Stephen Sondheim, the legendary Broadway composer and lyricist and seven-time GRAMMY winner, will receive an all-star virtual tribute concert this weekend to honor his 90th birthday and celebrate his vast contributions to musical theater. The Take Me To The World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration event will feature a stacked lineup comprising artists and performers who appeared in his many musicals throughout the decades as well as current Hollywood and Broadway stars.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Meryl Streep, Ben Platt, Kristin Chenoweth, Josh Groban, Jake Gyllenhaal and Neil Patrick Harris are among some of the stars confirmed to perform. The night will also feature special appearances from Steven Spielberg, Nathan Lane, Victor Garber, Joanna Gleason and many others. View the full lineup of performers and guests on Broadway.com.
The event, which will benefit Artists Striving To End Poverty (ASTEP), will livestream for free on Broadway.com and the Broadway.com YouTube channel Sunday, April 26, starting at 8 p.m. EST. Watch the livestream below.
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Hosted and produced by Raúl Esparza and directed by Paul Wontorek, the Take Me To The World tribute, which is named after a song featured in the score for the 1966 musical "Evening Primrose" for which Sondheim wrote the lyrics and music, will feature musical direction by Mary-Mitchell Campbell, who founded ASTEP. The event also coincides with the 50th anniversary of "Company," the 1970 musical comedy that garnered Sondheim his first-ever GRAMMY win.
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Sondheim, who turned 90 this past March, is one of the most celebrated composers and lyricists in American musical theater. He is best known for his work on classic and popular musicals like "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street," "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum," "Follies," "A Little Night Music," "Into The Woods" and several others. He also wrote the lyrics for the iconic musical "West Side Story."
A near-EGOT winner, he has won seven GRAMMYs, with 17 overall nominations, an Oscar, eight Tony Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and a Laurence Olivier Award. In addition to receiving the Presidential Medal Of Freedom in 2015, Sondheim received the Recording Academy's National Trustees Award in 2007.
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