Known for Writing
Stephen Joshua Sondheim (/ˈsɒndhaɪm/; March 22, 1930 – November 26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. Regarded as one of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theatre, he is credited with reinventing the American musical. With his frequent collaborators Harold Prince and James Lapine, Sondheim's Broadway musicals tackled unexpected themes beyond the genre's traditional subjects while addressing darker elements of the human experience. His music and lyrics are tinged with complexity, sophistication, and ambivalence about various aspects of life. Sondheim's interest in musical theatre began at a young age, and Oscar Hammerstein II mentored him. He started his career by writing the lyrics for West Side Story (1957) and Gypsy (1959). He transitioned to writing both music and lyrics for the theatre, with his best-known works including A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), and Into the Woods (1987). Sondheim's numerous awards and nominations include eight Tony Awards, an Academy Award, eight Grammy Awards, an Olivier Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. He also was awarded the Kennedy Center Honor in 1993 and a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. A theatre is named after him both on Broadway and in London's West End. Film adaptations of his works include West Side Story (1961), Gypsy (1962), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), A Little Night Music (1977), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street(2007), Into the Woods (2014), and West Side Story (2021). Description above from the Wikipedia article Stephen Sondheim, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Born
March 22, 1930
Died
November 26, 2021 (age 91)
Birthplace
New York City, New York, USA
Filmography
227 films, 20 shows
showing 43 of 44 films


Merrily We Roll Along
2025 · 2h 25m
country: United States
Franklin Shepard is a talented Broadway composer who abandons his theater career and all his friends in New York in order to produce films in Los Angeles. The story begins at the height of his Hollywood fame and moves backwards in time, showing snapshots of the most important moments in Frank’s life that shaped the man he is today. (A live recording of the 2024 Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's musical, filmed at the Hudson Theatre in New York City.)


West Side Story
2025 · 1h 50m
country: Israel
The story of the forbidden love of Tony, a young American gang member, and Maria, the sister of the rival Puerto Rican gang leader. This love story becomes a dramatic struggle between two gangs on the streets of New York, until the tragic end.


Candide
2023 · 3h
country: United States
The innocent Candide discovers that human beings aren't all they are cracked up to be and ultimately focuses on building his own life on his own terms.


Becoming Benanti: The Role of a Lifetime
2022 · 1h
country: United States
A one woman show written and performed by Kayla Capone Kasper where she auditions for the role of a lifetime, Laura Benanti.


West Side Story
2021 · 2h 36m
country: United States
Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy.


Chita: A Legendary Celebration
2020 · 1h 34m
country: United States
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS presents a 2013 concert celebrating Chita Rivera's 80th birthday as a fundraiser to aid struggling artists during the pandemic. Chita offers a musical retrospective of her career in the theatre with guest stars Tommy Tune and Ben Vereen. Includes songs from 'Seventh Heaven,' 'West Side Story,' 'Bye Bye Birdie,' 'The Happy Time,' 'Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris,' 'Chicago,' 'The Rink,' 'Kiss of the Spider Woman,' & 'The Visit,' among others.


National Theatre Live: Follies
2017 · 2h 19m
country: United Kingdom
New York, 1971. There’s a party on the stage of the Weismann Theatre. Tomorrow the iconic building will be demolished. Thirty years after their final performance, the Follies girls gather to have a few drinks, sing a few songs and lie about themselves.


Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened...
2016 · 1h 36m
country: Unknown
This film from acclaimed theater director Lonny Price charts the journey of the original cast of Stephen Sondheim's "Merrily We Roll Along" in the 30-plus years since the musical debuted on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre in 1981.


Gypsy
2015 · 2h 15m
country: United Kingdom
Gypsy's mother Rose dreams of a life in show business for her daughters, but Louise becomes a huge burlesque star. Stage musical loosely based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee.


Into the Woods
2014 · 2h 5m
country: United States
In a woods filled with magic and fairy tale characters, a baker and his wife set out to end the curse put on them by their neighbor, a spiteful witch.


Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – In Concert with the New York Philharmonic
2014 · 2h 23m
country: United States
In 1846, Anthony Hope sails into London with the mysterious Sweeney Todd, a once-naive barber whose life and marriage was uprooted by a corrupt justice system. Todd confides in Nellie Lovett, the owner of a local meat pie shop, and the two become partners, as Todd swears revenge on those that have wronged him and decides to take up his old profession. (Filmed live at the Lincoln Center with the New York Philharmonic from March 5–8, 2014.)


Follies
2013 · 2h 8m
country: France
The first Broadway production of the Tony Award winning musical Follies was presented during 1971 in New York City. Since its premiere, performances of Follies have been staged across the United States, England, Ireland and Australia. It would take over 40 years for the French premiere of the Stephen Sondheim musical about a Broadway theatre in decline. Performed in Toulon, the French premiere of Follies featured an international cast and was staged at the Toulon Opera House in 2013.


