…MUSICAL ICONS
By Monica Consorti
If you have sung “I like to be in America/OK by me in America/Everything’s free in America/For a small fee in America”, you have met Stephen Sondheim before. Indeed, he is one of the most successful Broadway writers and composers that ever lived. He was born in NY in 1930 and started taking piano lessons when he was 7 years old. When he was 10 he met James Hammerstein whose father, Oscar Hammerstein, was an accomplished lyricist (his cre-dits include Oklahoma and The Sound of Music) and so he began to fall in love with theatre. While in college, he wrote his first plays and musicals but he rose to fame when he was chosen to collaborate with Bernstein and write the lyrics for a musical called The West Side Story. Since then, Sondheim has written for movies, TV and theatre, winning an Oscar, eight Tony Awards, eight Grammy Awards and a Pulitzer Prize. One of his many musicals, “Into The Woods” has been recently made into a movie starring, among others, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt and Johnny Depp and it will be released in Italian cinemas on the 2nd of April.
Se avete cantato “I like to be in America/OK by me in America/Everything’s free in America/For a small fee in America”, avete già incontrato Stephen Sondheim. Infatti, è uno degli scrittori e dei compositori più di successo che siano mai vissuti. Nacque a New York nel 1930 e iniziò a prendere lezioni di piano a 7 anni. A 10 anni incontrò James Hammerstein il cui padre, Oscar Hammerstein, era un esperto paroliere (i suoi crediti includono Oklahoma e The Sound of Music) e così iniziò a innamorarsi del teatro. Quando era all’università, scrisse le sue prime opere e musical ma diventò famoso quando venne scelto per collaborare con Bernstein e scrivere le parole per un musical chiamato The West Side Story. Da allora, Sondheim ha scritto per film, tv e teatro, vincendo un Oscar, otto Tony Awards, otto Grammy Awards e un Premio Pulitzer. Uno dei suoi tanti musical, Into The Woods, è diventato recentemente un film, il cui cast comprende, tra gli altri, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt e Johnny Depp ed uscirà nelle sale italiane il 2 aprile.
