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84-527: Past recipients include Stephen Sondheim , Angela Lansbury , Betty Comden & Adolph Green , Harold Prince , Cy Coleman , Charles Strouse , Arthur Laurents , Jerry Herman , Stephen Schwartz , Peter Stone , David Merrick , John Kander & Fred Ebb , Terrence McNally , Sir Cameron Mackintosh , Carol Channing , Tony Walton , Joseph Stein , Thomas Meehan , Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick , Barbara Cook , Paul Gemignani , Alan Menken , Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty . In December 2016,

168-486: A leading tone is, you think, Oh my God. What a diatonic scale is—Oh my God! The logic of it. And, of course, what that meant to me was: Well, I can do that. Because you just don't know. You think it's a talent, you think you're born with this thing. What I've found out and what I believed is that everybody is talented. It's just that some people get it developed and some don't. The composer told Meryle Secrest: "I just wanted to study composition, theory, and harmony without

252-433: A Person Crazy", "Another Hundred People", " Getting Married Today ", "Side by Side", " The Ladies Who Lunch ", and " Being Alive ". Walter Kerr of The New York Times praised the production, the performances, and the score, writing, "Sondheim has never written a more sophisticated, more pertinent, or—this is the surprising thing in the circumstances—more melodious score". Documentary filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker captured

336-433: A baby!" Burt Shevelove invited Sondheim to a party where Sondheim arrived before him but knew no one else well. He saw a familiar face, Arthur Laurents , who had seen one of the auditions of Saturday Night , and they began talking. Laurents told him he was working on a musical version of Romeo and Juliet with Leonard Bernstein , but they needed a lyricist; Betty Comden and Adolph Green , who were supposed to write

420-638: A book by John Weidman . The show explored, in revue form, a group of historical figures who tried (with varying success) to assassinate the President of the United States. The musical closed on February 16, 1991, after 73 performances. The Los Angeles Times reported the show "has been sold out since previews began, reflecting the strong appeal of Sondheim's work among the theater crowd." In his review for The New York Times , Frank Rich wrote, " Assassins will have to fire with sharper aim and fewer blanks if it

504-431: A chance to work with very gifted professionals on a show that sounds interesting, and you could always write your own music eventually. My advice would be to take the job." West Side Story , directed by Jerome Robbins , opened in 1957 and ran for 732 performances. Sondheim expressed dissatisfaction with his lyrics, saying they did not always fit the characters and were sometimes too consciously poetic. Initially Bernstein

588-432: A doorman said he had gotten into a limousine to go to John F. Kennedy International Airport . Bernstein burst into tears and said, "It's over". Sondheim later said of this experience: "I was ashamed of the whole project. It was arch and didactic in the worst way." He wrote one and a half songs and threw them away, the only time he ever did that. Eighteen years later, Sondheim refused Bernstein's and Robbins's request to retry

672-454: A larger version of the same badge, which is worn as a star on the left chest. It comes with a sash that is worn over the right shoulder (similarly to the Grand Cross of an order of chivalry ), with its rosette (blue with a white edge, bearing the central disc of the badge at its center) resting on the left hip. When the medal with Distinction is awarded, the star may be presented hanging from

756-907: A major source of such recommendations. The medal may be awarded to an individual more than once. Colin Powell received two awards, his second being with Distinction; Ellsworth Bunker received both of his awards with Distinction. It may also be awarded posthumously; examples include John F. Kennedy , Steve Jobs , Pope John XXIII , Lyndon Johnson , John Wayne , Paul "Bear" Bryant , Thurgood Marshall , Cesar Chavez , Walter Reuther , Roberto Clemente , Jack Kemp , Harvey Milk , James Chaney , Andrew Goodman , Michael Schwerner , Elouise Cobell , Grace Hopper , Antonin Scalia , Elvis Presley and Babe Ruth . Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, civil rights workers murdered in 1964, were awarded their medals in 2014, 50 years later. In 1970, President Richard Nixon awarded

840-453: A memory. Good God!—[an] adult musical!" The production earned 12 Tony Award nominations and won 6 awards, including Best Musical and Best Original Score . " Send in the Clowns ", a song from the musical, was a hit for Judy Collins and became Sondheim's best-known song. It has since been covered by Frank Sinatra , Barbra Streisand , and Judi Dench . The production was adapted to screen in

