STEPHEN SONDHEIM BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
BroadwayHD, 3:00 a.m. ET
Today is the day Broadway composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim turns 90 years old. Part of the planned celebration, before the current pandemic, was to be today’s official opening night of the inventive Broadway revival of his 1970 musical Company. The central role of Bobby, up to this point always played by a man, was now named Bobbie, and to be played by a woman: the marvelous Katrina Lenk. But last week, Broadway was shut down. So tonight, the streaming site BroadwayHD honors Sondheim’s birthday by making available two of the best TV productions of his work in musicals: The CBS version of Gypsy, for which he wrote the lyrics to Jule Styne’s music, starring Bette Midler, and the long-defunct Entertainment Channel’s wonderful version of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, starring Angela Lansbury and George Hearn. Personal postscript: I first saw Company on Broadway shortly after it opened, 50 years ago, the first time I went to New York as a teenager. I last saw it on Broadway two weeks ago, when it was in previews, two days before the world slammed shut. The production was amazing, Katrina Lenk in particular. Who knows how, when, or whether, it will be remounted for a delayed opening night – but what a triumph. And thank you, Mr. Sondheim, for half a century of my favorite, most unforgettable theatrical experiences.