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Taylor Patterson
Dr. Allan
Drama Studies
6 May 2014
The Student-Teacher Relationship of Sondheim and Hammerstein
Stephen Sondheim is perhaps the most influential composer of the 1970’s, 1980’s, and
1990’s, popularizing fragmented musicals and nonlinear plots in commercial theatre. He has
written lyrics and/or composed scores for such hit musicals like, West Side Story, Gypsy,
Company, Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Assassins. Such woks have left
monumental marks in the history of musical theatre for their new and original themes and styles.
For example, five months before West Side Story’s opening night, producers nearly pulled the
plug after seeing a rehearsal because they were afraid of how the public would interpret a
musical that was so different and unique (Weakland). Now West Side Story is known as an oldschool classic and a colossal influence on how dance and social themes were integrated into
musical theatre. But how did Stephen Sondheim become such a prolific contributor of musical
theatre? It wouldn’t be a surprise to learn that he had a great teacher. Some, however, due to the
completely different styles of the two individuals, might be surprised to learn who Sondheim’s
teacher was.
Stephen Joshua Sondheim was born on March 22, 1930, in New York City (Academy of
Achievement). His parents earned a good living working in New York's garment industry. His
father, Herbert Sondheim, was a dress manufacturer and his mother, Janet Fox, was a fashion
designer. As a child, Stephen Sondheim was brought to several Broadway shows and, after
begging, was given piano lessons. His parents recall that he had a musical ear and natural
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enthusiasm for music (Biography.com). Sondheim’s parents had a nasty divorce in 1942 and
Stephen, an only child, was taken by his mother to live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Young
Stephen was very upset about his move away from the Broadway stage and away from his father.
Little did he know he would find a representative of both of those in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
In Pennsylvania, Stephen began studying organ while advancing in piano, and he was
already practicing songwriting as a student at the Quaker-practicing George School. It was
during this time when Sondheim became friends with a neighboring boy, James—or ‘Jimmy’—
Hammerstein, the son of Broadway lyricist and producer Oscar Hammerstein II. By this time,
Oscar Hammerstein had already gained respect in the musical theatre community for his work in
Show Boat. Coincidentally, one year after Sondheim moved to the neighboring area of
Hammerstein, Rodgers and Hammerstein produced one of the most famous American musicals
of all time, Oklahoma!.
In 1945, fifteen year old Stephen Sondheim, now on good terms with Hammerstein,
presented the renowned lyricist with a musical he and two other friends at George School had
written for the end of year festival (Milner 154). The musical was called By George. It was a
standard student-written entertainment; the characters’ names were puns of teacher and students’
names and etcetera. The teenage Sondheim, after putting weeks into writing this musical, viewed
By George as an equal to Oklahoma!. In vein, Sondheim asked Hammerstein to read his script
and music, asking that Hammerstein would treat Stephen as a professional composer, not a
family friend. The day after Sondheim sent Oscar his musical, Hammerstein called Stephen to
come by for lunch. Sondheim took this as a good sign, dreaming that perhaps Hammerstein and
Rodgers would want to co-collaborate with him on the production of this musical. To
Sondheim’s surprise, Hammerstein was not impressed by By George.
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“‘It’s the worst thing I’ve ever read,’ Hammerstein said firmly to a devastated
Sondheim. He quickly added, ‘I didn’t say it wasn’t talented. It was terrible, and if
you want to know why it’s terrible, I’ll tell you.’ Hammerstein proceeded to
spend that very afternoon dissecting the play line by line.” (Milner 154)
Oscar Hammerstein II did may not have considered the fifteen year-old’s musical to be
Broadway-caliber, but he had enough faith and respect for Sondheim’s talent that the established
lyricist took the time to analyze and explain the faults in the prep-school musical. Hammerstein
even went as far as to draw up a musical-writing syllabus that Sondheim followed religiously for
the following six years (Milner 155). Years after that meeting, Sondheim said, “I learned more
that afternoon…in those four hours…than most people learn about songwriting in a lifetime”
(Gottfried 15). In the years after Hammerstein’s initial tutelage, teenage-Sondheim often worked
as a stagehand on Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals. During that time, he wrote six musical
comedies before he graduated Williams College in 1950 at age 20. His premier musicals
included lesser known titles like Beggar on Horseback, Phinney’s Rainbow, and Mary Poppins,
a musical based on the popular book series, fifteen years before Disney drafted a script for it. All
of these early works of Sondheim were approved by Hammerstein before being produced in
Sondheim’s schools. At the conclusion of these six years, Oscar Hammerstein II wrote lyrics for
The King and I. Notably, in musical’s song “Getting to Know You,” he wrote, “It’s a very
ancient saying/ But a true and honest thought/ That when you become a teacher/ By your pupils
you are taught” (Milner 153). Hammerstein’s passion for teaching Sondheim had a clear affect
on Sondheim’s career. Had Hammerstein never been honest about his loathing for By George, or
if Sondheim had never gained to courage to approach his esteemed father-figure, Sondheim may
not be as pivotal in musical theatre as he is today.
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Sondheim continued to seek counsel from his friend and mentor as he progressed through
his career as a songwriter. Most notably when director Arthur Laurents met Stephen Sondheim
when he was working in Los Angeles as a composer for a television show; Laurents was working
with Jerome Kern on producing a musical about Romeo and Juliet that took place in New York
City (Academy of Achievement). Sondheim was very excited about the project until he learned
they had already hired a composer, Leonard Bernstein. Sondheim was apprehensive about
leaving his composer-job in Los Angeles for a songwriting position back in New York. He
sought advice from his mentor, Oscar Hammerstein. Sondheim told him that he wanted to be a
composer and a lyricist, not just the ladder. He expressed his apprehensiveness about leaving the
money-making machine of Hollywood for the risky business of Broadway. Hammerstein
convinced Sondheim to accept the lyricist position telling him to appreciate it as a learning
experience. With those words from Hammerstein, Sondheim took the job and his career would
never be the same. Sondheim and Bernstein, in their creating of West Side Story, even drew from
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s dream sequence in Oklahoma! to heavily incorporate dance in West
Side Story. That may have been the last clear tribute to Hammerstein that has reflected in
Sondheim’s work. Rather than becoming a carbon copy of his mentor, Stephen Sondheim went
on to reject Hammerstein’s popularized Book Musical, and became an innovator of the Concept
Musical.
