New biography hits the high and low notes of Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim’s life |
As Daniel Okrent sat in the audience of the original 1970 Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company,” he knew he was experiencing something groundbreaking.
“It was like nothing I had ever seen before. I liked musicals, and I had seen many, but this was completely different. It was entirely ironic. It had no plot, and these incredibly raw yet amusing songs. There had never been songs like that on Broadway before. And the set was absolutely revolutionary,” Okrent said.
Okrent then saw Sondheim’s “Follies” in 1971, “A Little Night Music” in 1973, and “Pacific Overtures” in 1976.
“From that moment on, I would not miss a Sondheim production,” Okrent told The Times of Israel from his home in New York.
The late Sondheim was involved in creating 20 works of musical theater — sometimes as lyricist only, but usually as both composer and lyricist. He received numerous accolades, including eight Tony Awards, an Academy Award, eight Grammy Awards, and a Pulitzer Prize. A Broadway theater was named for him, and revivals of his shows are regularly produced.
A self-proclaimed “enormous admirer and fan” of arguably the most important figure in American musical theater in the second half of the 20th century, Okrent was pleased to have the opportunity to write a new biography of Sondheim for the Jewish Lives Series published by Yale University Press. “Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn’t Easy” came out in March of this year.
It is the first biography by Okrent, an award-winning author of seven books, a former editor of Life magazine, a corporate editor-at-large at Time Inc., and the first public editor of The New York Times.
The book covers Sondheim’s 91 years (1930-2021) chronologically, while weaving together the many strands that made up his work and life. Readers learn about his groundbreaking approaches to composing music and writing lyrics, his professional milieu, choices, and partnerships, and the business of Broadway. Okrent also delves into Sondheim’s complex personality and personal relationships, and his lifelong substance abuse.
In a bid to thoroughly know Sondheim, whom he never met in person, Okrent spent two years searching archives and interviewing 37 of Sondheim’s friends and associates. He also made use of extensive interviews that author Meryle Secrest conducted with Sondheim and others for her 2011 biography, “Stephen Sondheim: A Life,” and deposited at Yale for use by future scholars.
“[Sondheim’s] archival life is divided into everything that he had until 1995, which was destroyed in his [Manhattan] house fire — except for his scores, which were in a fireproof safe. Then, everything from 1995 onward had not yet been cataloged and submitted to the Library of Congress [when I was doing my research]. That just happened this past year,” Okrent said.
Although Sondheim was a prolific letter writer (to friends, colleagues, and fans), he did not save much of the correspondence he received. Fortunately for Okrent, archives of Sondheim’s close associates and friends were filled with long, rich letters from him.
“The key archives were those of [director and producer] Hal Prince, [playwright and director] Arthur Laurents, [choreographer] Jerome........