Stephen Sondheim, master of musical theater, dead at 91

[TotallyOz]

So many great memories from my yearly years until today.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/26/entertainment/stephen-sondheim/index.html

[PeterRS]

Sondheim revolutionised the musicals genre even more I believe than Rodgers and Hammerstein II. Indeed it was Hammerstein who first noticed him and helped encourage him. I was fortunate in having a dear friend in London who adored musicals. He gave me my first Sondheim experience with the London production of Company featuring the Broadway original performers: Larry Kert in the lead role of Bobby and the legendary Elaine Stritch whose "Ladies Who Lunch" remains seared on my memory.  We then saw A Little Night Music with the wonderful pairing of Jean Simmons and Hermione Gingold. "Send in the Clowns" from that show became his one worldwide hit. Unlike Lloyd Webber Sondheim was not especially interested in beautiful melodies. Whereas Lloyd Webber always wrote the music first and then had lyrics added to it, for Sondheim the lyrics and the detail in those lyrics were the absolute key to how he wrote a song.

A struggling London producer who was to become a close friend and collaborator on future Sondheim shows, Cameron Mackintosh (later to produce the four great blockbusters CATS, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon), then mounted a low budget evening of songs by Sondheim titled Side by Side by Sondheim - a reference to one of the songs from Company. This was a total joy. On Broadway I was later to see Sweeney Todd with Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury. I enjoyed it so much I returned a second time. Although Company remains my favourite, a close second is Follies which I saw again on Broadway in the 2001 revival. A truly wonderful evening. It is a difficult show to produce almost anywhere requiring as it does effectively two casts - a group of 60/70 year old singer/dancers who used to perform in a variation of the famous Ziegfeld Follies and return for a reunion. They appear alongside a younger group performing as ghosts of their former selves.

I wish I had seen more. I have several on CD but nothing beats the live stage experience for me. To say he was in a class by himself and that he revolutionised musical theatre is superfluous. He was quite simply a ground-breaking genius.

Most will remember him with "Send in the Clowns". I prefer his much more gritty "Ladies who Lunch" which really can only be sung Elaine Stritch. It's a song filled with mockery about the bitterness, boredom, wasteful lives and fondness for alcohol of rich society ladies who really have nothing meaningful in those lives. Just listen to the mournful opening phrases and then the biting satire of the lyric. Magical!

 

[TotallyOz]

 

[Lonnie]

7 hours ago, PeterRS said:

A Little Night Music:   Send In The Clowns

 

[Lonnie]

Surprising to me that Early in his career, Sondheim wrote the lyrics for two shows considered to be classics of the American stage, “West Side Story” (1957) and “Gypsy” (1959). “West Side Story,” with music by Leonard Bernstein, transplanted Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” to the streets and gangs of modern-day New York. “Gypsy,” with music by Jule Styne, told the backstage story of the ultimate stage mother and the daughter who grew up to be Gypsy Rose Lee.

 

[Lonnie]

 

[PeterRS]

1 hour ago, Lonnie said:

Surprising to me that Early in his career, Sondheim wrote the lyrics for two shows considered to be classics of the American stage, “West Side Story” (1957) and “Gypsy” (1959). “West Side Story,” with music by Leonard Bernstein, transplanted Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” to the streets and gangs of modern-day New York. “Gypsy,” with music by Jule Styne, told the backstage story of the ultimate stage mother and the daughter who grew up to be Gypsy Rose Lee.

Adored West Side Story. Amazing to hear CNN this evening telling viewers he wrote the music. That will be news to Leonard Bernstein's children! Not sure if Stephen Spielberg's new movie version out next month will be a success. I hope so as it will bring the show to a totally new audience. But his version of another classic, J. M Barrie's Peter Pan, was a disaster.

I suppose not really interesting now but all four creators of West Side Story were gay. I know Bernstein was married but it was very much a marriage of convenience - essential if he wanted to get the job as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. He had been almost outrageously gay before the marriage, and soon after they tied the knot his wife wrote a letter to him saying, "I know you are homosexual and may never change," but she was prepared to accept that.

