Remembering Stephen Sondheim: 1930-2021

By Arlene Stolnitz

It only seemed right that I put aside the article I had planned to write this month. The death of Stephen Sondheim, an important figure on the American musical scene, has caused a stir in the world of musical theater. Legendary in his own right, Sondheim was highly regarded as the person who “reinvented the American musical.” He is credited with shows that deal with unexpected themes, complex and sophisticated musically, often addressing the “darker” side of the human experience. Reading about him has been fascinating, but first, a little background about the man.

Stephen Joshua Sondheim was born on March 22,1930 in New York City to an upper class well-to-do Jewish family. His father, Herbert Sondheim, was a manufacturer of dresses designed by his mother, Etta Jane (“Foxy, nee Fox), who also was an interior decorator. His paternal grandparents, Isaac and Rosa, were German Jews, and his maternal grandparents, Joseph and Bessie, were Lithuanian Jews from Vilnius. He was raised without any Jewish upbringing and never had a bar mitzvah. One account I read said that later in life he did express an interest in his Jewish background; however, I could find no evidence of it in anything I researched.

Until his parents divorced, the family lived in a posh apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. After the divorce, he moved with his mother to a farm near Doylestown, Pennsylvania, and spent summers with his father.

His biographer describes him as a lonely and emotionally neglected child, who had a poor relationship with a “difficult” mother. In one interview, he said his mother told him she never wanted him at all! Imagine what that can do to an impressionable young child. He was sent to the most prestigious boarding schools and summer camps, attended private prep schools, and eventually went to Williams College, where he graduated magna cum laude. Upon his graduation, he received the Hubbard Hutchison Prize, a two-year fellowship to study music.

About the time of his parents’ divorce, when he was about 10, he developed a friendship with James Hammerstein, son of lyricist and playwright Oscar Hammerstein, who lived nearby. Even though Stephen had a good relationship with his father, other than summers, he did not see him regularly due to the divorce arrangement. As a result, Oscar became

a surrogate father and mentor for Stephen and introduced him to musical theater. Stephen took piano lessons under Oscar’s influence and began writing songs at the age of 14.

He learned most everything he knew about the art of songwriting from Hammerstein. In every interview I read, Sondheim paid tribute to Hammerstein’s influence. In one interview, he said he “loves passing on what Oscar passed to me.” This was evidenced in the videos I watched in which he is shown working with students.

Sondheim’s debut came at the age of 27, writing lyrics for Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” in 1957. Sondheim, a wonderful conversationalist, tells one of his most interesting stories — that Bernstein had to explain how to pronounce the words “Yom Kippur!”

Writing about Sondheim’s career is too lengthy and complex to describe fully in this article. We know that his accomplishments in musical theater include many Tony awards for his well-known musicals, such as “Sunday in the Park,” “Gypsy,” “Into the Woods,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Merrily We Roll Along” and countless others.

I never realized, until writing this article, the exact import of the man. It was almost an emotional experience watching him being interviewed and teaching students on YouTube. I learned so much about Stephen Sondheim who was a “good man as well as a genius.”

I suggest that you, as interested readers, look into Wikipedia for a complete list of his shows, awards and collaborators over the course of his lengthy career.

For me, it begs this question: Was Stephen Sondheim a Jewish composer or a composer who is Jewish … and does it really matter?

Arlene Stolnitz, founder of the Sarasota Jewish Chorale, is a member of the Jewish Congregation of Venice. A retired educator from Rochester, New York, she has sung in choral groups for over 25 years and also sings in The Venice Chorale. Her interest in the preservation of Jewish music of all kinds has led to this series of articles on Jewish Folk Music in the Diaspora.