Stephen Sondheim passed away on November 26th, 2021. He was a composer and lyricist from America. He was praised for having ‘reinvented the American musical’ unexpected themes. What is his net worth? Let’s find out the information about it together with the other things about Stephen Sondheim.
Stephen Sondheim Net Worth
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Stephen Sondheim had a net worth of $20 million at the time of his death.
Stephen Sondheim Early Life and Education
Stephen Sondheim’s complete name is Stephen Joshua Sondheim. He was born on March 22nd, 1930. His mother named Etta Janet and his father named Herbert Sondheim. On the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Sondheim grew up. Then, he grew up on a farm near Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
When Sondheim lived in New York City, he became a student of the Ethical Culture Fieldston School. At Camp Androscoggin, he spent some summers. Then, he was sent to New York Military Academy by his mother in 1940. From 1942 to 1943, he became a student of George School. It was a private Quaker preparatory school in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. There, he wrote his first musical entitled By George. From 1946 to 1950, he became a student of Williams College. Then, he graduated magna cum laude and got the Hubbard Hutchinson Prize which was a fellowship to study music for 2 years.
Stephen Sondheim Career
As explained on Wikipedia, Sondheim was invited by Burt Shevelove to a party where Sondheim arrived before him. Then, he saw a familiar face namely Arthur Laurents who had seen one of the auditions of Saturday Night. Then, they started talking. Laurents said that he was working on a musical version of Romeo and Juliet with Leonard Bernstein, and they needed a lyricist. At that time, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who had to write the lyrics, were under contract in Hollywood. He said that even though he was not a fan of music created by Sondheim, but he could enjoy the lyrics from Saturday Night and he was able to audition for Bernstein. After that, in the following day, Sondheim met and played for Bernstein.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum was the first musical where Sondheim created the music and lyrics. It opened in 1962 and it ran for 964 performances. Sondheim took part in three straight hits. However, his next show namely Anyone Can Whistle in 1964 was a nine-performance bomb.
Do I Hear a Waltz? was aimed as another Rodgers and Hammerstein musical with Mary Martin in the lead. This musical needed a new lyricist. Laurents and Mary asked Sondheim to fill in.
In 1966, he provided lyrics for The Boy From…where it is a parody of The Girl from Ipanema in the off-Broadway revue The Mad Show. That year, a creative wall was hit by Goldman and Sondheim on The Girls Upstairs. Goldman asked Sondheim to write a TV musical and the result was Evening Primrose.
After Evening Primrose was finished by Sondheim, then Jerome Robbins asked him to adapt Bertolt Brecht’s The Measures Taken.
Stephen Sodheim Major Works
According to Wikipedia, here are Stephen Sondheim’s major works.
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- Saturday Night
Year: 1954
Role: music and lyrics
Book: Julius J. Epstein - West Side Story
Year: 1957
Role: lyrics
Book: Arthur Laurents - Gypsy
Year: 1959
Role: Lyrics
Book: Arthur Laurents - A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Year: 1962
Role: music and lyrics
Book: Burt Shevelove, Larry Gilbert - Anyone Can Whistle
Year: 1964
Role: music and lyrics
Book: Arthur Laurents - Do I Hear a Waltz?
Year: 1965
Role: lyrics
Book: Arthur Laurents - Evening Primrose
Year: 1966
Role: music and lyrics
Book: James Goldman - Company
Year: 1970
Role: music and lyrics
Book: George Furth - Follies
Year: 1971
Role: music and lyrics
Book: James Goldman - A Little Night Music
Year: 1973
Role: music and lyrics
Book: Hugh Wheeler - The Frogs
Year: 1974
Role: music and lyrics
Book: Burt Shevelove - Pacific Overtures
Year: 1976
Role: music and lyrics
Book: John Weidman - Sweeney Todd
Year: 1979
Role: music and lyrics
Book: Hugh Wheeler - Merrily We Roll Along
Year: 1981
Role: music and lyrics
Book: George Furth
Sunday in the Park with George
Year: 1984
Role: music and lyrics
Book: James Lapine - Into the Woods
Year: 1987
Role: music and lyrics
Book: James Lapine - Assassins
Year: 1990
Role: music and lyrics
Book: John Weidman - Passion
Year: 1994
Role: music and lyrics
Book: James Lapine
Road Show
Year: 2008
Role: music and lyrics
Book: John Weidman
- Saturday Night
Stephen Sondheim Honor and Legacy
In the 20th century, Stephen Sondheim is recognized as one of the most important figures in musical theatre. During he had a prolific career in stage and film, he got an Academy Award, 8 Grammy Awards and 8 Tony Awards. Besides, he also obtained the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Sunday in the Park with George and he was also honored with the Kennedy Center Honors, Lifetime Achievement in 1993.
The Hutchinson Prize was obtained by him for Music Composition in 1950 and he was chosen to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1983. He received an award the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement which was presented by Awards Council member James Earl Jones in 2005. Besides, the Algur H. Meadows Award was also given to him from Southern Methodist University in 1994. A Special Laurence Olivier Award in 2011 and a Critics’ Circle Theatre Award in March 2012 were also given to him.
In 2014, he was a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame. In November 2015, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in a ceremony at the White House.
In 1981, Young Playwrights Inc. was founded by him and the aim was to introduce young people to writing for the theater. In December 2007, The Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts which was located at the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center in Fairfield, Iowa, opened with performances by Liz Callaway, Len Cariou, and Richard Kind.
In 2019, there was an observation in the media that there were three major Oscar-winning films of that year which featured Sondheim songs and those were Joker, Marriage Story, and Knives Out.
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