924-494: A mock- Kabuki style. The show closed after a run of 193 performances, and was revived on Broadway in 2004. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), with a score by Sondheim and a book by Hugh Wheeler , is based on Christopher Bond 's 1973 stage play derived from the Victorian original. The original production starred Angela Lansbury , Len Cariou , Victor Garber , and Edmund Lyndeck . Popular songs from

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1008-722: A musical comedy based on the lives of colorful businessmen Addison and Wilson Mizner . A Broadway production starring Nathan Lane and Victor Garber , directed by Sam Mendes , and planned for spring 2000, was delayed. Renamed Bounce in 2003, the show premiered at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in a production directed by Harold Prince, his first collaboration with Sondheim since 1981. Poor reviews prevented Bounce from reaching Broadway, but

1092-510: A musical version of The Exception and the Rule ; according to Robbins, Bernstein would not work without Sondheim. When Sondheim agreed, Guare asked: "Why haven't you all worked together since West Side Story ?" Sondheim answered, "You'll see". Guare said that working with Sondheim was like being with an old college roommate, and he depended on him to "decode and decipher their crazy way of working"; Bernstein worked only after midnight, and Robbins only in

1176-430: A musical. He then decided to work only when he could write both music and lyrics. Sondheim asked author and playwright James Goldman to join him as bookwriter for a new musical inspired by a gathering of former Ziegfeld Follies showgirls: initially titled The Girls Upstairs , it became Follies . In 1966, Sondheim semi-anonymously provided lyrics for " The Boy From... ", a parody of " The Girl from Ipanema " in

1260-400: A neck ribbon and can be identified by its size, which is larger than the standard badge. In addition to the full-size insignia, the award is accompanied by a service ribbon for wear on military service uniforms, a miniature medal pendant for wear on mess dress or civilian formal wear , and a lapel badge for wear on civilian clothes, all of which comes in the full presentation set. There

1344-459: A nine-performance bomb (although it introduced Angela Lansbury to musical theater). Do I Hear a Waltz? , based on Laurents's 1952 play The Time of the Cuckoo , was intended as another Rodgers and Hammerstein musical with Mary Martin in the lead. A new lyricist was needed, and Laurents and Rodgers's daughter, Mary , asked Sondheim to fill in. Although Richard Rodgers and Sondheim agreed that

1428-521: A private Quaker preparatory school in Bucks County, Pennsylvania , where he wrote his first musical, By George , in 1946. From 1946 to 1950, Sondheim attended Williams College . He graduated magna cum laude and received the Hubbard Hutchinson Prize, a two-year fellowship to study music. Sondheim traced his interest in theater to Very Warm for May , a Broadway musical he saw when he

1512-586: A revised version opened off-Broadway as Road Show at the Public Theater on October 28, 2008. Directed by John Doyle , it closed December 28, 2008. The production won the 2009 Obie Award for Music and Lyrics and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics. Asked about writing new work, Sondheim replied in 2006: "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

1596-654: A show" and found a new collaborator in James Lapine after he saw Lapine's Twelve Dreams off-Broadway in 1981: "I was discouraged, and I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't discovered Twelve Dreams at the Public Theatre "; Lapine has a taste "for the avant-garde and for visually oriented theater in particular". Their first collaboration was Sunday in the Park with George (1984), with Sondheim's music evoking Georges Seurat 's pointillism . Sondheim and Lapine won

1680-561: A variety of composers (especially Jerome Kern ). Sondheim told Secrest that Kern had the ability "to develop a single motif through tiny variations into a long and never boring line and his maximum development of the minimum of material". He said of Babbitt, "I am his maverick, his one student who went into the popular arts with all his serious artillery". At Williams, Sondheim wrote a musical adaption of Beggar on Horseback (a 1924 play by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly , with Kaufman's permission) that had three performances. A member of