Following the careers of these two songwriters it appears that no two composers/lyricists
could be more different, and not just because of their musicals’ difference in genre. Compared to
“Sondheim’s lyrics referencing DeMaupassant and Marx,” (Milner 156) Hammerstein’s lyrics
are more simplistic. Hammerstein has also been open about his distaste for thesauruses and
rhyming dictionaries, saying a thesaurus “should only be used as a supplement to one’s own
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ingenuity, and not a substitute for it. I do not open mine unless I’ve exhausted my own memory”
(Milner 156). Whereas Sondheim, in an interview with Dianne Sawyer in 1988, claims he will
not select final lyrics before thumbing through his thesaurus and rhyming dictionary. Both
composers also had vastly different composing techniques. While Oscar Hammerstein II drew
inspiration from singular hit songs for character development, Sondheim’s music reflected the
theme and concept of the situation (Jones 270). Sondheim’s musicals, like Follies, Sunday in the
Park with George, and Company, are all concept musicals that are operetta-like; music flowing
in and out of scenes with little dialogue in between. Though Sondheim and Hammerstein appear
vastly different, beneath the surface is a timeline of similarities.
In 1947, after gaining financial and critical success from Oklahoma!, Carousel, and the
1946 revival of Show Boat, Hammerstein had the confidence to stray away from his successes
and boldly produce the dark and unique musical, Allegro. Allegro tells the story of an aspiring
doctor, Joseph Taylor Jr. and features fearless social commentary on issues like greed, adultery,
and the dangers of financial success. This is considered Hammerstein’s most autobiographical
work (Milner 159). It was a bomb on Broadway and had infamous regional tryouts with injures
and stage fires. Months before his death in 1960, Hammerstein did a radio interview with Tony
Thomas and stood by his work on Allegro, delving into his meaningful themes about integrity
and temptation, both of which had plagued him throughout his career. A 17 year-old Stephen
Sondheim was a stagehand for Allegro and witnessed first-hand his mentor’s flop. “My first
experience was seeing a man go out on a limb and get chopped off…I learned if you’re going to
take a chance, take a big chance, don’t take a little chance” (Milner 160).
Astonishingly, in 1981 Sondheim was 51, the same age as Hammerstein when he wrote
Allegro, when Sondheim wrote his most autobiographical and experimental musical, Merrily We
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Roll Along. Merrily We Roll Along had similar motifs as Allegro, exploring adultery, betrayal,
greed, and wealth. Sondheim had just come off the hot success of his 1979 musical Sweeney
Todd, and had the finances and fame to produce something without the consent of his
commercial producers. Like Allegro, Merrily We Roll Along also had an infamous trial run off
Broadway, where they rehired both actors, technicians, and choreographers. When the musical
premiered, it earned scathing reviews. The musical only ran 16 performances, the shortest
runtime of any Sondheim musical to date (Milner 164). There are countless similarities between
the two flopped musicals, including three protagonists, minimalist staging, and most importantly,
the motif of not rejecting what you love for success or power. So while Sondheim had strived to
reject the book musical, he could not reject the teachings of its inventor.
The careers of these two artists chronologically parallel the evolution of the American
musical. As theater Historian Thomas Hischak wrote, “An American musical theatre without
Hammerstein and Sondheim would be unimaginable” (Milner 155). Sondheim, meeting and
befriending Oscar Hammerstein II at the tender age of 11 would have undoubtedly be influenced
by him, no matter what his career path. Sondheim has said formally, more than once, that Oscar
simply “saved [his] life…he had tutored me and nurtured and argued with and tolerated me for
nineteen years” (Milner 155). When Hammerstein was near death, he invited friends and family
to his final birthday party, aging 65 years old. He gave each of his guests a formal portrait of
himself, so that they could better remember him before the cancer had harmed his energy and
body. Thirty year-old Sondheim asked his beloved mentor to autograph the photo, so that he
would have proof that he had known Hammerstein. Only later after the birthday party when
Sondheim had returned home, did he read the inscription on the photograph. It read, “For Steve,
my friend and teacher” (Gottfried 60).
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Works Cited
Gordon, Joanne Lesley. “Chronology.” Stephen Sondheim: A Casebook. New York: Garland
Pub., 1997. 9-11. Print.
Gottfried, Martin. Sondheim. New York: Abrams, 1993.
Jones, John Bush. Our Musicals, Ourselves: A Social History of the American Musical Theatre.
Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2003. Print.
Milner, Andrew. ""Let the Pupil Show the Master" Stephen Sondheim and Oscar Hammerstein
II." Ed. Joanne Lesley Gordon. Stephen Sondheim: A Casebook. New York: Garland
Pub., 1997. 153-169. Print.
"Stephen Joshua Sondheim." 2014. The Biography.com website. May 06 2014
"Stephen Sondheim Biography." Academy of Achievement. N.p., 9 Nov. 2010. Web. 04 May
2014.
Weakland, Christina. "“West Side Story”: The Musical That Broke the Rules." Flynn Center
Blog. N.p., 19 Nov. 2012. Web. 04 May 2014.