This was one of those days you hoped would never come but knew one day would -- and here it is: the passing of Stephen Sondheim, the composer and lyricists of such classic musicals as Gypsy, West Side Story, A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park With George, Into the Woods, and many others.
To say that Sondheim was "one of the best" or "one of the greatest" American musical composers who ever lived is not enough -- he was the best, the greatest, truly without peer, someone whose likes the theater will never ever see again.
His cultural contribution to NYC is unmatched -- he was producing great musicals on Broadway in the 1960s and '70s at a time when the genre and the city were otherwise in trouble, keeping the flame and magic of the theater alive. In fact, "Being Alive" from Company, his iconic NYC musical, perhaps captures the man's work, life, and career better than anything.
Sondheim was a giant, a giant now in the sky, and if you want to understand the power of his music and influence then watch one of the people he influenced, Lin-Manuel Miranda, sing "Giants in the Sky" from Into the Woods.
And his music and legacy will live, as the song "Sunday" in Sunday in the Park With George says, "forever.
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