Saw Gypsy in London 6 years ago with the wonderful Imelda Staunton in the title role. I had just arrived in London and maybe I was suffering from jetlag but I just did not enjoy the whole evening. And I'm a bit of a musicals junkie!

[Lonnie]

52 minutes ago, PeterRS said:

Imelda Staunton

Sorry you were out of sorts for Gypsy...it must of been great show with her in main role.

I vividly remember her in "Pride". A so-so movie made so much better because of her performance.

[Lonnie]

3 hours ago, PeterRS said:

were gay

Sondheims husband was Jeff Romley.

https://www.wiki.ng/en/wiki/who-is-jeff-romley-stephen-sondheim-boyfriend-age-wikipedia-and-net-worth-754757

Who Is Jeff Romley? Stephen Sondheim Boyfriend or Husband

Jeff Romley is the husband of Stephen Sondheim. However, as an individual, he is known as an actor.

Broadway World mentioned that he worked for a Broadway/West End theatre producer on several shows, including The Producers, Hairspray, Porgy & Bess, Sweeney Todd, and Company. 

He served as a theatre talent representative at the William Morris Agency. His partner hails from New York who is a singer from a Jewish background. 

 

RIP #StephenSondheim. Thank you for “Into the Woods” amongst your many other contributions to the #art and #musicaltheater world. pic.twitter.com/oIhyVWjTve

— Elise D’Orazio (@elisedorazio) November 27, 2021

 

Jeff Romley Has Huge Age Difference With His Partner, Stephen Sondheim

Jeff Romley has an age difference of 50 years with his partner Stephen Sondheim. Thus, he may be currently in his early 40s. 

His date of birth is not known to the public yet. Moreover, he has remained low-key even though he can be seen in the media several times with the composer attending events. 

According to the BBC, his husband was at the age of 91 when he died at his home in Roxbury. The duo got married in 2017. Despite the differences of almost a generation, the couple proved that love does not see age but the heart. 

 

#sondheim married Jeff Romley in 2017. pic.twitter.com/kGJy4ivdvG

— Poppy Masselos (@poppymasselos) November 27, 2021

 

Is Jeff Romley Featured On Wikipedia?

Jeff Romley is not featured on Wikipedia as of 2021. However, his name is mentioned in his partner’s profile on the platform. 

Much information on Jeff cannot be found on the web as well. His name was first surfaced when the musician announced their relationship in public. 

In addition, Sondheim came out as gay in his 40s. He spent eight years of his life with dramatist Peter Jones in 1990. But, they never got married. 

It seems the lyricist found love in Jeff and decided to spend the last days of his life with him.  

How Rich Is Jeff Romley?- More On His Net Worth

Jeff Romley’s net worth is not disclosed in the media yet. However, his lover had an impressive net worth of an estimated $20 million. 

He was an exceptional and unique artist who changed the face of American Musical. 

[PeterRS]

6 hours ago, Lonnie said:

Jeff Romley’s net worth is not disclosed in the media yet. However, his lover had an impressive net worth of an estimated $20 million. 

He was an exceptional and unique artist who changed the face of American Musical. 

I cannot imagine who thinks it actually matters if Jeff Romney was Sondheim's lover or husband or what the age difference was! Sondheim really only ever found happiness in love quite late in life and Romney was his only his second long term boyfriend. But to realise that Sondheim's net worth was only around $20 million is surprising considering his massive output and the royalties he would still be getting from all his shows including West Side Story. Almost 20 years ago there were 17 productions of Sweeney Todd in North America and the UK alone.

Andrew Lloyd Webber has a fortune of at least $1.2 billion - and that's almost all on the basis of just 6 shows - Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, CATS, Phantom with Starlight Express and Joseph and His Technicolour Dreamcoat tagging on behind.  Sunset Boulevarde was to be the big smash hit after Phantom. Although it ran for several years on Broadway and in London's West End, lawsuits (by Patti Lupone who was promised the Broadway opening and then fired and Faye Dunaway who was rehearsing to take over from Glenn Close in Los Angeles where it was premiered when she was fired), a massively expensive set and high weekly running costs resulted in the show losing its investors all their many millions. As Lloyd Webber himself lamented a couple of years or so ago, since Phantom he has written 20 musicals and every one has flopped. 

