthem "Don't Rain on My Parade". In the episode Hell-O, she says that she will be heartbroken for life, "Like Barbra in The Way We Were." Also in the episode Hell-O, Jesse St.James (Jonathan Groff) criticizes Rachel's performance of "Don't Rain on My Parade" by saying that she "lacked Barbra's emotional depth." In the episode Theatricality, Rachel is spying on the opposing team's dance rehearsal when the director, Shelby Corcoran (Idina Menzel), expresses dissatisfaction at the team's routine. She demonstrates how it's done with the title song from Funny Girl, and Rachel, sitting in the audience, whispers to her friend, "Exactly what I would have done--Barbra. I could do it in my sleep."

When Glee won the prize for "Best TV Series-Comedy Or Musical" at the 2010 Golden Globe Awards, creator Ryan Murphy quipped on stage, "Thank you to the Hollywood Foreign Press and Miss Barbra Streisand".

On film

In movies, Streisand is remembered as the favorite of the character Howard Brackett, played by Kevin Kline, who finally admits to being gay while standing at the altar in the 1997 romantic comedy In & Out. His unfortunate bride-to-be, played by Joan Cusack, cries out in frustration to family and friends present, "Does anybody here KNOW how many times I've had to sit through Funny Lady?" In an earlier scene, Howard is taunted by a friend during an argument at a bar with a jeering, "The studio thought that Barbra was too ol-l-ld to play Yentl." The film also mentions the album Color Me Barbra. Barbra's signature tune, "People", is played by a school orchestra in honor of teacher Howard as the story wraps at the end of the credits. This and similar references refer to her popularity among gay men.

In the 1980 musical film Fame, one of the characters, Mrs. Finsecker, announces that Barbra Streisand did not have to change her name to get to the top. Also, Doris Finsecker, played by Maureen Teefy, sings "The Way We Were" for her audition to get into the drama department.

In the 1988 comedy, BIG, Tom Hanks goes home and to prove to his mother that he is her "little" boy he sings the first line of her favorite song, "Memories, like the corner of my mind..." from "The Way We Were."

In the 1993 romantic comedy Mrs. Doubtfire, Robin Williams, while trying different looks to apply to the Mrs. Doubtfire character that he portrays, uses a wig "a la Streisand" and sings some lines from "Don't Rain on My Parade".

In the 1996 comedy "The Associate", Whoopi Goldberg plays a business woman, Laurel Ayers, who creates a business associate, Robert S. Cutty, who is said to have known and dated Streisand. In addition to having an autographed picture of Streisand in her office, Ayers also has a cross-dressing friend who dresses up to resemble Streisand throughout the film.

In the 1998 film adaptation of the novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas a teenage runaway played by Christina Ricci paints images of Streisand while being administered large amounts of LSD by Hunter Thompson's Samoan attorney.

In the 1999 film based on the TV series, Cartman shouted out Barbra Streisand's name and shot electricity out of his hands. She is also mentioned in a relationship conversation between the characters of Satan and Saddam Hussein.

In the 2000 remake of the comedy Bedazzled, the Devil (Elizabeth Hurley) tells Elliot (Brendan Fraser): "It's not easy being the Barbra Streisand of evil, you know."

The characters Carla and Connie, as aspiring song-and-dance acts in the 2004 comedy Connie and Carla, include four Streisand references. They sing "Papa, Can You Hear Me?" and "Memory" at an airport lounge and "Don't Rain on My Parade" onstage in a gay bar, and talk about the plot of Yentl at the climax of the film after they ask how many in their audience have seen the movie (everyone raised their hands).

In the 2005 animated feature Chicken Little, Chicken's best friend Runt's mom says, after she thinks he is lying about seeing an alien spaceship, "Don't make me take away your Streisand collection!" and Runt returns with, "Mother, you leave Barbra out of this!"

In music

Sound clips of Streisand's heated exchange with a supporter of former U.S. president George W. Bush were sampled in the 2009 Lucian Piane dance song "Bale Out", making it sound as if she were arguing with actor Christian Bale (whose recorded outbursts during the filming of Terminator Salvation were the centerpiece of the song).

Her name consists both the title and the complete lyrics of the "Barbra Streisand" disco house song by Duck Sauce which reached number 1 in the UK Dance charts. It also reached number 1 in several other countries.

On stage

Daniel Stern's 2003 Off-Broadway play Barbra's Wedding was set against the backdrop of Streisand's 1998 wedding to James Brolin.

