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FLASH SPECIAL: The Lord & The Master - Andrew Lloyd Webber & Stephen Sondheim's Dual Birthdays

By: Mar. 22, 2015
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Today we shine a special spotlight on today's annual birthday twofer with a tribute to the men behind the music themselves, The Lord & The Master aka Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim.

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"The Music Of The Night". "Send In The Clowns". "Memory". "Being Alive". "Jesus Christ Superstar". "No One Is Alone". "Don't Cry For Me Argentina". "Not While I'm Around". And, those are just the biggest hit songs! Without a doubt, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim have collectively created many of the most highly-awarded and most universally recognizable musicals of the 20th and 21st century, both firmly establishing themselves as major composers on the Great White Way in the early 1970s, while also having many of their most famous productions running on Broadway concurrently. Of course, Stephen Sondheim made an early mark on popular culture with his lyrics for Golden Age classics WEST SIDE STORY and GYPSY before breaking out on his own as composer/lyricist of A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM and ANYONE CAN WHISTLE in the 1960s. In 1970, COMPANY ensconced him as a Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist in his own right, with a string of momentous musicals following shortly thereafter, including FOLLIES, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC and PACIFIC OVERTURES, closing out the decade with modern musical masterpiece SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET in 1979. Similarly, Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Tim Rice found early success in the late 1960s with their pop operetta JOSEPH & THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT, with the pair soon after achieving worldwide acclaim byway of international smash hit concept albums for JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR in 1970 and EVITA in 1976, followed by successful stage iterations. Lloyd Webber's hit composer status increased further with CATS in 1981, with the show arriving the same year as Sondheim's final major partnership with collaborator and director Hal Prince, on MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, many Lloyd Webber and Sondheim shows shared a year, if not a Broadway season, with Sondheim's SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE and INTO THE WOODS arriving right alongside Lloyd Webber's SONG & DANCE, STARLIGHT EXPRESS and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, respectively. Sondheim began the 1990s with the daring ASSASSINS while Lloyd Webber romanced ASPECTS OF LOVE, with the two ironically reversing topics next when Lloyd Webber took on a piece of American iconography via SUNSET BOULEVARD and Sondheim explored matters of the heart in PASSION. Additionally, Lloyd Webber and Sondheim both took home Best Original Song Academy Awards during this time, with Sondheim's DICK TRACY contributions and Lloyd Webber's new EVITA motion picture addition scoring gold. In the following years, each composer has continued to attempt daring and idiosyncratic theatrical enterprises, with Sondheim expanding THE FROGS into a full-length evening and penning three distinctly different versions of the biomusical now known as ROAD SHOW, while also supervising various revues, film adaptations and celebrations of his material into the new millennium. Lloyd Webber finished out the 1990s with WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND before embarking on THE BEAUTIFUL GAME and THE WOMAN IN WHITE, as well as a stage adaptation of THE WIZARD OF OZ, and, most recently, the West End musical STEPHEN WARD.

Bring it all full-circle and focusing primarily on the many years in which their musicals ran simultaneously, while also introducing some rarely-heard and new-to-NYC material at the same time, last year's BroadwayWorld special concert event, THE LORD & THE MASTER: BROADWAYWORLD.COM SINGS ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER & STEPHEN SONDHEIM, was highlighted by contemporary takes on a number of famous songs by both music masters while exploring some fascinating and entertaining hidden treasures, too, while acting as the first major evening of the composers' music explored in such a fashion, side-by-side, to date.

Broadway Babies

So, now, let's look at some of the musical highlights and greatest songs by these two theatrical titans in honor of their shared birthday today, March 22.

First, a sample of Stephen Sondheim's first musical, SATURDAY NIGHT.

Next, Josh Young stops the show with a song from Lloyd Webber's first Broadway foray, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR.

Now, a taste of Sondheim's celebrated concept musical COMPANY.

After that, EVITA's biggest showstopper, "Don't Cry For Me Argentina".

Sondheim's biggest breakout hit to date is "Send In The Clowns".

Lloyd Webber's WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND boasts the most successful song from a musical in history, "No Matter What".

Who could forget Frank Sinatra's take on this MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG gem?

That same season, Lloyd Webber premiered the mega-hit CATS.

Barbra Streisand soars with this INTO THE WOODS standout.

Lloyd Webber's biggest hit to date is THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, here sampled in a special superstar duet iteration.

Here is a standout from Sondheim's most recent musical, ROAD SHOW.

Lastly, sneak a listen to Lloyd Webber's newest show, STEPHEN WARD.

BONUS: "Broadway Baby", GLEE style!

So, what is your absolute favorite musical by each of these musical theatre icons? Furthermore, what is your top song by each? Considering their career trajectories and artistic outputs are so wildly dissimilar, it seems unfair to even compare them, let alone to contemplate choosing a winner. Surely, both the Lord and the Master can harmoniously co-exist in life and in the theatre realm, and the many striking parallels between their astounding careers will be explored each and every year we celebrate both of their birthdays, now and forever. Happy Birthday x2!







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