SONDHEIM ARCHIVES NOW AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Photo by Shawn Miller for the Library of Congress
The biggest Sondheim news this month for scholars, admirers and fans is the Library of Congress’s acquisition of his vast and monumental personal archives containing manuscripts, drafts and ephemera. Here’s a video in which Horowitz discusses the treasures now included in the Library’s collection. In 1993 Sondheim visited the Library as a guest of senior music specialist Mark Horowitz. He had assembled items from the Library’s even then extensive collection of musical theater materials by the likes of George and Ira Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers, Leonard Bernstein and others. Sondheim was deeply moved when he saw Gershwin’s manuscript for Porgy and Bess. Virtually on the spot he decided to leave his own archive to the Library. (He subsequently convinced collaborators Arthur Laurents and Hal Prince to do the same.) In 1995 Sondheim donated his record collection to the library
The nearly 5,000 items now added to the Library’s holdings have tremendous research value for Sondheim. In addition to extensive lyric and musical sketches, there are items of personal correspondence and notebooks that date back to Sondheim’s student days at Williams College in the 1940s. Sondheim’s papers showing him at work on music and lyrics are now available for public viewing on the premises; other materials — letters, notes, programs and memorabilia — should be similarly accessible by the end of the summer. (Materials must be viewed onsite; they cannot be borrowed.) The library owns this collection but does not control the materials’ intellectual copyrights.
SONDHEIM’S PRESENCE STILL BEING FELT IN NEW YORK CITY
In his April New York Times piece about the Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, Jesse Green wrote, “Fast approaching the number of musicals Stephen Sondheim wrote is the number of revues written about him.” This show began as a one-night gala staged by Cameron Mackintosh in London in 2022. It evolved into a popular offering in London’s West End then came to the U.S. earlier this year. The Manhattan Theatre Club’s springtime production featuring Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga in a cast of 17 at its Samuel J. Friedman Theater, took its final Broadway bow on Friday, June 29. (Here’s a video of the curtain call and some remarks by cast members that evening.) The revue featured 41 numbers — ranging from a medley of five songs from Sweeney Todd to a take on the novelty number “The Boy From …” that Sondheim penned with Mary Rodgers for a 1966 comedy revue. In addition to Sweeney, there were numbers drawn from Merrily We Roll Along, Company, Follies and Into the Woods and more.
The popular cabaret series Sondheim Unplugged at New York City’s Studio 54 is winding down. For 15 years the series has featured many Broadway and cabaret stars accompanied only by piano. It was launched in July 2010 by producer Phil Geoffrey Bond at the 100-seat Laurie Beechman Theatre on W. 42nd Street. It moved briefly to the Manhattan cabaret venue Don’t Tell Mama, but when the nightspot 54 Below (now Feinstein’s/54 Below) opened in 2011. Bond continued as its programmer. It received the 2011 Backstage Bistro Award for Outstanding Cabaret Series, as well as the 2013 BroadwayWorld Award for Outstanding Recurring Series. The acts have occasionally moved to other venues and performing arts centers, and in 2018 to London. The final performances at Studio 54 are set for Sept. 28 and Nov. 23, 2025, as well as February 22,April 26 and June 28, 2026. Each evening will offer performances at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
Photo by Julieta Cervantes
The fifth Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents’ Gypsy opened at Broadway’s newly renovated Majestic Theatre back in December 2024. Featuring six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald in a powerhouse performance as Rose, the production was nominated for five Tony Awards. It was also recognized with seven Drama Desk Award nominations, winning for Outstanding Revival of a Musical and recognizing McDonald for her Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical. The critically acclaimed production been extended several times, now with a closing designated for October 5, 2025.
SONDHEIM IN LONDON
Photo by Marc Brenner
Sondheim’s final musical, Here We Are, his collaboration with playwright David Ives that was staged in New York in 2023 by director Joe Mantello, was remounted in London at the National Theatre, running from April 23 to June 28, 2025. It featured two cast members from the 2023 New York staging, Denis O’Hare (as the “Cafe Anything” Waiter in the photo above) and Tracie Bennett reprising their varied and amusing multiple roles. Also in the cast were Jane Krakowski and Martha Plimpton. … Elsewhere in London was a production of Sondheim’s rarely staged The Frogs (below) at the Southwark Playhouse (May 23-June 28, 2025). Unlike the original 1974 production at Yale University) this time around there was no swimming pool.
Photo by Pamela Raith
London’s Stephen Sondheim Society annually presents the “Student Performer of the Year.” The winner of the amusingly abbreviated competitive award — SSSSPOTY — for 2025 was Georgia Blessitt, a student at the Royal Academy of Music. Selected from 12 finalists, Blessitt was awarded a £1,000 prize on June 8, 2025, and she will receive her own cabaret performance later this year. Below is a photo from the Society showing Blessitt receiving her award from London star Rosalie Craig (who played “Bobbie” in Marianne Elliott’s gender-switched 2018 production of Company).
Photo from
the Stephen Sondheim Society
SONDHEIM STARS IN THE NEWS
Photo by Hana Mandel
Michael Schulman’s in-depth New Yorker interview with Patti LuPone was published on May 26, 2025. It provided lots of insight into her career and her dedication to her craft. In addition, the always candid and sometimes sarcastic Broadway star stirred the rumor mill with some harsh comments about several fellow performers, including Audra McDonald. On May 31, LuPone issued an apology for “flippant and emotional responses” she made in the interview: “I made a mistake. I take full responsibility for it, and I am committed to making this right. Our entire theater community deserves better.” … Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia, recognized actor Mandy Patinkin with its annual Stephen Sondheim Award, on Monday evening, April 14. Patinkin originated the role of George Seurat in the original production of Sondheim and James Lapine’s Sunday in the Park with George in 1984; he also appeared in the 1990 movie Dick Tracy, singing Sondheim’s “What Can You Lose” with Madonna. The evening’s finale tribute number, the song “Sunday,” had a surprise moment when Patinkin himself came onstage to sing with Ben Platt, Annaleigh Ashford and others.
LOOK OUT! SWEENEY IS COMING …
Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, Behind the Bloody Musical Masterpiece, my new book-length study of Sondheim’s greatest work, will be released in October 2025 by Bloomsbury Publishing. It can be pre-ordered online.