1764-544: A wedding, and Ayers commissioned Sondheim for three songs for the show; Julius Epstein flew in from California and hired Sondheim, who worked with him in California for four or five months. After eight auditions for backers, half the money needed was raised. The show, retitled Saturday Night , was intended to open during the 1954–55 Broadway season, but Ayers died of leukemia in his early forties. The production rights transferred to his widow, Shirley, and due to her inexperience

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1848-524: A week in New York City for four hours. (At the time, Babbitt was teaching at Princeton University .) According to Sondheim, they spent the first hour dissecting Rodgers and Hart or George Gershwin or studying Babbitt's favorites ( Buddy DeSylva , Lew Brown , and Ray Henderson ). They then proceeded to other forms of music (such as Mozart 's Jupiter Symphony ), critiquing them the same way. Fascinated by mathematics, Babbitt and Sondheim studied songs by

1932-632: A young age, and he was mentored by Oscar Hammerstein II . He began his career by writing the lyrics for West Side Story (1957) and Gypsy (1959). He transitioned to writing both music and lyrics for the theater, with his best-known works including A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sunday in

2016-454: Is a civilian award, it can also be awarded to military personnel and worn on the uniform . It was established in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy , superseding the Medal of Freedom that was initially established by President Harry S. Truman in 1945 to honor civilian service. Occasionally, the medal award is further denoted as, "with distinction." There are no specific criteria for receiving

2100-665: Is a hugely amusing recitation of the attributes given by the different professions—priest, lawyer, and so on—to the pies they contribute to. At other times the lyrics have a black, piercing poetry to them." Lansbury's performance was captured alongside George Hearn in the Los Angeles production, which was filmed and shown on PBS as part of Masterpiece Theatre . It later earned five Primetime Emmy Award nominations. It has been revived on Broadway in 1989, 2005, and 2023. The 2023 production starred Josh Groban , Annaleigh Ashford , Jordan Fisher , and Gaten Matarazzo . A film adaptation

2184-551: Is not made public, but the Trump administration stated that it included recommendations and nominations from the public, Cabinet , White House senior staff, and other presidential advisory bodies, which were then vetted prior to presentation to the President. The order establishing the medal also expanded the size and the responsibilities of the Distinguished Civilian Service Awards Board so it could serve as

2268-455: Is nothing ordinary about the music." Sondheim later said: "Did I feel betrayed? I'm not sure I would put it like that. What did surprise me was the feeling around the Broadway community—if you can call it that, though I guess I will for lack of a better word—that they wanted Hal and me to fail." Sondheim and Furth continued to revise the show in subsequent years. An acclaimed feature documentary on

2352-399: Is that she wanted to stand there in her bare feet, suffering for her art". After Do I Hear a Waltz? , Sondheim devoted himself solely to writing both music and lyrics for the theater—and in 1970, he began a collaboration with director Harold Prince resulting in a body of work that is considered one of the high water marks of musical theater history, with critic Howard Kissel writing that

2436-540: Is the only U.S. sash and star decoration (the Chief Commander degree of the Legion of Merit —which may only be awarded to foreign heads of state—is a star decoration but without a sash). The executive order calls for the medal to be awarded annually on or around July 4, and at other convenient times as chosen by the president, but it has not been awarded every year (e.g., 2001, 2010). The recipient selection process

2520-419: Is to shoot to kill." Assassins was eventually staged on Broadway in 2004. Saturday Night was shelved until its 1997 production at London's Bridewell Theatre . The next year, its score was recorded; a revised version, with two new songs, ran off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre in 2000 and at London's Jermyn Street Theatre in 2009. Sondheim and Weidman reunited during the late 1990s for Wise Guys ,

2604-589: The Ziegfeld Follies , that played in that theater between the world wars). The production also featured choreography and co-direction by Michael Bennett , who later created A Chorus Line . The original production starred Dorothy Collins , John McMartin , Alexis Smith , and Gene Nelson . It included the songs " I'm Still Here ", " Could I Leave You? ", and " Losing My Mind ". The production earned 11 Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical. It won 7 Tony Awards, including Best Original Score . The show

Oscar Hammerstein Award - Misplaced Pages Continue

2688-408: The 1977 film of the same name starring Elizabeth Taylor , Dianna Rigg , Len Cariou , and Hermione Gingold . It was revived on Broadway in 2009 in a production starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury . Pacific Overtures (1976), with a book by John Weidman , was one of Sondheim's most unconventional efforts: it explored the westernization of Japan, and was originally presented in