The 2005 Broadway musical Spamalot carries the song "You won't succeed on Broadway" which references lines from "People" and "Papa, Can You Hear Me?".

The 2008 Broadway musical "Title of show" has a line where the character, Susan, was suggesting names for the title of the show. She threw out the name "Color Me Susan", a reference to Barbra's Color Me Barbra.

Appearances

Broadway performances

West End performances

Television specials

Discography

1963: The Barbra Streisand Album

1963: The Second Barbra Streisand Album

1964: The Third Album

1964: Funny Girl

1964: People

1965: My Name Is Barbra

1965: My Name Is Barbra, Two...

1966: Color Me Barbra

1966: Je m'appelle Barbra

1967: Simply Streisand

1967: A Christmas Album

1969: What About Today?

1971: Stoney End

1971: Barbra Joan Streisand

1973: Barbra Streisand...And Other Musical Instruments

1974: The Way We Were

1974: ButterFly

1975: Lazy Afternoon

1976: Classical Barbra

1977: Streisand Superman

1978: Songbird

1979: Wet

1980: Guilty

1984: Emotion

1985: The Broadway Album

1988: Till I Loved You

1993: Back to Broadway

1997: Higher Ground

1999: A Love Like Ours

2001: Christmas Memories

2003: The Movie Album

2005: Guilty Pleasures

2009: Love Is the Answer

Tours and live performances

Filmography

References

Further reading

External links

BarbraStreisand.com, the Official Site

BJSMusic.com

* Category:1942 births Category:1950s singers Category:1960s singers Category:1970s singers Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Actors from New York City Category:American dance musicians Category:American female pop singers Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American musical theatre actors Category:American stage actors Category:American people of Austrian-Jewish descent Category:Best Actress Academy Award winners Category:Best Director Golden Globe winners Category:Best Song Academy Award winning songwriters Category:Daytime Emmy Award winners Category:Emmy Award winners Category:English-language singers Category:Erasmus Hall High School alumni Category:Female film directors Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Jewish actors Category:Jewish American composers and songwriters Category:Jewish singers Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Living people Category:New York Democrats Category:People from Brooklyn Category:People of Jewish descent Category:Tony Award winners Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients

Coordinates	19°45′″N96°12′″N
Name	The Right HonourableThe Lord Lloyd-Webber
Caption	Webber in 2007.
Birth name	Andrew Lloyd Webber
Birth date	March 22, 1948
Birth place	Kensington, London, England
Occupation	Composer, panellist, television personality, businessman, songwriter, theatre director
Years active	Since 1965
Spouse	Sarah Hugill (1972–84)(divorced)Sarah Brightman (1984–90)(divorced)Madeleine Gurdon (since 1991)
Awards
Children	Imogen (1978), Nicholas (1979),Alastair Adam (1992), William Richard (1993), Isabella Aurora (1996)
Website	AndrewLloydWebber.com

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948) is an English composer of musical theatre.

Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre, and has been referred to as "the most commercially successful composer in history." Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass. He has also gained a number of honours, including a knighthood in 1992, followed by a peerage from the British Government for services to Music, seven Tony Awards, three Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, fourteen Ivor Novello Awards, seven Olivier Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006. Several of his songs, notably "The Music of the Night" from The Phantom of the Opera, "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar, "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" from Evita, "Any Dream Will Do" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and "Memory" from Cats have been widely recorded and were hits outside of their parent musicals.

His company, the Really Useful Group, is one of the largest theatre operators in London. Producers in several parts of the UK have staged productions, including national tours, of Webber's musicals under licence from the Really Useful Group.

Early life

Andrew Lloyd Webber was born in Kensington, London, the son of William Lloyd Webber (1914–1982), a composer, and his wife Jean Hermione (née Johnstone; 1921–1993), a violinist and pianist. His younger brother, Julian Lloyd Webber, is a renowned solo cellist.

Webber started writing his own music at a young age, suite of six pieces at the age of nine. He also put on "productions" with Julian and his Aunt Viola in his toy theatre (which he built at the suggestion of Viola). Later, he would be the owner of a number of West End theatres, including the Palace. His aunt Viola, an actress, took Webber to see many of her shows and through the stage door into the world of the theatre. He also claims that he had originally set music to Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats at the age of fifteen.

