Auditorium Theatre 2019-2020 Celebrate Sondheim

On November 16, performers from across Chicagoland come together on the Auditorium Theatre’s stage to salute living legend Stephen Sondheim. Chicago Celebrates Sondheim! , directed and produced by cabaret star Joan Curto, features selections from Sondheim’s illustrious career, from Company to Sunday in the Park with George and more. The iconic composer and lyricist turns 90 in early 2020, and we can’t think of a better way to celebrate the big 9-0 than with a full evening dedicated to Sondheim’s works! How has Sondheim spent the past 89 years? Read on to find out! 1930: Stephen Sondheim is born on March 22 in New York City to parents Herbert Sondheim, a dress manufacturer, and Janet Fox “Foxy” Sondheim. 1937: Sondheim begins piano lessons. 1942: Sondheim’s parents get divorced, and he moves with his mother to Doylestown, PA. There, he becomes friends with his neighbor James Hammerstein, who happens to be the son of the lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. 1945: Sondheim completes his first stage production By George! , a musical satire of his high school, at age 15. He asks Oscar Hammerstein to edit and evaluate this inaugural work. 1947: Hammerstein employs Sondheim as an assistant for Allegro , one of Hammerstein’s many theatre collaborations with composer Richard Rodgers. 1950: Sondheim graduates from Williams College in Massachusetts, where he majored in music. During his time in school, he assists with the rehearsals and productions of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific and The King and I . Awarded the Hutchinson Prize for Music Composition at his graduation, Sondheim is able to continue his musical studies with composer Milton Babbitt. CELEBRATING STEPHEN SONDHEIM at 90! COURTESY OF JOAN CURTO Stephen Sondheim and Richard Rodgers Stephen Sondheim COURTESY OF JOAN CURTO 20 | AUDITORIUM THEATRE 2019-20 | September 21 - November 16, 2019