2772-535: The 2014 film adaptation of Into the Woods , Sondheim wrote the new song "She'll Be Back", sung by The Witch, which was cut from the film. Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States , alongside the Congressional Gold Medal . It is an award bestowed by decision of the president of the United States to "any person recommended to

2856-830: The Beta Theta Pi fraternity, he graduated magna cum laude in 1950. "A few painful years of struggle" followed, when Sondheim auditioned songs, lived in his father's dining room to save money, and spent time in Hollywood writing for the television series Topper . He devoured 1940s and 1950s films, and called cinema his "basic language"; his film knowledge got him through The $ 64,000 Question contestant tryouts. Sondheim disliked movie musicals, favoring classic dramas such as Citizen Kane , The Grapes of Wrath , and A Matter of Life and Death : "Studio directors like Michael Curtiz and Raoul Walsh ... were heroes of mine. They went from movie to movie to movie, and every third movie

2940-523: The Great Seal of the United States ) within a golden ring. Golden bald eagles with spread wings stand between the points of the star. It is worn around the neck on a blue ribbon having white edge stripes. Women may choose to receive the award as a bow worn on the left chest (as for Margaret Thatcher ). A special and rarely granted award, called the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction, has

3024-480: The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra conducted by David Loud . In Playbill , Steven Suskin called the concert "neither a new musical, a revival, nor a standard songbook revue; it is, rather, a staged-and-sung chamber jazz rendition of a string of songs ... Half of the songs come from Company and Follies ; most of the other Sondheim musicals are represented, including the lesser-known Passion and Road Show ". For

3108-472: The Shubert Theatre on February 25, 1973, and ran for 601 performances and 12 previews. Clive Barnes of The New York Times wrote, " A Little Night Music is soft on the ears, easy on the eyes, and pleasant on the mind. It is less than brash, but more than brassy, and it should give a lot of pleasure. It is the remembrance of a few things past, and all to the sound of a waltz and the understanding smile of

3192-808: The Upper West Side of Manhattan and, after his parents divorced, on a farm near Doylestown, Pennsylvania . The only child of affluent parents living in the San Remo at 145 Central Park West , he was described in Meryle Secrest 's biography Stephen Sondheim: A Life as an isolated, emotionally neglected child. When he lived in New York City, Sondheim attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School . He spent several summers at Camp Androscoggin . His mother sent him to New York Military Academy in 1940. From 1942 to 1947, he attended George School ,

3276-446: The anthology series ABC Stage 67 and produced by Hubbell Robinson , it was broadcast on November 16, 1966. According to Sondheim and director Paul Bogart , the musical was written only because Goldman needed money for rent. The network disliked the title and Sondheim's alternative, A Little Night Music . After Sondheim finished Evening Primrose , Jerome Robbins asked him to adapt Bertolt Brecht 's The Measures Taken despite

3360-546: The 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play, and it was revived on Broadway in 2008, and again in a limited run in 2017. They collaborated on Into the Woods (1987), a musical based on several Brothers Grimm fairy tales . Although Sondheim has been called the first composer to bring rap music to Broadway (with the Witch in the opening number of Into the Woods ), he attributed the first rap in theater to Meredith Willson 's "Rock Island" from The Music Man (1957). Into

3444-501: The 25th Oscar Hammerstein Award was presented to Joel Grey in a star-studded tribute evening. In 2017, the 26th Oscar Hammerstein Award was presented to Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt . In 2018, the 27th Oscar Hammerstein Award was presented to award-winning director and choreographer Susan Stroman . Andre De Shields became the 28th recipient of the award at a gala dinner on Nov. 11, 2019. Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire became

Oscar Hammerstein Award - Misplaced Pages Continue

3528-405: The 29th recipient of the award at The Edison Ballroom on November 1, 2021. Leslie Uggams will be honored as the 30th recipient of the award at The Edison Rooftop on November 14, 2022. Stephen Sondheim Stephen Joshua Sondheim ( / ˈ s ɒ n d h aɪ m / ; March   22, 1930 – November   26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. Regarded as one of