Webber was a Queen's Scholar at Westminster School and studied history for a time at Magdalen College, Oxford, although he abandoned the course to study at the Royal College of Music and pursue his interest in musical theatre.

Professional career

Early years

Webber's first major collaboration with lyricist Tim Rice was The Likes of Us, a musical based on the true story of Thomas John Barnardo. It was performed in 2005 when a production was staged at Webber's Sydmonton Festival. In 2008 amateur rights were released via the National Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA) in association with the Really Useful Group. The first amateur performance was by a children's theatre group in Cornwall called "Kidz R Us". Stylistically, The Likes of Us is fashioned after the Broadway musical of the '40s and '50s; it opens with a traditional overture comprising a medley of tunes from the show, and the score reflects some of Webber's early influences, particularly Richard Rodgers, Frederick Loewe, and Lionel Bart. In this respect, it is markedly different from the composer's later work which tends to be either predominantly or wholly through-composed and closer in form to opera than to the Broadway musical.

Around this time, Rice and Webber wrote a number of individual pop songs that were recorded as singles for record labels. Wes Sands, Ross Hannaman, Paul Raven, and Gary Bond are among the many artists to have recorded early Webber/Rice tunes. A selection of these early recordings were re-released on the 5-CD compilation, Andrew Lloyd Webber: Now and Forever (2003).

In 1968, Rice/Webber were commissioned to write a piece for Colet Court which resulted in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, a retelling of the biblical story of Joseph in which Webber and Rice humorously pastiche a number of musical styles such as Calypso and country music. Joseph began life as a short cantata that gained some recognition on its second staging with a favourable review in The Times. For its subsequent performances, the show underwent a number of revisions by Rice/Webber with the inclusion of additional songs that expanded it to a more substantial length. This culminated in a two-hour long production being staged in the West End on the back of the success of Jesus Christ Superstar.

In 1969 Rice/Webber wrote a song for the Eurovision Song Contest called "Try It and See", which was not selected. The Demo version, sung by Rita Pavone (sounding remarkably like Lulu, for whom the song was written) is available on, 'Now and Forever' – The 5 CD box set. With rewritten lyrics it became "King Herod's Song" in their third musical, Jesus Christ Superstar (1970).

The planned follow up to Jesus Christ Superstar was a musical comedy based on the Jeeves and Wooster novels by P. G. Wodehouse. Tim Rice was uncertain about this venture, partly because of his concern that he might not be able to do justice to the novels that he and Webber so admired. After doing some initial work on the lyrics, he pulled out of the project and Webber subsequently wrote the musical with Alan Ayckbourn who provided the book and lyrics. Jeeves failed to make any impact at the box office and closed after a short run of only three weeks. Many years later, Webber and Ayckbourn revisited this project, producing a thoroughly reworked and more successful version entitled By Jeeves (1996). Only two of the songs from the original production remained ("Half a Moment" and "Banjo Boy").

Mid-1970s

Webber collaborated with Rice once again to write Evita (1976 in London/1979 in U.S.), a musical based on the life of Eva Perón. As with Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita was released first as a concept album and featured Julie Covington singing the part of Eva Peron. The song "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" became a hit single and the musical was staged at the Prince Edward Theatre in a production directed by Harold Prince and starring Elaine Paige in the title role.

The first Eva Peron on Broadway in NYC was played by Patti LuPone, who won a Tony for the role. Afterwards she experienced the growth of nodes on her vocal cords. Evita was a highly successful show that ran for ten years in the West End. It transferred to Broadway in 1979. Rice and Webber parted ways soon after Evita.

In 1978, Webber embarked on a solo project, the "Variations", with his cellist brother Julian based on the 24th Caprice by Paganini, which reached number two in the pop album chart in the United Kingdom. The main theme was used as the theme tune for ITV1's long-running South Bank Show throughout its 32-year run.

1980s

Webber embarked on his next project without a lyricist, turning instead to the poetry of T. S. Eliot. Cats (1981) was to become the longest running musical in London, where it ran for 21 years before closing. On Broadway, Cats ran for eighteen years, a record which would ultimately be broken by another Webber musical, The Phantom of the Opera.

Starlight Express (1984) was a commercial hit but received negative reviews from the critics. It enjoyed a record run in the West End, but ran for less than two years on Broadway. The show has also seen two tours of the US, as well as a three-year UK touring production, which transferred to New Zealand later in 2009. The show also runs full-time in a custom-built theatre in Bochum, Germany, where it has been running since 1988.

