Stephen Sondheim Comes to Seattle

Musical Theater Giant Stephen Sondheim

Makes His First Seattle Visit at Age 79

A Life in the Theater: An Onstage Conversation with Stephen Sondheim & Frank Rich Benaroya Hall, October 26, 2009. 8:00 pm. Tickets On Sale Now.

[Stephen Sondheim is] “the greatest and perhaps best-known artist

in the American musical theater…” – The New York Times

Seattle, WA – It’s hard to believe that in 79 years, and countless hours tinkering on this nation’s greatest stages, Stephen Sondheim has never worked in this wonderful theater town. On October 26, 2009 musical theater’s living legend, Stephen Sondheim, will make this first momentous journey to Seattle; and will hold what promises to be an enormously entertaining and informative onstage conversation with his friend and respected New York Times columnist Frank Rich. This once-in-a-lifetime event is a must-see for anyone who has ever enjoyed any live theater performance.

The two respected men took A Life in the Theater on the road in 2008, but never made it further north than Portland Oregon. The show earned rave reviews and packed houses. Rich asks questions and Sondheim answers them, offering up stories and anecdotes from his decades in musical theater. (It’s probably no surprise that Sondheim is funny and has an actor’s excellent timing.) Having worked with everyone from actor Zero Mostel and choreographer Jerome Robbins to actress Ethel Merman and director Harold Prince, Sondheim’s stories are fascinating glimpses at the inner workings of Broadway.

Northwest Associated Arts, in cooperation with The 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle Men’s Chorus & Seattle Women’s Chorus and The Stranger, is pleased to present A Life in the Theater: An Onstage Conversation with Stephen Sondheim and Frank Rich on Monday, October 26, 2009 at 8pm in the S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium at Benaroya Hall. Tickets are on sale now and range from $48 - $78. They are available through the Benaroya Hall Box Office, at 206.215.4747 or online at www.benaroyahall.org.

Stephen Sondheim is this nation’s most beloved contemporary composer-lyricist. His musicals include A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, (1962), Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), Sweeney Todd (1979), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Into the Woods (1987), Assassins (1991), and Passion (1994). He also wrote lyrics to West Side Story (1956) and Gypsy (1959). At 79, Sondheim has spent more than 50 years in professional musical theater. He’s won 7 Tonys, multiple Grammy Awards, and in 1985 his Sunday in the Park with George won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. (The Pulitzer was shared with James Lapine, who wrote the book for the musical.) He’s also worked in film and wrote the score to Warren Beatty’s 1981 movie Reds. And having collaborated as a young man with such titans of the American musical theater as songwriter Jule Stein and composer-director Leonard Bernstein, Sondheim is a living link to the mid-20th century artists who made the

musical theater one of America’s great art forms.

Frank Rich is The New York Times columnist who writes a 1,500-word essay every Sunday in the opinion section. In his column Rich, whose political bent is unabashedly progressive, skewers captains of industry, the media, cultural watchdogs, religiosity, and politicians of all stripes. But before Rich became an essayist on the “intersection of culture and news,” as The New York Times describes his current job, he was for many years the paper’s chief drama critic. And that’s the connection that makes an evening of Sondheim and Rich so engaging.