Merrily We Roll Along
2013 · 2h 16m
country: United Kingdom
Franklin Shepard is a talented Broadway composer who abandons his theater career and all his friends in New York in order to produce films in Los Angeles. The story begins at the height of his Hollywood fame and moves backwards in time, showing snapshots of the most important moments in Frank’s life that shaped the man he is today.


Sunday In the Park with George
2013 · 2h 23m
country: France
The days leading up to the completion of his most famous painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat is struggling to make meaningful art and maintaining a relationship with his lover, Dot. Amid the scorn of the artistic community, Seurat's artistic ability thrives while his love diminishes. A century later, Seurat's descendant – named George and also an artist – finds himself burnt out and in search of what artistic path to follow, but he finds the answer to his future in the past.


Company
2011 · 2h 26m
country: United States
Set in modern upper-crust Manhattan, an exploration of love and commitment as seen through the eyes of a charming perpetual bachelor questioning his single state and his enthusiastically married, slightly envious friends.


Company: A Musical Comedy
2008 · 2h 12m
country: Japan
Set in modern upper-crust Manhattan, an exploration of love and commitment is seen through the eyes of a charming perpetual bachelor questioning his single state and his enthusiastically married, slightly envious friends.


Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
2007 · 1h 56m
country: United Kingdom
The infamous story of Benjamin Barker, a.k.a Sweeney Todd, who sets up a barber shop down in London which is the basis for a sinister partnership with his fellow tenant, Mrs. Lovett. Based on the hit Broadway musical.


Candide
2005 · 2h
country: United States
Candide falls in love with the beautiful but materialistic Cunegonde. Her barron father doesn't approve of the affair so Candide wanders, meeting all the misfortunes along the way.


Assassins
2004 · 1h 49m
country: United States
This darkly satirical musical reframes American history through the eyes of those who attempted – successfully or not – to kill US presidents. Structured as a surreal carnival sideshow, the piece weaponises American musical traditions – vaudeville, folk ballads, barbershop quartets, patriotic Sousa-style marches and Bacharach pop – to undercut the myth of the “American Dream,” exposing how frustration, alienation and entitlement can curdle into violence.


A Little Night Music: Ravinia Festival Concert
2002 · 2h 25m
country: United States
The actress Desiree Armfeldt becomes entangled with multiple intersecting love affairs, which all converge for an evening at the Viennese country estate of her mother, a former courtesan.


Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in Concert
2001 · 2h 12m
country: United States
In 1846, Anthony Hope sails into London with the mysterious Sweeney Todd, a once-naive barber whose life and marriage was uprooted by a corrupt justice system. Todd confides in Nellie Lovett, the owner of a local meat pie shop, and the two become partners, as Todd swears revenge on those that have wronged him and decides to take up his old profession.


Putting It Together
2001 · 1h 45m
country: United States
An all-star cast performs the music of one of the greatest composers of our time... Stephen Sondheim. Anxiously anticipated by the myriad fans of the legendary composer, Putting It Together marked the return of Carol Burnett to the Broadway musical stage for the first time in over 35 years. Stephen Sondheim has won a record seven Tony Awards for his songwriting, and the Pulitzer Prize for Sunday in the Park with George. His Broadway smash shows and movies include Gypsy, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sweeney Todd, Dick Tracy, and West Side Story. This Cameron Mackintosh stage production was captured live in performance during its Broadway run and recorded in high definition with a widescreen format using ten cameras and over 40 microphones.


Company
1996 · 2h 19m
country: United Kingdom
Set in modern upper-crust Manhattan, an exploration of love and commitment as seen through the eyes of a charming perpetual bachelor questioning his single state and his enthusiastically married, slightly envious friends.


Passion
1996 · 1h 55m
country: United States
Giorgio, a young soldier, is in love with Clara. But they are separated when Giorgio is posted far away, where he meets the unhappy, unhealthy, and unattractive Fosca, who develops a passionate love for Giorgio and tries to make him love her. This rendition of Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award-winning musical was recorded on the stage with it's original all-star Broadway cast. Originally broadcast as part of "American Playhouse" on PBS (season thirteen, episode six).


Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
1995 · 2h 36m
country: Spain
In 1846, Anthony Hope sails into London with the mysterious Sweeney Todd, a once-naive barber whose life and marriage was uprooted by a corrupt justice system. Todd confides in Nellie Lovett, the owner of a local meat pie shop, and the two become partners, as Todd swears revenge on those that have wronged him and decides to take up his old profession.


Anyone Can Whistle: Live at Carnegie Hall
1995 · 2h 9m
country: United States
A corrupt mayoress fakes a miracle to save her bankrupt town, and the romance between a rational nurse and an easygoing doctor caught in the chaos. A live concert held at Carnegie Hall in New York City as a benefit for the Gay Men's Health Crisis, with Angela Lansbury, who had starred in the original Broadway cast in her stage debut, as the narrator.