Webber wrote a Requiem Mass dedicated to his father, William, who had died in 1982. It premiered at St. Thomas Church in New York on 25 February 1985. Church music had been a part of the composer's upbringing and the composition was inspired by an article he had read about the plight of Cambodian orphans. Webber had on a number of occasions written sacred music for the annual Sydmonton Festival. Webber received a Grammy Award in 1986 for Requiem in the category of best classical composition. Pie Jesu from Requiem achieved a high placing on the UK pop charts.

Cricket (1986), also called Cricket (Hearts and Wickets), reunited Webber with Tim Rice to create this short musical for Queen Elizabeth's 60th birthday, first performed at Windsor Castle. Several of the tunes were later used for Aspects of Love and Sunset Boulevard.

Webber also premiered The Phantom of the Opera in 1986, inspired by the 1911 Gaston Leroux novel. He wrote the part of Christine for his then-wife, Sarah Brightman, who played the role in the original London and Broadway productions alongside Michael Crawford as the Phantom. The production was directed by Harold Prince, who had also earlier directed Evita. Charles Hart wrote the lyrics for Phantom with some additional material provided by Richard Stilgoe, and Webber co-wrote the musical's book with Stilgoe. It became a hit and is still running in both the West End and on Broadway; in January 2006 it overtook Cats as the longest-running musical on Broadway. The composer worked with two collaborators, as he had done on Aspects of Love; this time Christopher Hampton and Don Black shared equal credit for the book and lyrics. The show opened at the Adelphi Theatre in London on 12 July 1993, and ran for 1,529 performances. In spite of the show's popularity and extensive run in London's West End, it lost money due to the sheer expense of the production.

Webber's many other musical theatre works include Whistle Down the Wind, a musical written with lyrics supplied by rock legend Jim Steinman. Originally opening in Washington, Webber was reportedly not happy with the casting or Harold Prince's production and the show was subsequently revised for a London staging directed by Gale Edwards, the production is probably most notable for the Number One hit from Boyzone "No Matter What" which only left the UK charts when the price of the CD single was changed to drop it out of the official top ten. Song and Dance, The Woman in White which Webber explored his life-long love affair with the English Choral and Pastoral tradition. The show opened to a bad critical response on Broadway and soon sank without a trace. His The Beautiful Game opened in London and has never been seen on Broadway. The show had a respectable run at The Cambridge Theatre in London. The show has been re-worked into a new musical The Boys in the Photograph which had its world première at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in April 2008.

While many of Webber's works have had enormous commercial success,

Somewhat unusually, Webber (along with Nigel Wright) was responsible for a 1992 Eurodance single featuring music from the computer game Tetris. Released under the name Doctor Spin, Tetris reached #6 on the UK charts, although Webber's involvement was not publicised. He was also involved with Bombalurina's 1990 cover of "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" (UK #1). The band, whose lead singer was children's TV presenter Timmy Mallett was named after a character in Cats.

2000s

Webber produced a staging of The Sound of Music, which débuted November 2006. He made the controversial decision to choose an unknown to play leading lady Maria, who was found through the reality television show How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, in which he was a judge. The winner of the show was Connie Fisher.

There have been a number of film adaptations of Webber's musicals: Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) was directed by Norman Jewison, Evita (1996) was directed by Alan Parker, and most recently The Phantom of the Opera was directed by Joel Schumacher (and co-produced by Webber). Webber produced Bombay Dreams with Indian composer A. R. Rahman in 2002.

It was announced on 25 August 2006, on his personal website that his next project would be The Master and Margarita (Webber has stated that the project will most likely be an opera rather than a musical).

and First Lady Laura Bush stand with the Kennedy Center honourees in the Blue Room of the White House during a reception Sunday, 3 December 2006. From left, they are: singer and songwriter William "Smokey" Robinson; Andrew Lloyd Webber; country singer Dolly Parton; film director Steven Spielberg; and conductor Zubin Mehta.]]

In September 2006, Webber was named to be a recipient of the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors with Zubin Mehta, Dolly Parton, Steven Spielberg, and Smokey Robinson. He was recognised for his outstanding contribution to American performing arts. He attended the ceremony on 3 December 2006; it aired on 26 December 2006. On 11 February 2007, Webber was featured as a guest judge on the reality television show The contestants all sang "The Phantom of the Opera".

