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Legendary US composer and songwriter passed away in his Roxbury, Connecticut home on November 26, 2021. Stephen Sondheim’s cause of death has not been released at this time.
The news of Sondheim’s death was announced on Friday by his lawyer and friend F. Richards Pappas, who called it sudden.
The day before, Pappas said that Stephen had celebrated Thanksgiving with a dinner with friends in the area.
Stephen Joshua Sondheim was born on March 22, 1930, in New York City. He was a well-known composer and lyricist and one of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theater.
Early on in his unparalleled career, he wrote the lyrics to the classic musicals West Side Story, which premiered in 1957, and Gypsy 2 years later. Sondheim didn’t write the words and music to a Broadway show until 1962.
He created the famous comedy A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at that time and the play won a Tony award for best musical.
The play was so successful it ran for more than two years. Most of Sondheim’s success came in the 1970s and 1980s.
Stephen Sondheim’s Cause of Death Remains a Secret
Stephen Sondheim’s cause of death has not been announced at this time. His family also has not released any statement surrounding Sondheim’s death cause.
Sondheim’s best-known works as composer and lyricist include Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Into the Woods, and Sunday in the Park with George.
His accolades include nine Tony Awards, eight Grammy Awards, one Academy Award, one Laurence Olivier Award, one Pulitzer Prize, and a 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Stephen also had a theater named for him on Broadway and in the West End of London. He wrote film music, contributing “Goodbye for Now” for Warren Beatty’s Reds.
He wrote five songs for 1990’s Dick Tracy, including “Sooner or Later,” sung in the movie by Madonna, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Currently, a new film adaptation of West Side Story, directed by director Steven Spielberg, is set to be released on December 10.
Bradley Whitford portrays Sondheim in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s recently released movie Tick, Tick… Boom!. Sondheim is survived by his partner Jeff Romley.
Reactions to Stephen Sondheim’s Death
As the heartbreaking news of Stephen Sondheim’s death was revealed, friends and many fans shared touching tributes on social media.
Icon of the stage, screen, and song Barbra Streisand expressed gratitude for the talent Stephen Sondheim shared with the world during his lifetime.
“Thank the Lord that Sondheim lived to be 91 years old, so he had the time to write such wonderful music and GREAT lyrics!” Barbra tweeted. “May he Rest In Peace.”
Actor Anna Kendrick paid tribute to Sondheim on Twitter, calling his passing “a devastating loss.” “I was just talking to someone a few nights ago about how much fun (and (expletive) difficult) it is to sing Stephen Sondheim,” Kendrick tweeted. “Performing his work has been among the greatest privileges of my career.”
Jake Gyllenhaal remembered Sondheim as the “maestro of American musical theater.” Gyllenhaal wrote on Instagram: “This picture of Mr. Stephen Sondheim was taken during curtain call on the opening night of ‘Sunday in the Park with George,’”
“I am grateful to have shared time with the master and maestro of American musical theater and to have played his George. We have lost a giant. We will miss you. Rest In Peace,” he added.
Orange Is the New Black” alum Uzo Aduba called the late artist “the best there ever was.” “I don’t know when we will ever have another of his caliber, of his breadth and scope. Just the greatest, a legend, a true titan. Rest In Peace,” Aduba tweeted.