Stephen Sondheim - Legacy

Legacy

Young Playwrights

This organization, founded by Sondheim in 1981, is intended to introduce young people to writing for the theatre. He is the Executive Vice President.

The Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts

The Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts opened December 7–9, 2007, and is located at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center in Fairfield, Iowa. The Center opened with performances from seven Broadway performers, including Len Cariou, Liz Callaway, and Richard Kind, all of whom had taken part in the musicals of Sondheim. The center is the first one in the world named after him, with a Broadway theatre the second.

The Stephen Sondheim Society

In 1993 the Stephen Sondheim Society was set up to promote and provide information about the works of Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim - the Magazine is the Society magazine devoted to Sondheim's work, and is sent to every member of the Society. The Society aims to create a greater interest and appreciation of them by means of circulating information and providing a focal point where those interested can share such interests. It issues news, provides education, maintains a database of information, organizes productions, meetings, outings, and other events, assists with publicity and promotion, publishes articles, and performs other tasks. It runs a website at www.sondheim.org.

The Stephen Sondheim Society's Student Performer of the Year Competition

An annual event, the competition gives 12 young musical theatre students from top UK drama schools and universities the opportunity to compete for a prize of £1,000. Per Sondheim's request, a prize is also offered for a new song by a young composer, judged by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. Each contestant performs one Sondheim song and one new song.

Media

Most of the episode titles from the television series Desperate Housewives reference his work in some way, through the use of either song titles or lyrics. The final episode in the series is titled "Finishing the Hat" (airing May 13, 2012).

Musical Theatre Development

In 1990, Sondheim took the Cameron Mackintosh chair in musical theatre at Oxford, and in this capacity ran workshops with promising writers of musicals, such as George Stiles, Anthony Drewe, Andrew Peggie, Paul James, Stephen Keeling and others. These writers jointly set up the Mercury Workshop in 1992, which eventually merged with the New Musicals Alliance to become MMD, a UK-based organisation developing new musical theatre, of which Sondheim continues to be patron.

The Sondheim Award

The Signature Theatre, Arlington, Virginia, established a new award, "The Sondheim Award", "as a tribute to America's most influential contemporary musical theatre composer." The first award was presented at a gala fund-raiser on April 27, 2009, with help from performers Bernadette Peters, Michael Cerveris, Will Gartshore and Eleasha Gamble. Sondheim himself was the first recipient of the award, which also includes a $5000 honorarium for the recipients' choice of a nonprofit organization. The 2010 honoree was Angela Lansbury, with Peters and Catherine Zeta-Jones as honorary hosts for the Gala Benefit held on April 12, 2010. The 2011 honoree was Bernadette Peters. The 2012 honoree was Patti LuPone.

The Stephen Sondheim Theatre

A Broadway theatre at West 43rd Street in New York City, The Henry Miller's Theatre, was renamed The Stephen Sondheim Theatre on September 15, 2010, in honor of his 80th birthday. In attendance were Nathan Lane, Patti LuPone, and John Weidman. Sondheim said of the naming, "I'm deeply embarrassed. Thrilled, but deeply embarrassed. I've always hated my last name. It just doesn't sing. I mean, it's not Belasco. And it's not Rodgers and it's not Simon. And it's not Wilson. It just doesn't sing. It sings better than Schoenfeld and Jacobs. But it just doesn't sing." Lane said of the day, "We love our corporate sponsors and we love their money, but there's something sacred about naming a theatre, and there's something about this that is right and just."

The Sondheim Review

Sondheim is the only living composer to have a quarterly journal published in his name. The Sondheim Review, founded in 1994, exists to chronicle and promote the works of Stephen Sondheim.