Between April and June 2007, he appeared in BBC One's Any Dream Will Do!, which followed the same format as How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?. Its aim was to find a new Joseph for his revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Lee Mead won the contest after quitting his part in the ensemble – and as understudy in The Phantom of the Opera to compete for the role. Viewers' telephone voting during the series raised more than £500,000 for the BBC's annual Children in Need charity appeal, according to host Graham Norton on air during the final. On 1 July 2007, Webber presented excerpts from his musicals as part of the Concert for Diana organised to celebrate the life of Diana, Princess of Wales.

The BBC Radio 2 broadcast a concert of music from Webber's shows on 24 August 2007. Denise Van Outen introduced songs from Whistle Down the Wind, The Beautiful Game, Tell Me on a Sunday, The Woman in White, Evita and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – as well as Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music, which Webber revived in 2006 at the London Palladium and 2002's Webber-produced Bollywood-style musical Bombay Dreams by A. R. Rahman and Don Black.

In April 2008, Webber reprised his role as judge, this time in the BBC musical talent show, I'd Do Anything. The show followed a similar format to its 'Maria' and 'Joseph' predecessors, this time involving a search for an actress to play the role of Nancy in an upcoming West End production of the Lionel Bart musical Oliver! The show also featured a search for three young actors to play and share the title character's role, the show's main focus was on the search for Nancy. The role was won by Jodie Prenger despite Webber's stated preference for one of the other contestants; the winners of the Oliver role were Harry Stott, Gwion Wyn-Jones and Laurence Jeffcoate. Also in April 2008 he was featured on the U.S. talent show American Idol, acting as a mentor when the 6 finalists had to select one of Webber's songs to perform for the judges that week. Webber accepted the challenge of managing the UK's entry for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, to be held in Moscow. In early 2009 a series, called , was broadcast to find a performer for a song that he would compose for the competition. Jade Ewen won the right to represent Britain, winning with It's My Time, by Webber and Diane Warren. At the contest, Jade was accompanied on stage by Webber, who played the piano during the performance. Great Britain finished 5th in the contest.

On 8 October 2009, Webber launched the musical Love Never Dies at a press conference held at Her Majesty's Theatre, where the original Phantom has been running since 1986. Also present were Sierra Boggess, who has been cast as Christine Daaé, and Ramin Karimloo, who will portray the Phantom, a role he most recently played in the West End.

2010s

Following the opening of Love Never Dies, Webber again began a search for a new musical theatre performer in the BBC One series Over the Rainbow. He cast the winner, Danielle Hope, in the role of Dorothy and a dog to play Toto in his forthcoming stage production of The Wizard of Oz. He and lyricist and composer Tim Rice will write a number of new songs for the production to supplement the songs from the film.

On 26 February 2010, he appeared on BBC's Friday Night with Jonathan Ross to promote Love Never Dies.

Accusations of plagiarism

Webber has been accused of plagiarism in his works. His biographer, John Snelson, has acknowledged the strong similarity between the opening melody of the slow movement of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto and the Jesus Christ Superstar song "I Don't Know How to Love Him", but opines that Webber:

"...brings a new dramatic tension to Mendelssohn's original melody through the confused emotions of Mary Magdalene. The opening theme may be Mendelssohn, but the rhythmic and harmonic treatment along with new lines of highly effective melodic development are Webber's. The song works in its own right as its many performers and audiences can witness."

In interviews promoting Amused to Death, Roger Waters, formerly of Pink Floyd, claimed that Webber had plagiarised short chromatic riffs from the 1971 song "Echoes" for sections of The Phantom of the Opera, released in 1986; nevertheless, he decided not to file a lawsuit regarding the matter. The songwriter Ray Repp made a similar claim about the same song, but insisted that Webber stole the idea from him. Unlike Roger Waters, Ray Repp did decide to file a lawsuit, but the court eventually ruled in Webber's favour. Rick Wakeman, on his Grumpy Old Rockstar tour of 2008, accused Webber of borrowing the main riff for the Phantom of the Opera tune from a section of his 1977 work "Judas Iscariot" from Rick Wakeman's Criminal Record album.

Webber has also been accused of plagiarising Puccini, most notably in Requiem and The Phantom of the Opera.

