“How many times do you get to be 90? Eleven?”
The master himself Stephen Sondheim celebrates his 90th birthday, March 22, 2020. Though opening night of the latest Broadway revival of Company had been planned (with a birthday party/opening night celebration to go with it), the festivities have been postponed due to the Broadway shutdown.
But, a closed theatre never stopped anyone. We asked a slew of performers and writers, Sondheim contemporaries and those who followed in his footsteps, artists who’ve worked on original productions, revivals, and tours around the world, to share a birthday message.
Company’s current Bobbie Katrina Lenk to her castmates Etai Benson, Nikki Renee Daniels, Matt Doyle, Claybourne Elder, Christopher Fitzgerald, Tally Sessions, Jennifer Simard, Christopher Sieber, and Claire Warden offer well wishes along with: Mandy Patinkin (Sunday in the Park With George), Nathan Lane (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Frogs), Annaleigh Ashford (2017 Sunday in the Park With George), Judy Kuhn (2020 Assassins), Lorin Latarro (2019 Merrily We Roll Along ), Melissa Errico (2013 Passion), Aaron Lazar (2009 A Little Night Music), Michael Cerveris (2004 Assassins, 2005 Sweeney Todd), Telly Leung (2004 Pacific Overtures), as well as Betty Buckley, Jason Robert Brown and Georgia Stitt, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Bobby Lopez (and family), Alan Menken, Tom Kitt, Lynn Ahrens, Jack Feldman, and Raúl Espara.
Sondheim has won eight Tony Awards and received the Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 2008, as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Among the work he’s produced for Broadway: Girls of Summer, West Side Story, Gyspy, Invitation to a March, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anyone Can Whistle, Do I Hear a Waltz?, Company, Follies, Twigs, A Little Night Music, Candide, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, The Madwoman of Central Park West, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park With George, Into the Woods, Passion, Getting Away With Murder, Putting It Together, Assassins, and The Frogs.
Watch the video above to witness the extremely creative and heartfelt wishes from Broadway.
Happy Birthday, Mr. Sondheim.
