Video: Christine Baranski Recalls 50th Birthday Celebration with Stephen Sondheim

Tony Award-winning performer Christine Baranski has had some memorable birthdays. On a recent visit to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the performer recalled what she considers to be her best birthday, which she spent with Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim.

"I was doing Sweeney Todd at the Kennedy Center and it was my [50th] birthday... Steve Sondheim was coming to see our first run-through, which is terrifying," the actress explained. Following the successful run-through, Baranski and her friends went to a local restaurant to celebrate her birthday.

"And who comes in but Stephen Sondheim after he'd given notes to the director. He walked in and said, 'I never miss a 50th birthday." And we must've sat there until one in the morning...He talked about West Side Story, Gypsy, and his early years. I remember walking arm-in-arm back to our hotel on a beautiful spring night, and I thought, 'That's the way to turn 50!'

A seasoned performer of the stage and screen, Baranski has won two Tony Awards for  Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing and Neil Simon's Rumors, respectively. Other major Broadway credits include Hurlyburly, The House of Blue Leaves, and Boeing Boeing. She also portrayed Mrs. Lovett in the Kennedy Center's production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.