Burnett, Cariou, Cook, McDonald, Rossum and Williams Join Cast of Hollywood Bowl Sondheim Tribute

By: May. 18, 2005
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Carol Burnett, Len Cariou, Barbara Cook, Audra McDonald, Emmy Rossum and Vanessa Williams have joined the already stellar line-up of performers who will pay tribute to Stephen Sondheim in his 75th birthday celebration at the Hollywood Bowl. The evening will take place on July 8th at 8 PM.

The six stars join Jason Alexander, Jason Danieley, Nathan Lane, Angela Lansbury, Marin Mazzie, Donna Murphy, Bernadette Peters and Brian Stokes Mitchell in performing in the concert, which is produced and directed by Paul Lazarus. Longtime Sondheim collaborator Paul Gemignani will contribute musical direction and conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic, while Marilyn Bergman (president of ASCAP and an Oscar-winning lyricist herself) will present the living legend with a special award.

The career of Stephen Sondheim, who is considered by many to be the greatest living composer-lyricist of musicals, has spanned almost 50 years since his Broadway debut in 1957 as the lyricist of West Side Story. After also penning the lyrics to Gypsy (with a return to mere lyric-writing for 1965's Do I Hear a Waltz?), Sondheim went on to write the scores for a litany of shows that challenged musical theatre conventions in theme, content and structure. Among his shows (some of which are only recently attaining the popularity that eluded them in their original productions) are A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anyone Can Whistle, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Assassins and Passion. His latest musical, Bounce, closed out of town in DC before making it to Broadway but an expanded, limited-run production of 1974's The Frogs bowed last year at Lincoln Center to favorable reviews.

Sondheim retrospectives and celebrations have become quite the fashion in recent years. The Kennedy Center launced a critically-acclaimed Sondheim Celebration in 2002, mounting productions of Company, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, Merrily We Roll Along, A Little Night Music and Passion. The Hollywood Bowl concert follows a star-packed, 24-hour Wall to Wall performance at Symphony Space and Children and Art at the New Amsterdam Theatre, also a glittery celebration of Sondheim's 75th birthday.

The Hollywood Bowl is located at 2301 Highland Avenue in Hollywood, CA.

For more information, visit www.hollywoodbowl.org.


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