Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim is celebrating his 90th birthday, and we are all invited to the party!
Take Me To the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration will be free to watch.
The legend himself will be toasted with an all-star birthday concert, streaming live on Sunday, April 26th, 2020, at 8 p.m. Hosted by Raúl Esparza, Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration can be seen for free on Broadway.com and the Broadway.com YouTube channel.
This once-in-a-lifetime event, benefiting ASTEP (Artists Striving to End Poverty), will include songs of inspiration from the Sondheim catalog performed by many of the artists who delivered iconic turns in his musicals.
They include Meryl Streep, Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone, Mandy Patinkin, Audra McDonald, Christine Baranski, Donna Murphy, Kristin Chenoweth, Sutton Foster, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Kelli O’Hara and Aaron Tveit.
Maria Friedman, Katrina Lenk, Michael Cerveris, Brandon Uranowitz, Elizabeth Stanley, Chip Zien, Alexander Gemignani, Iain Armitage, Stephen Schwartz and, from the cast of Pacific Overtures at Classic Stage Company, Ann Harada, Austin Ku, Kelvin Moon Loh and Thom Sesma.
Also Annaleigh Ashford, Laura Benanti, Melissa Errico, Beanie Feldstein, Josh Groban, Jake Gyllenhaal, Neil Patrick Harris, Judy Kuhn, Linda Lavin, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Platt, Randy Rainbow and Lea Salonga.
In addition, there will be special appearances from Victor Garber, Joanna Gleason, Nathan Lane and Steven Spielberg.
Esparza, the evening’s host and producer, starred as Bobby in the Tony Award-winning revival of Company in 2006 and in the Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration productions of Sunday in the Park and Merrily We Roll Along in 2002.
“The world is in a hard place, and we are all searching for something great,” says Esparza. “Well, Stephen Sondheim is greatness personified. So, we’ve assembled a group of people who love Steve and have worked with Steve and have been inspired by Steve to sing his music and share some joy and some heartache together.
“We may be far from Broadway right now, but Broadway is never far from us. Besides, Stephen Sondheim turned 90. How many times do you get to be 90? 11? So come on, say it, get it over with, come on, quick…happy birthday.”
Directed by Paul Wontorek, Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration is being presented in support of ASTEP, the organization conceived by the event’s musical director, Mary-Mitchell Campbell, and Juilliard students to transform the lives of youth using the most powerful tool they had: their art. In times of turbulence and trauma, the arts provide a space for healing, a platform for connectivity and an outlet to express ourselves.
“Sondheim shows us the depth of our hearts, the complexity of our minds, and all that it is possible to accomplish through his brilliant marriage of music and storytelling,” Campbell adds.
“Artists Striving to End Poverty aims to make sure that all children living in challenging situations have the opportunity to be transformed by the making of art. In my personal experience, encountering Stephen Sondheim’s music has helped these children imagine an entirely different life and future for themselves. Linking Sondheim and ASTEP together during this very difficult time made perfect sense to us. Children and art.”
