Stephen Sondheim’s cultural impact cannot be overstated

From Sweeney Todd to West Side Story to Desperate Housewives, many of the cultural pillars we know today owe inspiration to acclaimed composer and lyricist, Stephen Sondheim.

Sondheim was active in Broadway from the mid-1950s all the way to his passing in 2021. His work possesses a powerful sense of unvarnished truth, as the universal appeal of his lyrics keeps his shows relevant and thoroughly engaging decades after their initial writing.

Sondheim’s place in the history of Broadway is something of a bridge. He was tutored by Oscar Hammerstein II (of Rogers and Hammerstein fame) and was instrumental in the career of many stars, such as Angela Lansbury, whose Broadway debut was in one of his earliest productions, Anyone Can Whistle. He since went on to influence latter generations, with the late Johnathan Larson (Tick, Tick…Boom!) and Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) citing his tutelage.

His most famous works are household names in the world of theatre, and will undoubtedly live on for generations to come.

A (west side) storied career

As an avid collaborator, Sondheim found early success working with many of the industry’s biggest names at the time. His Broadway debut, West Side Story, was a collaboration with composer Leonard Bernstein. Sondheim was reportedly unsure at first about this partnership, as he was hoping to break into the industry with a production whose full songbook had been written by him.

His mentor Oscar Hammerstein urged him to reconsider, and Sondheim eventually agreed to take part. West Side Story went on run for over 700 performances, earned Sondheim a Tony nomination for Best Musical, and win 10 Academy Awards for its film adaptation.

His later works earned him a cache of Tony Awards. This includes Best Musical for A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum, and he earned Best Original Score no less than six times over the coming decades.

Why is Sondheim so popular?

Sondheim was often seen as an iconoclast. In his memoirs, he wrote that one of the principles he stuck to throughout his writing career was “Content Dictates Form”. This is clearly expressed in the sheer range of musical styling in his works.

Sondheim was never afraid to chart new personal territory in an effort to do justice to the tales he was telling. We can see this in what some consider to be the first rap music on Broadway (the introduction of the Witch in Into the Woods) and in the Japanese-Western fusion of Pacific Overtures.

Such tales were also not often his own. Many of his works are adaptations of books, films, and ancient historic tales or folklore, for new audiences.

Despite their varied musicality, his works are also said to be timeless in their lyricism. Another of his principles, “All in Service of Clarity”, renders this aspect explicitly.

An eternal legacy

Thanks to the universal appeal of his work, along with a lengthy career, Sondheim’s music has become ubiquitous in modern culture. This extends beyond film adaptations and Broadway or West End revivals.

For example, His songs are sung or hummed by characters in recent films such as Lady Bird, Joker, and Knives Out (Sondheim even had a posthumous cameo in the second Knives Out film, Glass Onion).

The TV Show Desperate Housewives named most of its episodes after Sondheim song titles or lyrics, thanks to its showrunner being a huge fan of Sondheim’s work. Sondheim even has a cameo in The Unsleeping City, a Dungeons and Dragons live show, where he is portrayed by Brennan Lee Mulligan.

We are excited to showcase some of the best of Stephen Sondheim’s legacy. After our sold-out run of Sweeney Todd at the Arts Centre, Playhouse, tickets are already selling fast to Follies, Sondheim’s 1971 tale of musical revues in a time long past.

Such is the power of his songs and tales, that we’ll be seeing them grace our stages for a long time yet.

Ben Minarelli, writer
benminarelliwriter@gmail.com