3612-785: The HBO feature-length documentary Six by Sondheim , which he executive produced with former New York Times theater critic Frank Rich , a longtime champion of Sondheim's work. Sondheim himself acts and sings in the documentary as Joe, the cynical theater producer in the song "Opening Doors". Sondheim collaborated with Wynton Marsalis on A Bed and a Chair: A New York Love Affair , an Encores! concert on November 13–17, 2013, at New York City Center . Directed by John Doyle with choreography by Parker Esse, it consisted of "more than two dozen Sondheim compositions, each piece newly reimagined by Marsalis". The concert featured Bernadette Peters , Jeremy Jordan , Norm Lewis , Cyrille Aimée , four dancers, and

3696-467: The Medal for Merit was awarded by the president, as is the Presidential Medal of Freedom. President John F. Kennedy established the presidential version of the decoration in 1963 through Executive Order 11085 (signed February 22, 1963), with unique and distinctive insignia, vastly expanded purpose, and far higher prestige. It was the first U.S. civilian neck decoration and, if awarded with Distinction,

3780-691: The Park with George (1984), and Into the Woods (1987). Sondheim's numerous awards and nominations include eight Tony Awards , an Academy Award , eight Grammy Awards , an Olivier Award , and the Pulitzer Prize . He also was awarded the Kennedy Center Honor in 1993 and a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. A theater is named after him both on Broadway and in the West End of London . Film adaptations of his works include West Side Story (1961), Gypsy (1962), A Funny Thing Happened on

3864-402: The President for award of the Medal or any person selected by the President upon his own initiative," and was created to recognize people who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to (1) the security or national interests of the United States, or (2) world peace, or (3) cultural or other significant public or private endeavors." The award is not limited to U.S. citizens, and, while it

3948-579: The Way to the Forum (1966), A Little Night Music (1977), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Into the Woods (2014), and West Side Story (2021). Sondheim was born on March 22, 1930, into a Jewish family in New York City, the son of Etta Janet ("Foxy"; née Fox; 1897–1992) and Herbert Sondheim (1895–1966). His paternal grandparents, Isaac and Rosa, were German Jews , and his maternal grandparents, Joseph and Bessie, were Lithuanian Jews from Vilnius . His father manufactured dresses designed by his mother. The composer grew up on

4032-490: The Woods was revived on Broadway in 2002 and at the St. James Theatre in 2022. Sondheim's and Lapine's last collaboration on a musical was the rhapsodic Passion (1994), adapted from Ettore Scola 's Italian film Passione D'Amore . With a run of 280 performances, Passion was the shortest-running show to win a Tony Award for Best Musical . Assassins opened off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons on December 18, 1990, with

4116-743: The actors to age in real time. An Off-Broadway revival starring Jonathan Groff , Daniel Radcliffe , and Lindsay Mendez ran from November 2022 to January 2023 at the New York Theatre Workshop ; it moved to Broadway in fall 2023. Merrily ' s failure greatly affected Sondheim; he was ready to quit theater and do movies, create video games or write mysteries: "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." After Merrily , Sondheim and Prince did not collaborate again until their 2003 production of Bounce . Sondheim decided "that there are better places to start

4200-437: The attendant musicology that comes in graduate school. But I knew I wanted to write for the theater, so I wanted someone who did not disdain theater music." Barrow suggested that Sondheim study with Milton Babbitt , whom Sondheim called "a frustrated show composer" with whom he formed "a perfect combination". When they met, Babbitt was working on a musical for Mary Martin based on the myth of Helen of Troy . The two met once

4284-422: The award with distinction; Executive Order 11085 simply specifies that the award should come in two degrees, and hence any decision to award the higher degree is entirely at the discretion of the president. In 2017, President Barack Obama stated that receiving the award with distinction indicates "an additional level of veneration" in a class of individuals already held in the highest esteem. As of June 2024 ,

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4368-471: The composer's general dislike of Brecht's work. Robbins wanted to adapt another Brecht play, The Exception and the Rule , and asked John Guare to adapt the book. Leonard Bernstein had not written for the stage in some time, and his contract as conductor of the New York Philharmonic was ending. Sondheim was invited to Robbins's house in the hope that Guare would convince him to write the lyrics for

