Broadway's theatre community came together to celebrate the life of one of their own. Playbill has released a video of artists from the Broadway theatre community, including Lin-Manuel Miranda and Sara Bareilles, to pay tribute to the late composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim.
The event took place on November 28 in Manhattan Theatre District's Duffy Square. The tribute began with Miranda reading an excerpt from Sondheim's book Look, I Made A Hat. It then leads to the group singing the song "Sunday" from Sunday in the Park With George. They were conducted by Michael J. Moritz. Other theatre icons who were a part of the tribute included Celia Keenan-Bolger, Raul Esparza, Stephen Schwartz, Laura Benanti, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Josh Groban, Erich Bergen, Lonny Price, Jim Walton, Tom Kitt, Reeve Carney, Eva Noblezada, Marc Shaiman, Lauren Patten, Kathryn Gallagher, Abby Mueller, Judy Kuhn, Brandon Uranowitz, Adam Chanler-Berat, Tavi Gevinson, Erin Davie, and Bryan Clark Tyrell. Bergen also produced the tribute. It was co-presented by Broadway League, the Times Square Alliance, and Playbill.
Sondheim died on November 26 at the age of 91. Sondheim's theatre work included Saturday Night, West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, and Road Show. Film adaptions of his work include Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins' West Side Story (1961), Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), and Rob Marshall's Into the Woods (2014). A Steven Spielberg-directed version of West Side Story (starring Ansel Elgort and Ariana DeBose) is scheduled to be released in December. Sondheim also wrote songs for 1990's Dick Tracey (directed by Warren Beatty) and 1996's The Birdcage (directed by Mike Nichols). Over the course of his career, Sondheim was awarded eight Tony Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement honor in 2008), eight Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Pulitzer.
Spielberg's adaptation of West Side Story is scheduled to be released on December 10. Watch the video below: