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Stephen Joshua Sondheim (), born March 22, 1930, is an American composer and lyricist known for more than a half-century of contributions to musical theatre. Sondheim has received an Academy Award; eight Tony Awards (more than any other composer, including a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre); eight Grammy Awards; a Pulitzer Prize, and the Laurence Olivier Award. Described by Frank Rich of ''The New York Times'' as "now the greatest and perhaps best-known artist in the American musical theater."〔Rich, Frank.("Conversations With Sondheim" ) ''The New York Times'' , March 12, 2000, Magazine Section 6, p. 38〕 His best-known works as composer and lyricist include ''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'', ''Company'', ''Follies'', ''A Little Night Music'', ''Sweeney Todd'', ''Sunday in the Park with George'' and ''Into the Woods''. He wrote the lyrics for ''West Side Story'' and ''Gypsy''. Sondheim has also written film music, contributing "Goodbye for Now" to Warren Beatty's 1981 ''Reds''. He wrote five songs for 1990's ''Dick Tracy'', including "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)" by Madonna, which won the Academy Award for Best Song. The composer was president of the Dramatists Guild from 1973 to 1981. To celebrate his 80th birthday, the former Henry Miller's Theatre was renamed the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on September 15, 2010, and the BBC Proms held a concert in his honor. Cameron Mackintosh has called Sondheim "possibly the greatest lyricist ever."〔Fanshawe, Simon.("An iconoclast on Broadway" )''The Guardian'' , December 12, 2000〕 == Early years == Sondheim was born into a Jewish family in New York City, the son of Etta Janet ("Foxy," née Fox; 1897-1992) and Herbert Sondheim (1895-1966).〔(Secrest book )''The New York Times''〕 His father manufactured dresses designed by his mother. The composer grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and, after his parents divorced, on a farm near Doylestown, Pennsylvania. As the only child of well-to-do parents living in the San Remo on Central Park West, he was described in Meryle Secrest's biography (''Stephen Sondheim: A Life'') as an isolated, emotionally-neglected child. When he lived in New York, Sondheim attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School. He later attended the New York Military Academy and George School, a private Quaker preparatory school in Bucks County, Pennsylvania where he wrote his first musical, ''By George,'' and from which he graduated in 1946. Sondheim spent several summers at Camp Androscoggin.〔 He traces his interest in theatre to ''Very Warm for May'', a Broadway musical he saw when he was nine. "The curtain went up and revealed a piano," Sondheim recalled. "A butler took a duster and brushed it up, tinkling the keys. I thought that was thrilling." When Sondheim was ten, his father (a distant figure) abandoned him and his mother. Although Herbert sought custody of Stephen, because he left Foxy for another woman (Alicia, with whom he had two sons), he was unsuccessful. Sondheim explained to Secrest that he was "what they call an institutionalized child, meaning one who has no contact with any kind of family. You're in, though it's luxurious, you're in an environment that supplies you with everything but human contact. No brothers and sisters, no parents, and yet plenty to eat, and friends to play with and a warm bed, you know?" Sondheim detested his mother, who was said to be psychologically abusive〔King, Robert A., ''The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child'' (1972), Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-11996-8, p. 310〕 and projected her anger from her failed marriage on her son:〔Secrest, p. 30〕 "When my father left her, she substituted me for him. And she used me the way she used him, to come on to and to berate, beat up on, you see. What she did for five years was treat me like dirt, but come on to me at the same time." She once wrote him a letter saying that the "only regret () ever had was giving him birth." When his mother died in the spring of 1992, Sondheim did not attend her funeral.〔〔Secrest, p 272, "Sondheim was in London when his mother died and did not return for her funeral."〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Stephen Sondheim」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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