Boston Court Pasadena Artistic Director Emeritus Michael Michetti honors the late Stephen Sondheim in a virtual event on Wednesday, March 22, on what would have been the composer’s 92nd birthday.
One of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theater, Stephen Joshua Sondheim was born in 1930 and began his theater career by writing the lyrics for “West Side Story” in 1957 and “Gypsy” in 1959 before becoming a composer and lyricist. His best-known works include “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “Company,” “Follies,” “A Little Night Music,” “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” “Sunday in the Park with George,” and “Into the Woods.”
He was credited for having reinvented the American musical. His accolades include eight Tony Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Tony in 2008; an Academy Award, eight Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, a Laurence Olivier Award, and a 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom. He has a theater named after him both on Broadway and in the West End of London.
Sondheim wrote film music, contributing “Goodbye for Now” for Warren Beatty’s “Reds” (1981). He wrote five songs for 1990s “Dick Tracy,” including “Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man),” sung in the film by Madonna, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Sondheim died on November 26, 2021 in Roxbury, Connecticut.
During the virtual event on Wednesday, Michetti will take the audience on a journey through his lifelong, ever-evolving relationship with Sondheim’s work.
To register for the Zoom, visit https://us06web.zoom.us/
For more information, call (626) 683-6801 or visit www.bostoncourtpasadena.org/
