I launched my Sondheim blog entries in the summer of 2021, just a few months after the publication of The Stephen Sondheim Encyclopedia. When I edited The Sondheim Review for more than a decade, I assembled miscellaneous “News & Notes” for each issue. There is no shortage of material and news to share: This blog is my 33rd! If you enjoy them and have friends who also have a passion Sondheim’s shows, please forward to them one of my updates and suggest that they join in the fun.
FOR YOUR SONDHEIM BOOKSHELF
I’ve previously mentioned Barry Joseph’s fascinating recent book about Sondheim and puzzles, Matching Wits with Stephen Sondheim. He was interviewed by Christopher Zara, news director of Fast Company for that respected magazine’s November issue. “Ludology is the study of games,” Joseph told Zara. “And so I thought, ‘Can one look at Stephen Sondheim from a ludological lens? And at the time, I didn’t know if there’d be much of anything. But after just a few weeks of some quick Google searches, what I found was that there were a lot of fascinating, enticing tidbits.” He assembled them into an intriguing book. He studied Sondheim’s shows and found numerous “moments that Sondheim often talked about, where you’re forming order out of chaos. And that’s essentially a jigsaw puzzle being constructed.” … Prizewinning journalist Daniel Okrent, the former public editor of The New York Times, is the author of a new biography, Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn’t Easy (Yale University Press, March 2026). His forthcoming book is described as shining “new light on Sondheim’s tormented emotional life, wavering self-confidence, and alcoholism, drawing on interviews with many of his friends and collaborators. … [He] explores the ways Sondheim’s music and lyrics express the inner man, … [revealing] a life that was defined by two parallel arcs: the movement from alienation to connection, and from ambivalence to resolution.” This will be a fascinating read, I’m sure.
LIBRARIAN MARK HOROWITZ HONORED
For many years Mark Eden Horowitz, senior music specialist at the Library of Congress (LOC), has made countless contributions to the study of musical theater. He recently added Sondheim’s creative archives to the extensive holdings there. Last month he was honored by the Theatre Library Association (TLA) with its 2026 Louis Rachow Distinguished Service in Performing Arts Librarianship Award. Several of Mark’s admirers (including me) nominated him. We wrote, “Mark is considered the most knowledgeable curator by musical theatre scholars and interpreters around the world. He has distinguished himself as a writer, public speaker, advocate, interviewer, and mentor. His encyclopedic knowledge of the Music Division’s holdings of the LOC has made him the indisputable ‘go to’ person for all questions, simple and complex, which he answers accurately and with dispatch. … Mark’s impact on American musical theatre studies has been profound.” Here is a video of the TLA awards program from October 23, 2025. The eight-minute segment about Marks recognition begins at 13:45, including his humble acceptance. Follow this link for samples of what’s now available for viewing from the Sondheim materials at LOC.
SONDHEIM ON THE SILVER SCREEN
Blue Moon, director Richard Linklater’s 2025 biopic about lyricist Lorenz Hart, is in general release to movie theaters across the U.S., featuring a quick cameo of teenaged Sondheim. Set at Sardi’s restaurant on 44th Street in New York City, Hart holds forth as people arrive following the 1943 opening of Oklahoma!, by Richard Rodgers, Hart’s onetime writing partner. He’s now working with Oscar Hammerstein II. Hart is bitter and yearning to reconnect, but it’s clear that’s not going to happen. He eventually encounters Hammerstein for a brief conversation. He introduces Hart to his young friend, “Stevie,” none other than adolescent Stephen Sondheim. Asked for his reaction to Hart’s lyrics, the precocious kid calls them “sloppy” before being hustled off and scolded by Hammerstein. That evening might have been Sondheim’s first Broadway opening night: Oklahoma premiered on March 31, 1943, just nine days after his 13th birthday. In his book of lyric studies, Finishing the Hat (2010), Sondheim offered a similar assessment of Hart’s lyrics. The youthful encounter was likely invented, perhaps inspired by his adult judgment. Nevertheless, it was amusing to see a brief appearance by the young, sharply insightful Sondheim. … Filmmaker Linklater continues his long-term project to create a cinematic rendition of Merrily We Roll Along. He plans to take 20 years of shooting to reflect the 20-year span of the show’s reversed-chronology story. His cast includes Paul Mescal (as Frank), Beanie Feldstein (as Mary) and Ben Platt (as Charley). Filming has been under way since 2021. Here’s an update.