A Tribute to Stephen Sondheim
1995 · 1h 11m
country: United States
This special is a recording of the presentation of the Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts presented by Southern Methodist University in 1994. The performance, by students at the school and guest artists Bernadette Peters, Chip Zien and Debra Monk, is intercut with interviews with Sondheim, Hal Prince, James Lapine and videotaped testimonials from Angela Lansbury and Jason Alexander.


Gypsy
1994 · 2h 33m
country: United States
Gypsy's mother Rose dreams of a life in show business for her daughters, but Louise becomes a huge burlesque star. Stage musical loosely based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee.


Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall
1992 · 1h 25m
country: United States
This program features the music of Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim in a 1992 performance at Carnegie Hall. An American Musical Theatre writer for over 40 years, Stephen Sondheim has created the scores for hits such as Passion, Assassins, Bounce, Into The Woods, Sunday In The Park With George, Merrily We Roll Along, Sweeney Todd and Pacific Overtures. Featuring: Liza Minnelli, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, Glenn Close and many more.


Candide
1991
country: Unknown


New York City Opera: A Little Night Music
1990 · 2h 56m
country: United States
Inspired by Ingmar Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night, a tangled web of affairs is weaved around actress Desirée Armfeldt and the men who love her: lawyer Fredrik Egerman and Count Carl-Magnus Malcom. When Desirée's show travels through Fredrik's town, the estranged lovers' passion rekindles.


Leonard Bernstein - Bernstein - Candide
1989 · 2h 27m
country: Unknown
This is the historic concert performance of the final operatic version of Bernstein's Candide. It was recorded on December 13, 1989 at the Barbican Centre, with Leonard Bernstein conducting the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, with a stellar cast of operatic stars gracing the solo parts. The programme lasts a full 2hrs 27 mins. It marks the end of a long and tortured journey for the musical/operetta that spent much of its first 35 years as an orphan in the musical wilderness.


Candide
1986 · 2h 25m
country: Unknown
Candide falls in love with the beautiful but materialistic Cunegonde. Her barron father doesn't approve of the affair so Candide wanders, meeting all the misfortunes along the way.


Sunday in the Park with George
1986 · 2h 25m
country: United States
The days leading up to the completion of his most famous painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat is struggling to make meaningful art and maintaining a relationship with his lover, Dot. Amid the scorn of the artistic community, Seurat's artistic ability thrives while his love diminishes. A century later, Seurat's descendant – named George and also an artist – finds himself burnt out and in search of what artistic path to follow, but he finds the answer to his future in the past.


Follies: In Concert
1986 · 1h 30m
country: United States
A backstage documentary film including footage from the legendary 1985 concert performance of Stephen Sondheim's classic musical at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. The plot of the musical centers around a reunion of showgirls who appeared in an annual Follies extravaganza when it was staged between the wars.


Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
1982 · 2h 20m
country: United States
In 1846, Anthony Hope sails into London with the mysterious Sweeney Todd, a once-naive barber whose life and marriage was uprooted by a corrupt justice system. Todd confides in Nellie Lovett, the owner of a local meat pie shop, and the two become partners, as Todd swears revenge on those that have wronged him and decides to take up his old profession.


Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – Scenes from the Making of a Musical
1980 · 1h 23m
country: United Kingdom
Opening with the first day of rehearsals of the London production of "Sweeney Todd", this ninety-minute documentary focuses on the rehearsal process with the musical's director, composer and actors.


A Little Night Music
1977 · 2h 5m
country: Austria
A tangled web of affairs is weaved around actress Desirée Armfeldt and the men who love her: lawyer Fredrik Egerman and Count Carl-Magnus Malcom. When Desirée's show travels through Fredrik's town, the estranged lovers' passion rekindles.


Pacific Overtures
1976 · 2h 20m
country: United States
In 1853 Japan, the story follows the Westernization of Japan, mainly through the story of Kayama, a samurai, and Manjiro, a fisherman. The lives of both men are radically changed by the coming of American ships to Japan.


Original Cast Album: Company
1970 · 53m
country: United States
In 1970, right after the triumphant premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s groundbreaking concept musical Company, the renowned composer and lyricist, his director Harold Prince, the show’s stars, and a large pit orchestra all went into a Manhattan recording studio as part of a time-honored Broadway tradition: the making of the original cast album. What ensued was a marathon session in which all involved pushed themselves to the limit.


Evening Primrose
1966 · 51m
country: United States
A man becomes part of a secret society of people who live in a department store and quickly falls in love with their leader’s young maid.


Gypsy
1962 · 2h 23m
country: United States
Gypsy's mother Rose dreams of a life in show business for her daughters, but Louise becomes a huge burlesque star. Stage musical loosely based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee.


West Side Story
1961 · 2h 33m
country: United States
In Manhattan’s Upper West Side, rival gangs of Polish-Americans and newly arrived Puerto Ricans clash for control of the neighborhood, even as two young members from opposite sides fall dangerously in love.