Not that Sondheim didn't have a dud or two. Even he admits that. But almost all his shows are masterpieces in their own right. Unlike Lloyd Webber, he never courted popularity. He never invested in theatre ownership or collected Pre-Raphaelite paintings or had huge wine collections. ALW said he never bought one case of fine wine - always two. One would be for drinking, the other for selling when the price had risen significantly. Sondheim's life was his work. 

Yesterday I heard an interesting interview he made in 2004 with the British classical music journalist and author Norman Lebrecht. With divorced parents, he was almost living in the home of Oscar Hammerstein II whose son Jimmy was his best friend at school. He idolised Oscar adding had Oscar been a geologist, he Sondheim would have also become a geologist. Becoming a lyricist he loved crosswords, the more difficult the better. Around the time of West Side Story, he discovered one of the most difficult of them all in a British weekly magazine, The Listener. He even got Bernstein hooked on them! Perhaps this is one reason the lyrics always came first and are so beautifully crafted. They can also be wonderfully funny as in one song many will have heard through the Tim Burton movie of Sweeney Todd. The lyrics of the song when Mrs. Lovett tells of the content of her meat pies that have become immensely popular.

"If you're British and loyal you might enjoy Royal Marine"

"This marine doesn't appeal to you? How about Admiral?" "Too salty. I'd prefer General." "With or without his privates?"

This is Patti Lupone as Mrs. Lovett with the great George Hearn (who can forget his rendition of "I am what I am" in Jerry Herman's La Cage aux Folles) and Michael Cerveris at a celebration for Sondheim's 80th birthday.

 

[Lonnie]

11 hours ago, PeterRS said:

I cannot imagine who thinks it actually matters if Jeff Romney was Sondheim's lover or husband or what the age difference was!

Au contraire dear Peter...Gay marriage is still a relatively new phenomenon and Sondheim's biography would be incomplete without a mention of it... also...you may find this shocking but being a nosey type I'd also like to know if they that had a prenup. I must agree that the $20 million is a preposterous under-guess...more like 100M plus... I do hope the marriage to Jeff Romley gave him some happiness...he always looked so sad.

[PeterRS]

9 minutes ago, Lonnie said:

Au contraire dear Peter...Gay marriage is still a relatively new phenomenon and Sondheim's biography would be incomplete without a mention of it... also...you may find this shocking but being a nosey type I'd also like to know if they that had a prenup. I must agree that the $20 million is a preposterous under-guess...more like 100M plus... I do hope the marriage to Jeff Romley gave him some happiness...he always looked so sad.

Sondheim admitted in several interviews that he was basically alone until he came out as gay when he was around 40 - so perhaps 1970. Even then, though, he did not have a partner until the 1990s when he spent 8 years with a man named Peter Jones. Not sure when he met Jeff Romley but they married in 2017. With attorneys making sure his royalties and fees were fully protected with each new show, I'd find it hard to believe he would not have had a prenup had he wanted one. I am sure he had a cast iron will and that if that ever becomes public he will have left a considerable amount to Broadway charities and perhaps also to St. Catherine' College in Oxford where his close friend Sir Cameron Mackintosh founded and endowed the Chair in Contemporary Theatre. Sondheim was first Visiting Professor in 1990. Since he had no brothers or sisters, it is unlikely there are any close family members whom he might wish to leave money to. But these are obviously only guesses.

[Lonnie]

14 minutes ago, PeterRS said:

they married in 2017

Might as well add a picture of them which are rare:

[PeterRS]

Yesterday afternoon the cream of Broadway performers paid their own tribute to Stephen Sondheim in Times Square. I wonder if this ever happened before.