In the Program Guide for the San Francisco Opera's performance (2009–2010 season) of Puccini's Girl of the Golden West, on page 42, it states:

:"The climactic phrase in Dick Johnson'a aria, "Quello che taceta," bears a strong resemblance to a similar phrase in the Phantom's song, "Music of the Night," in Webber's 1986 musical The Phantom of the Opera. Following the musical's success, the Puccini estate filed suit against Webber accusing him of plagiarism and the suit was settled out of court."

A curious and likely unintentional coincidence of melodic progression (though with very different rhythm and tempo) exists among the main tune of the song There's Me, from Starlight Express, and a central phrase of the opening theme of the cartoon "Around the World with Willy Fog".

Personal life

He married his first wife, Sarah Hugill, on 24 July 1972 at the age of 24, and had two children, The Hon.Imogen Lloyd Webber (born 31 March 1978) and The Hon. Nicholas (born 2 July 1979). Webber and Hugill were divorced 14 November 1983. He married his second wife, singer/dancer Sarah Brightman, on 22 March 1984 in Hampshire. He cast Brightman in the lead role in his musical The Phantom of the Opera. They divorced 3 January 1990. He married his third wife, Madeleine Gurdon on 9 February 1991 in Westminster, London. They have three children, all of whom were born in Westminster: The Hon. Alastair Adam (born 3 May 1992), The Hon. William Richard (born 24 August 1993), and The Hon. Isabella Aurora (born 30 April 1996). Madeleine became Lady Madeleine Lloyd Webber in 1992 when her husband was knighted, and retained the same casual style when her husband was created a life peer in 1997 (she is now technically Lady Lloyd-Webber).

The Sunday Times Rich List 2006 ranked him the 87th-richest man in Britain with an estimated fortune of £700 million. His wealth increased to £750 million in 2007, but the publication ranked him 101st in 2008. He lives at Sydmonton Court, near Kingsclere in Hampshire, and also owns much of Watership Down. Webber is an art collector, with a passion for Victorian art. An exhibition of works from his collection was presented at the Royal Academy in 2003 under the title Pre-Raphaelite and Other Masters – The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection. He is also a devoted supporter of Leyton Orient Football Club. Politically, he has supported the UK's Conservative Party, allowing his song "Take That Look Off Your Face" to be used on a party promotional film seen by an estimated 1 million people in 80 cinemas before the 2005 UK General Election to accompany pictures of Prime Minister Tony Blair allegedly "smirking", the party said.

In late 2009 Webber had surgery for early-stage prostate cancer, but had to be readmitted to hospital with post-operative infection in November. In January 2010, he declared he was cancer-free.

As of March 2010, Webber decided to sell Portrait of Angel Fernández de Soto by Pablo Picasso art to benefit the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation. In 2006, he withdrew the painting from auction after a claim that the previous owner was forced to sell it under duress in Nazi Germany. An out-of-court settlement was reached, where the foundation retained ownership rights. On 23 June 2010, the painting was sold at auction for £34.7 million to an anonymous telephone bidder.

Honours

Andrew Lloyd Webber was knighted by Elizabeth II in 1992.

In 1997, Elizabeth II made him a life peer as Baron Lloyd-Webber, of Sydmonton in the County of Hampshire. He sits as a Conservative member of the House of Lords.

Awards

Academy Awards

1996 – Best Original Song for "You Must Love Me" from Evita (award shared with Sir Tim Rice)

One nomination for Best Original Song Score and Adaptation: 1973 motion picture Jesus Christ Superstar

One nomination for Best Original Song: "Learn to Be Lonely" from the 2004 motion picture The Phantom of the Opera.

Golden Globes

1997 – Best Original Song for "You Must Love Me" from Evita (award shared with Sir Tim Rice)

Plus one nomination for Best Original Song: "Learn to Be Lonely" from the 2004 motion picture The Phantom of the Opera.

Grammy Awards

1980 – Best Cast Show Album for Evita

1983 – Best Cast Show Album for Cats

1986 – Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition for Requiem

1990 – Grammy Legend Award

Tony Awards

1980 – Best Musical for Evita

1980 – Best Original Score for Evita(award shared with Tim Rice)

1983 – Best Musical for Cats

1983 – Best Original Score for Cats

1988 – Best Musical for The Phantom of the Opera

1995 – Best Musical for Sunset Boulevard

1995 – Best Original Score for Sunset Boulevard

1988 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations for The Phantom of the Opera

7 Laurence Olivier Awards (including Special Award presented for his 60th birthday in 2008) 14 Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (2008)

American Songwriter's Hall of Fame

Shows

:''Note: Music composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber unless otherwise noted.

