Stephen Joshua Sondheim, (born March 22, 1930, is an American composer and lyricist whose brilliance in matching words and music in dramatic situations broke new ground for Broadway musical theatre.
Sondheim has been praised for “[reinventing] the American musical” with shows that tackle “unexpected themes that range far beyond the [genre’s] traditional subjects” with “music and lyrics of unprecedented complexity and sophistication”. His shows have been praised for addressing “darker, more harrowing elements of the human experience,” with songs often tinged with “ambivalence” about various aspects of life.