4452-399: The credit. Sondheim later said he wished "someone stuffed a handkerchief in my mouth because it would have been nice to get that extra percentage". After West Side Story opened, Shevelove lamented the lack of "lowbrow comedy" on Broadway and mentioned a possible musical based on Plautus 's Roman comedies. Sondheim was interested in the idea and called a friend, Larry Gelbart , to co-write

4536-788: The duo had set "Broadway's highest standards". The first Sondheim show with Prince as director was 1970's Company . A show about a single man and his married friends, Company (with a book by George Furth ) lacked a straightforward plot, instead centering on themes such as marriage and the difficulty of making an emotional connection with another person. It opened on April 26, 1970, at the Alvin Theatre , running for 705 performances after seven previews, and won Tony Awards for Best Musical , Best Music, and Best Lyrics. The original cast included Dean Jones , Elaine Stritch , and Charles Kimbrough . Popular songs include " Company ", "The Little Things You Do Together", "Sorry-Grateful", "You Could Drive

4620-407: The early morning. Bernstein's score, which was supposed to be light, was influenced by his need to make a musical statement. Stuart Ostrow , who worked with Sondheim on The Girls Upstairs , agreed to produce the musical, initially titled A Pray by Blecht , then The Race to Urga . An opening night was scheduled, but during auditions Robbins asked to be excused for a moment. When he did not return,

4704-439: The lyrics, were under contract in Hollywood. He said that although he was not a big fan of Sondheim's music, he enjoyed the lyrics from Saturday Night and he could audition for Bernstein. The next day, Sondheim met and played for Bernstein, who said he would let him know. Sondheim wanted to write music and lyrics; he consulted with Hammerstein, who said, as Sondheim related in a 2008 New York Times video interview, "Look, you have

4788-632: The main character was a woman, Bobbie, portrayed by Katrina Lenk ). The 2006 and 2021 productions won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical . Follies (1971), with a book by James Goldman , opened on April 4, 1971, at the Winter Garden Theatre and ran for 522 performances after 12 previews. The plot centers on a reunion, in a crumbling Broadway theater scheduled for demolition, of performers in Weismann's Follies (a musical revue, based on

4872-530: The making of the original cast recording shortly after the show opened on Broadway in his 1970 film Original Cast Album: Company . Stritch, Sondheim, and producer Thomas Z. Shepard are featured prominently. Company was revived on Broadway in 1995, 2006, and 2020/2021 (the last revival began previews in March 2020, but shut down before resuming in November 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic ; in this revival,

4956-411: The medal has been awarded with distinction at least 55 times, amounting to approximately 8% of all awards. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the supreme civilian decoration that can be awarded in discretion of the president, whereas its predecessor, the Medal of Freedom, was inferior in precedence to the Medal for Merit ; the Medal of Freedom was awarded by any of three Cabinet secretaries, whereas

5040-422: The medal to the entire Apollo 13 mission operations team, as well as to the mission's crew. Athlete and activist Simone Biles is the youngest person to receive this award at the age of 25. The badge of the Presidential Medal of Freedom is in the form of a golden star with white enamel , with a red enamel pentagon behind it; the central disc bears thirteen gold stars on a blue enamel background (taken from

5124-569: The most important figures in 20th-century musical theater , he is credited with reinventing the American musical. With his frequent collaborators Harold Prince and James Lapine , Sondheim's Broadway musicals tackled unexpected themes that ranged beyond the genre's traditional subjects, while addressing darker elements of the human experience. His music and lyrics are tinged with complexity, sophistication, and ambivalence about various aspects of life. Sondheim's interest in musical theater began at

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5208-474: The music and lyrics was A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum , which opened in 1962 and ran for 964 performances. The book , based on farces by Plautus , was by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart . The show won six Tony Awards (including Best Musical ) and had the longest Broadway run of any show for which Sondheim wrote both music and lyrics. Sondheim had participated in three straight hits, but his next show—1964's Anyone Can Whistle —was