STEVE ROSS SINGS SONDHEIM (WITH FRIENDS)
Steve Ross is a veteran New York cabaret artist and a frequent interpreter of Sondheim’s songs. His latest recording, Steve Ross sings (Sondheim) with friends, was just released by Cactus Records. His tributes to Sondheim are sung with Laura Lavelle and Benjamin Weil, accompanied by pianist Dennis Buck. The songs range from 1954 through 1976. Ross calls this collection “a challenge and a privilege,” offering interpretations of songs including “Being Alive,” “Sorry/Grateful,” “You Could Drive a Person Crazy,” “With So Little To Be Sure Of,” “Old Friends” and “Not a Day Goes By.” The recording also features a few numbers by lyricists and composers who Sondheim admired. James Gavin, author of Intimate Nights: The Golden Age of New York Cabaret, called the album “a role model for anyone who aspires to be smarter, worldlier and more stylish than the rest.”
SONDHEIM ONSTAGE
Sondheim’s first Broadway show in 1956 was West Side Story. Seventy years later it remains a powerful work, including a recent concert staging by the Los Angeles Opera, presented in September and October 2025. In a blog, conductor James Conlon wrote, “In the strident, divided and divisive year of 2025, the perpetually recurring and moving drama of two young lovers, holding on to each other across an antagonistic cultural chasm, never loses its power to move us.” … Cleveland’s Great Lakes Theater presented Sunday in the Park with George to kick off its 2025-2026 season. It was staged by Victoria Bussert, now heading a new musical theater program at Oberlin College after a long tenure with a similar program at Baldwin Wallace University. In 1984, Bussert attend a late preview of the show’s original Broadway production. “I remember just being so overwhelmed,” she said in a recent newspaper feature. “Sondheim and James Lapine were standing behind the audience. One of the things about seeing a Sondheim in previews in New York before everybody knew what was going to happen is you truly did experience these things for the first time. So to experience the end of act one — and to have no warning about it — was incredible.” It’s taken more than 40 years for Bussert to stage her own rendition of Sunday. “There’s a part of me now that feels like I probably needed to wait this long because I’ve learned some things about life that have been very helpful in directing this.”
Sunday in the Park with George
PULLING THE PLUG
The long celebrated Sondheim Unplugged series of concerts at the legendary venue 54 Below (254 W. 54th St., New York), after 15 years, is winding down with final programs set for Nov. 23; Feb. 22, 2026; April 26, 2026; and June 28, 2026. The series was created in 2010 by original host Phil Geoffrey Bond, who continues as its executive producer. When it wraps up with 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. performances next June 28, Sondheim Unplugged will have happened 150 times in Manhattan and dozens more nationally, internationally and for broadcast. The Nov. 23 event (which will also be livestreamed) features Ramona Mallory (Broadway revival of A Little Night Music), Liz McCartney (Broadway revival of Sunday in the Park with George) and Lucia Spina (Broadway revival of Into the Woods). Rob Maitner hosts the program with music direction from John Fischer.
AN OFFER
My recent book, Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: Behind the Bloody Musical Masterpiece, was published by Bloomsbury last month. You can order one from the publisher, but if you’d like an autographed copy, I have a supply on hand that I’m willing to inscribe and sign. I’m charging $40, which includes shipping. Email me your request (pender.rick@gmail.com); I’ll accept payment via Venmo (rick-pender).