The Likes of Us (1965)

:* Lyrics by Tim Rice :* Not shown until 2005

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968)

:* Lyrics by Tim Rice

Jesus Christ Superstar (1970)

:* Lyrics by Tim Rice

Jeeves (1975)

:* Lyrics by Alan Ayckbourn :* Revised in 1996 as By Jeeves

Evita (1976)

:* Lyrics by Tim Rice

Tell Me on a Sunday (1979)

:* Lyrics by Don Black

Cats (1981)

:* Lyrics by T. S. Eliot :* Additional lyrics after Eliot by Richard Stilgoe and Trevor Nunn

Song and Dance (1982)

:* Lyrics by Don Black (revised by Richard Maltby, Jr. for Broadway) :* Combination of Variations (1978) and Tell Me On A Sunday (1979)

Starlight Express (1984)

:*Lyrics by Richard Stilgoe :*Later revisions by Don Black and David Yazbek :*Based on the Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends books by The Rev. W. Awdry.

Cricket (1986)

:*Lyrics by Tim Rice :* First performed for Queen Elizabeth's 60th birthday

The Phantom of the Opera (1986)

:* Lyrics by Charles Hart :* Additional Lyrics by Richard Stilgoe :* Based on the Gaston Leroux novel

Aspects of Love (1989)

:* Lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart :* Based on the David Garnett novel

Sunset Boulevard (1993)

:* Book and lyrics by Christopher Hampton and Don Black :* Based on the Billy Wilder film (1950)

Whistle Down the Wind (1996)

:* Lyrics by Jim Steinman

The Beautiful Game (2000)

:* Lyrics by Ben Elton :* Updated as The Boys in the Photograph (2009)

Bombay Dreams (2002)

:* Music by A.R. Rahman :* Lyrics by Don Black :* Produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber

The Woman in White (2004)

:* Lyrics by David Zippel :* Based on the Wilkie Collins novel

The Sound of Music (2006)

:* Music by Richard Rodgers :* Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II :* Produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Love Never Dies (2010)

:* Lyrics by Glenn Slater

The Wizard of Oz (2011)

:* Music by Harold Arlen :* Lyrics by E. Y. Harburg :* Additional Lyrics by Tim Rice :* Produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Other works

Variations (1978) – A set of musical variations on Niccolò Paganini's Caprice in A minor that Webber composed for his brother, cellist Julian. This album featured fifteen rock musicians including guitarist Gary Moore and pianist Rod Argent and reached number 2 in the UK album chart upon its release. It was later combined with Tell Me on a Sunday to form one show, Song and Dance. Webber also used variation five as the basis for Unexpected Song in Song and Dance. The main theme is used as the theme music to The South Bank Show.

Requiem (1985) – A classical choral work composed in honour of his father, William.

Discography

See also

Pre-Raphaelite and Other Masters: The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection – Royal Academy of Arts, London 2003 ISBN 1-903973-39-2

View of Geelong, 1856 painting once owned by Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber's Official website

Cats on a Chandelier – Coveney, M (1999), Hutchinson, London

Biography at the Really Useful Group

Oh What a Circus – Rice, Tim (1999), Hodder & Stoughton, London

Andrew Lloyd Webber – Snelson, John (2004), Yale University Press, New Haven CT. ISBN 0-300-10459-6

Andrew Lloyd Webber: His Life and Works – Walsh, Michael (1989, revised and expanded, 1997), Abrams: New York

References

External links

Official website

Biography at SBGMusic.com

Pre-Raphaelite and Other Masters—The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection — article by Christopher Wood at the Art Renewal Center

Ladyghost's site

Performance of Variations by Julian Lloyd Webber and Colosseum II

Cat Destroys Lloyd Webber's Phantom Sequel Score

Andrew Lloyd Webber Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos

fan-site: biography, gallery, articles, musical samples

Category:1948 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Category:Best Song Academy Award winning songwriters Category:British racehorse owners and breeders Category:Cancer survivors Lloyd-Webber Category:Drama Desk Award winners Category:English art collectors Category:English Christians Category:English composers Category:English television personalities Category:British businesspeople Category:British billionaires Category:English musical theatre composers Category:English people of Scottish descent Category:English theatre managers and producers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Old Westminsters Category:Olivier Award winners Category:People from Hampshire Category:Reality television judges Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:Tony Award winners Category:Cats (musical)

Coordinates	19°45′″N96°12′″N
Name	Adam Guettel
Background	non_performing_personnel
Born	December 16, 1964 New York City, New York, USA
Genre	Musical theatre
Occupation	Composer, lyricist
Years active	1996-present
Label	Nonesuch/Elektra Records

Adam Guettel (, born December 16, 1964) is an American composer-lyricist of musical theater and opera . He is best known for the musical The Light in the Piazza, for which he won two Tony Awards, for Best Score and Best Orchestrations, and two Drama Desk Awards, for Best Music and Best Orchestrations.