5292-504: The music and lyrics, Merman refused to let another first-time composer write for her and demanded that Jule Styne write the music. Sondheim, concerned that writing lyrics again would pigeonhole him as a lyricist, called his mentor for advice. Hammerstein told him he should take the job, because writing a vehicle for a star would be a good learning experience. Sondheim agreed; Gypsy opened on May 21, 1959, and ran for 702 performances. The first Broadway production for which Sondheim wrote

5376-509: The musical include "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd", "The Worst Pies in London", "Pretty Women", "A Little Priest", " Not While I'm Around ", "By the Sea", and "Johanna". The production earned 9 Tony Award nominations and won 8 awards, including Best Musical , Best Original Score, Best Actress, and Best Actor. Richard Eder of The New York Times wrote: "Mr. Sondheim's lyrics can be endlessly inventive. There

5460-419: The off-Broadway revue The Mad Show . The song was credited to "Esteban Río Nido", Spanish for "Stephen River Nest", and in the show's playbill the lyrics were credited to " Nom De Plume ". That year Goldman and Sondheim hit a creative wall on The Girls Upstairs , and Goldman asked Sondheim about writing a TV musical. The result was Evening Primrose , with Anthony Perkins and Charmian Carr . Written for

5544-584: 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, he said that in addition to continuing work on Bounce , he was "nibbling at a couple of things with John Weidman and James Lapine". Lapine prepared the multimedia production iSondheim: aMusical Revue , which was scheduled to open in April 2009 at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta ; it

5628-407: The opening of South Pacific , Hammerstein's musical with Richard Rodgers . The comic musical Sondheim wrote at George School, By George , was a success among his peers and buoyed his self-esteem. When he asked Hammerstein to evaluate it as though he had no knowledge of its author, he said it was the worst thing he had ever seen: "But if you want to know why it's terrible, I'll tell you." They spent

5712-422: The original play did not lend itself to musicalization, they began writing a musical version. The project had many difficulties, including Rodgers's alcoholism. Sondheim later called it the one project he truly regretted writing, given that the reasons he wrote it—as a favor to Mary, as a favor to Hammerstein, as an opportunity to work again with Laurents, and as an opportunity to make money—were not reasons to write

5796-461: The request that it was "weird...it's like asking your father to inscribe something." Reading the inscription ("For Stevie, My Friend and Teacher") choked up the composer, who said, "That describes Oscar better than anything I could say." Sondheim began attending Williams College , a liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts , whose theater program attracted him. His first teacher there

5880-478: The rest of the day going over the musical, and Sondheim later said, "In that afternoon I learned more about songwriting and the musical theater than most people learn in a lifetime." Hammerstein designed a course of sorts for Sondheim on constructing a musical. He had the young composer write four musicals, each with one of the following conditions: None of the "assignment" musicals were produced professionally. High Tor and Mary Poppins have never been produced:

5964-409: The rights holder for the original High Tor refused permission (though a musical version by Arthur Schwartz was produced for television in 1956), and Mary Poppins was unfinished. Hammerstein's death Hammerstein died of stomach cancer on August 23, 1960, aged 65. Sondheim later recalled that Hammerstein had given him a portrait of himself. Sondheim asked him to inscribe it, and said later of

6048-463: The script. The show went through a number of drafts, and was interrupted briefly by Sondheim's next project. In 1959, Laurents and Robbins approached Sondheim for a musical version of Gypsy Rose Lee 's memoir after Irving Berlin and Cole Porter turned it down. Sondheim agreed, but Ethel Merman – cast as Mama Rose – had just finished Happy Hunting with an unknown composer (Harold Karr) and lyricist (Matt Dubey). Although Sondheim wanted to write

6132-491: The show and its aftermath, Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened , directed by Merrily cast member Lonny Price, and produced by Bruce David Klein , Kitt Lavoie, and Ted Schillinger, premiered at the New York Film Festival on November 18, 2016. A film adaptation of Merrily We Roll Along , directed by Richard Linklater , began production in 2019 and is planned to continue for the next two decades to allow

6216-402: The show did not continue as planned; it opened off-Broadway in 2000. Sondheim later said, "I don't have any emotional reaction to Saturday Night at all—except fondness. It's not bad stuff for a 23-year-old. There are some things that embarrass me so much in the lyrics—the missed accents, the obvious jokes. But I decided, leave it. It's my baby pictures. You don't touch up a baby picture—you're

