To many, Stephen Sond­heim is a titan of Broad­way; his death in 2021 was con­sid­ered a mas­sive loss for the arts world. Known for his incom­pa­ra­bly wit­ty writ­ing, sig­na­ture pat­ter songs, and deep under­stand­ing of the human expe­ri­ence, Sond­heim remains an inte­gral part of the his­to­ry of the Amer­i­can theater.

Daniel Okrent’s new biog­ra­phy delves into Sondheim’s per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al rela­tion­ships as told by the man him­self, his col­leagues, his fans, and his life­long friends. Though he nev­er met Sond­heim, Okrent exam­ines the composer’s life with humor, intu­ition, and the utmost respect — the read­er can expect frank hon­esty, crit­i­cism, and empa­thy in Okrent’s book. Sond­heim wasn’t per­fect; Okrent affirms this through his research. Sond­heim was a man of intri­cate com­plex­i­ty, weav­ing his emo­tions into words and music in ways that no one has before. High­lights of the book include two fas­ci­nat­ing chap­ters about Sondheim’s friend­ship and part­ner­ship with the great Hal Prince; a detailed analy­sis of son­ic motifs that are so inten­tion­al­ly woven through­out the course of a Sond­heim score; an in-depth look at Sondheim’s rela­tion­ships with col­lab­o­ra­tors and friends, and how they were often fraught with resent­ment and dra­ma while also being the clos­est thing he had to a fam­i­ly; and a study into how much of Sondheim’s own life was reflect­ed in his work. 

“Art is as close to a reli­gion as I have,” stat­ed Sond­heim in 2005. Brought up sec­u­lar, Sond­heim still did feel some con­nec­tion to his Jew­ish roots, but he rarely spoke at length about his beliefs in pub­lic, and didn’t include many overt Jew­ish cul­tur­al ref­er­ences in his musi­cals. But, as demon­strat­ed through this biog­ra­phy as part of the Jew­ish Lives series, the world sees Sond­heim, in many ways, as quin­tes­sen­tial­ly Jew­ish. Com­mon themes and motifs such as dys­func­tion­al yet pas­sion­ate fam­i­lies, search­ing for con­nec­tion as an out­sider, rev­er­ence of art and music, and tak­ing immense pride in one’s recipes — care­ful not to reveal the secret ingre­di­ent — are infused through­out decades of Sondheim’s work. (Per­haps the secret to the per­fect gefilte fish and the secret to Mrs. Lovett’s meat pies are the two oppo­site extremes of this spec­trum, but the metaphor still stands.)

For the ded­i­cat­ed fan or some­one just begin­ning to learn about Stephen Sond­heim, this biog­ra­phy is an acces­si­ble and engag­ing resource. Full of mean­ing­ful anec­dotes from his life and snarky com­ments he made about oth­ers in show busi­ness, this is a book that will make the read­er laugh and think and feel with each turn of the page.