Biography

Early years

Guettel was born and raised on the Upper West Side of New York City. He performed as a boy soprano soloist in operas including Pelléas et Mélisande and The Magic Flute, both at the Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Opera, and in another production of Pelléas with the Santa Fe Opera. He was also slated to play Amahl in the film remake of Gian Carlo Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors". He later claimed that he ended his career as a boy soprano at age 13, by faking that his voice was changing; he turned to music composition soon afterward. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy, Interlochen Center for the Arts and graduated from Yale University in 1987.

Career

His early works include 1996's Floyd Collins, Love's Fire, and Saturn Returns (which was recorded as Myths and Hymns). Guettel's music was almost immediately characterized by its complexity and chromaticism. His major influences include Igor Stravinsky, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Benjamin Britten, and Stevie Wonder. Stephen Sondheim has referred to Guettel's work as "dazzling." Guettel's songs have been recorded by such artists as Audra McDonald and Brian d'Arcy James. He also contributed original scores to several documentary films, including "Arguing the World" and "Jack". In 1999, he performed a concert evening of his own work at New York's Town Hall.

In 2004, Guettel contributed vocals to Jessica Molaskey's P.S. Classics album Make Believe, dueting with Molaskey on the song "Glad To Be Unhappy." After six years working on the project,

In summer 2007, Guettel composed background music for a production of Anton Chekhov's play Uncle Vanya at the Intiman Playhouse in Seattle, Washington.

In July 2009, the Signature Theatre of Arlington, Virginia commissioned Guettel to write a new musical for their 2011-2012 season, under the auspices of their American Musical Voices Project. Currently in the works, this will be a musical adaptation of the Danny Boyle film "Millions". Other current projects include an opera based on the short stories of Washington Irving.

Another major aspect of Guettel's career is his work as a teacher. Since 1995, he has taught masterclasses and seminars in musical theatre performance and songwriting, considering this to be an important complement to his work as a composer. He has led such classes at New York University, Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Emerson College, Elon University, Southern Methodist University, Syracuse University, and many others.

Guettel received an honorary doctorate from Lehman College in 2007.

Personal life

In a 2003 profile in The New York Times, Guettel discussed, among other things, his history with addiction. Published during the Seattle tryout of The Light in the Piazza, he spoke with regret about an earlier time in his life when these struggles hindered his creative productivity.

While Guettel is best known for his work in the theatre, he is lesser-known for his work in environmental conservation. His lifelong concern for the environment was sparked at age seven, when he read The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss. Today, his conservation efforts are primarily carried out on behalf of family dairy farms in New York State and Vermont, where he has a residence. His interest in Dr. Seuss carried into his professional life: at age 19, he composed and orchestrated a one-act opera based on The Butter Battle Book, which was never produced due to rights negotiations.

Family

Guettel is the son of composer, author and Juilliard School chairman Mary Rodgers and grandson of Tony Award-, Emmy Award-, Grammy Award-, Academy Award-, and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical theater composer Richard Rodgers. His father Henry Guettel was a film executive and was the Executive Director of the Theater Development Fund.

When Guettel took up music composition in his mid-teens, he was encouraged by his family. His mother said that she offered him advice for around a year, "After that, he was so far beyond anything I could ever have dreamed of, I just backed off."

References

External links

Interview from Studio 360 radio program, 2005

NewMusicBox cover: Adam Guettel in conversation with Frank J. Oteri, August 7, 2006 (includes video)

Interview from American Theatre Magazine, October 2003

Category:American musical theatre composers Category:American musical theatre lyricists Category:Jewish American musicians Category:Jewish composers and songwriters Category:Phillips Exeter Academy alumni Category:Tony Award winners Category:Drama Desk Award winners Category:Nonesuch Records artists Category:Yale University alumni Category:1964 births Category:Living people