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Stephen Sondheim b. 1930

One of the greatest artists in American musical theater, composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim burst onto the scene in 1957 as Leonard Bernstein's lyricist for the hit musical West Side Story. Sondheim stretched the creative possibilities of the Broadway musical in shows such as A Little Night Music (1973), Sweeney Todd (1979), and Into the Woods (1987). He has won more than 60 individual and collaborative Tony Awards, numerous Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Pulitzer Prize. Sondheim won the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Gold Medal for Music in 2006, and received a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre in 2008.