6300-505: The show. Sondheim lived in a Turtle Bay, Manhattan brownstone from his writing of Gypsy in 1959. Ten years later, he heard a knock on the door. His neighbor, Katharine Hepburn , was in "bare feet—this angry, red-faced lady" and told him, "You have been keeping me awake all night!" (she was practicing for her musical debut in Coco ). "I remember asking Hepburn why she didn't just call me, but she claimed not to have my phone number. My guess

6384-433: Was Robert Barrow: everybody hated him because he was very dry, and I thought he was wonderful because he was very dry. And Barrow made me realize that all my romantic views of art were nonsense. I had always thought an angel came down and sat on your shoulder and whispered in your ear "dah-dah-dah-DUM." It never occurred to me that art was something worked out. And suddenly it was skies opening up. As soon as you find out what

6468-430: Was also credited as a co-writer of the lyrics, but he later offered Sondheim solo credit, as Sondheim had essentially done all of them. The New York Times review of the show did not mention the lyrics. Sondheim described the division of the royalties, saying that Bernstein received 3% and he received 1%. Bernstein suggested evening the percentage at 2% each, but Sondheim refused because he was satisfied with just getting

6552-537: Was canceled due to "difficulties encountered by the commercial producers attached to the project ... in raising the necessary funds". Later revised as Sondheim on Sondheim , the revue was produced at Studio 54 by the Roundabout Theatre Company ; previews began on March 19, 2010, and ran from April 22 to June 13. The revue's cast included Barbara Cook , Vanessa L. Williams , Tom Wopat , Norm Lewis , and Leslie Kritzer . In 2013, Lapine directed

6636-491: Was good and every fifth movie was great. There wasn't any cultural pressure to make art". At age 22, Sondheim had finished the four shows Hammerstein requested. Screenwriters Julius and Philip Epstein 's Front Porch in Flatbush , unproduced at the time, was being shopped around by designer and producer Lemuel Ayers . Ayers approached Frank Loesser and another composer; both turned him down. Ayers and Sondheim met as ushers at

6720-428: Was made in 2007 directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp , Helena Bonham Carter , and Alan Rickman . Merrily We Roll Along (1981), with a book by George Furth , is one of Sondheim's most traditional scores; songs from the musical were recorded by Frank Sinatra and Carly Simon . According to Sondheim's music director Paul Gemignani , "Part of Steve's ability is this extraordinary versatility". The show

6804-489: Was 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." Sondheim detested his mother, who was said to be psychologically abusive and to have projected her anger from her failed marriage onto her son: "When my father left her, she substituted me for him. And she used me the way she used him, to come on to and to berate, beat up on, you see. What she did for five years

6888-465: Was not the success their previous collaborations had been: after a chaotic series of preview performances, it opened to widely negative reviews, and closed after a run of less than two weeks. Due to the high quality of Sondheim's score, the show has been repeatedly revised and produced in the ensuing years. Martin Gottfried wrote, "Sondheim had set out to write traditional songs ... But [despite] that there

6972-431: Was revived on Broadway in 2001 and 2011. A Little Night Music (1973), based on Ingmar Bergman 's Smiles of a Summer Night and with a score primarily in waltz time , was among Sondheim's greatest commercial successes. Time magazine called it his "most brilliant accomplishment to date". The original cast included Glynis Johns , Len Cariou , Hermione Gingold , and Judy Kahan . The show opened on Broadway at

7056-751: Was treat me like dirt, but come on to me at the same time." She once wrote him a letter saying that the only regret she ever had was giving birth to him. When she died in 1992, Sondheim did not attend her funeral. He had been estranged from her for nearly 20 years. When Sondheim was about ten years old (around the time of his parents' divorce), he formed a close friendship with James Hammerstein , son of lyricist and playwright Oscar Hammerstein II , who were neighbors in Bucks County. The elder Hammerstein became Sondheim's surrogate father, influencing him profoundly and developing his love of musical theater. Sondheim met Hal Prince , who later directed many of his shows, at

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