Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim kicks off Open VISIONS' new season | Press Releases

Image: Stephen Soundheim Broadway's legendary songwriter, composer, lyricist and playwright Stephen Sondheim kicks off Fairfield University's fourth Open VISIONS season on Sunday, Sept. 24, at 3 p.m., in the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. Sondheim's interactive discussion is titled "Sunday Afternoon: When a Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Open VISIONS Forum."

Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for "Into the Woods," "A Little Night Music," "Follies," "Sweeney Todd," and "Company," all of which won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award as well as the Tony Award for Best Score for a Musical. His "Sunday in the Park With George," received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1985. Also included in the anthologies of his works as a composer and/or lyricist are: "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," "West Side Story" and "Gypsy," as well as scores for several films, one of which, "Dick Tracy," won an Academy Award in 1990.

The 1993 recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors, Sondheim will receive the Gerard Manley Hopkins Award from Rev. Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J., president of Fairfield University, during his appearance here.

Sondheim was born and raised in New York City. A graduate of Williams College where he won the Hutchinson Prize for Music Composition, he later studied music theory and composition with Milton Babbitt. He is a member of the Council of the Dramatists Guild, the national association of playwrights, composers and lyricists - where he served as its president from 1973-81 and, in 1983, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

The Open VISIONS Forum, a program of Fairfield University's School of Continuing Education, is sponsored in part by Advest. Ticket prices vary for each lecture. Tickets for the Sondheim lecture are $35, $25 for seniors and $5 for full-time matriculated Fairfield University students. Two subscription packages are available. For tickets or information call the Quick Center box office at (203) 254-4010 or toll-free at 888-254-1666.