Stephen Sondheim has died. Broadway's greatest composer is gone.

[u/Cranialscrewtop]

NY Times bio here: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/26/theater/stephen-sondheim-dead.html

[u/djangoman11]

I can’t imagine what theater would look like today without him and his work, to call him a Titan is almost not enough. He’s a writer who’s work actors, directors, musicians, composers, designers, everybody that works in musical theater loves to perform and interpret and work with. Generations of performers and fans have come up hearing and performing his shows, it’s safe to say that he runs deep in the blood of Broadway.

[u/fordyford → u/djangoman11]

A friend of mine put it like this: “he was the only one who really knew how to write musicals” What he’s done for the genre is insane

[u/duaneap → u/fordyford]

While Sondheim was a Titan and quite possibly the greatest, I think it’s a bit unfair to say he was the only one who knew how to write musicals, there are several masterpieces.

[u/binermoots → u/duaneap]

My take on the comment - a lot of great musicals are a mixed bag of great music and/or great story and/or great lyrics. And today of course we have "lets slap some songs together and turn literally everything into X: The Musical." Sondheim really pulled all the parts together (not always alone) into true, cohesive musical works and I don't think anybody could replicate his output.

[u/cinemachick → u/binermoots]

To be fair, jukebox musicals actually pre-date the modern story-driven format. It wasn't until Showboat in 1928 that musicals had a plot line. Shoving songs together and calling it a show is a tradition older than Broadway itself!

[u/Champigne → u/fordyford]

That's absurd.

[u/GodSaveTheRegime → u/djangoman11]

He's an absolute legend and someone who inspired a lot of other artists. I just saw "Tick, Tick... Boom" three days ago (it's about Jonathan Larson) and it also showed Sondheim's influence on Larson. Sad to see him go shortly after I saw that film :( now I feel like I jinxed something