Join us for a rousing celebration of the life and works of one of Broadway's greatest legends — the one and only Stephen Sondheim. For the master composer and lyricist's 80th birthday, many of musical theater's brightest stars gathered in March of 2010 to perform more than two dozen sensational numbers from Sondheim's illustrious career, and several of these enduring songs are performed by the original Broadway cast members. David Hyde Pierce hosts this magical event with Stephen Sondheim's longtime collaborator Paul Gemignani conducting the New York Philharmonic. Originally broadcast as an episode of the PBS series "Great Performances" (season 38, episode 2).
11-16-2010
1h 56m
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Main Cast
Movie Details
Production Info
Director:
Lonny Price
Writers:
David Hyde Pierce, Lonny Price
Production:
Thirteen, Ellen M. Krass Productions
Key Crew
Conductor:
Paul Gemignani
Choreographer:
Josh Rhodes
Stage Director:
Lonny Price
Producer:
Lonny Price
Executive Producer:
Stewart F. Lane
Locations and Languages
Country:
US
Filming:
US
Languages:
en
Main Cast
David Hyde Pierce
David Hyde Pierce (Height: 5 feet 9 inches) is an American actor, director, and producer best known for his portrayal of psychiatrist Dr. Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom Frasier from 1993 to 2004. For his role on Frasier, Pierce won four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, making him the only performer to have won four consecutive Emmys in that category. He also received a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Lieutenant Frank Cioffi in the Broadway musical Curtains (2007).
Pierce was born David Pierce on April 3, 1959, in Saratoga Springs, New York. He is the youngest of four children. His father, James Joseph Pierce, was a salesman, and his mother, Laura Marie Hughes, was a homemaker. Pierce attended Saratoga Springs High School, where he was a member of the drama club. After graduating from high school, Pierce attended Yale School of Drama, where he received a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1984.
Pierce began his acting career in the theater. He appeared in a number of off-Broadway productions, including The Threepenny Opera, The Playboys, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1989, he made his Broadway debut in the play The Heidi Chronicles.
Pierce's breakthrough role came in 1993, when he was cast as Dr. Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom Frasier. The show was a spin-off of the popular sitcom Cheers, and it starred Kelsey Grammer as Frasier Crane, a psychiatrist who moves to Seattle to join his brother Niles, also a psychiatrist, in practice. Pierce's portrayal of Niles Crane was both hilarious and nuanced, and he quickly became a fan favorite. For his work on the show, Pierce won four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, making him the only performer to have won four consecutive Emmys in that category.
After Frasier ended its run in 2004, Pierce continued to work in television and film. He has starred in a number of television series, including The Good Wife, The Good Fight, and Veep. He has also appeared in a number of films, including Wet Hot American Summer, Down with Love, and A Bug's Life.
In addition to his acting work, Pierce is also a director and producer. He has directed episodes of the television series Frasier, The Good Wife, and Veep. He has also produced a number of television projects, including The Good Fight and The Undoing.
Pierce is married to Brian Hargrove, a film producer. They have been together since 2002 and were married in 2008.
Laura Benanti (born July 15, 1979) is an American actress and singer.
Over the course of her Broadway career, she has received five Tony Award nominations. She played Louise in the 2008 Broadway revival of Gypsy, winning the 2008 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. In 2016 she starred in She Loves Me as Amalia Balash, which was televised.
She played Elsa Schräder in the 2013 NBC television production of The Sound of Music Live!, appeared as Sadie Stone in Nashville in 2014 and 2015 and that same year began playing twin sisters Alura and Astra in the TV series Supergirl. Beginning in 2017, Benanti appeared as Edie Randall in the TBS comedy The Detour. Since 2016, she has had a recurring role as First Lady Melania Trump on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Michael Cerveris (born November 6, 1960) is an American singer, guitarist and actor. He has performed in many stage musicals and plays, including in several Stephen Sondheim musicals: Assassins, Sweeney Todd, Road Show, and Passion. He won the Tony Award as Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Assassins.
He was called, by Playbill.com, "arguably the most versatile leading man on Broadway", playing roles from "Shakespeare's Romeo to The Who's Tommy, from the German transsexual rock diva Hedwig in Hedwig & the Angry Inch to the homicidal title character of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd."
Description above from the Wikipedia article Michael Cerveris, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Joanna Gleason Sarandon (née Joanne Hall; born June 2, 1950) is a Canadian-American actress and singer. She is a Tony Award–winning musical theatre actress and has also had a number of notable film and TV roles. She is known for originating the role of the Baker's Wife in Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods for which she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She is also known for her film work in Mike Nichols' Heartburn (1986), Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), and Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997). She has had television roles in shows such as Friends, The West Wing, The Good Wife and The Affair.
Patti Ann LuPone (born April 21, 1949) is an American actress and singer, who is best known for her work in stage musicals. She has won two Grammy Awards, two Tony Awards, and two Olivier Awards. She is also a 2006 American Theater Hall of Fame inductee. On television, LuPone played Lady Bird Johnson in the 1987 TV movie, LBJ: The Early Years, starred in the drama series Life Goes On (1989–1993) and received Emmy Award nominations for the TV movie The Song Spinner (1995) and her guest role in the sitcom Frasier (1998). In the 1990s she had a recurring role as defense attorney Ruth Miller on Law & Order. She also had recurring roles in two Ryan Murphy FX series, the thriller American Horror Story: Coven (2013–2014) and the drama Pose (2019), as well as on Murphy's Hollywood on Netflix. She guest starred in Penny Dreadful (2014–2016) before returning in a lead role. She voices the character Yellow Diamond in the animated series Steven Universe (2013–2019) and its epilogue series Steven Universe Future (2019–2020). She also appeared on The CW comedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend as Rabbi Shari (2017). LuPone appeared in the Oscar-winning films Witness (1985) and Driving Miss Daisy (1989) and also was featured in State and Main (2000), Parker (2013), and The Comedian (2016). LuPone has a mezzo-soprano vocal range, and she is famous for her strong/high "Broadway" belt singing voice. In a 2008 interview, she maintained that she was "an actor who sings", and thankful she "had a voice"
Audra Ann McDonald is an American actress and singer. Primarily known for her work on the Broadway stage, she has won six Tony Awards, more performance wins than any other actor, and is the only person to win in all four acting categories. She has performed in musicals, operas, and dramas such as A Moon for the Misbegotten, 110 in the Shade, Carousel, Ragtime, Master Class, and Porgy and Bess. In addition to her six Tony Awards, she has received numerous accolades including two Grammy Awards and an Emmy Award. She was honored with the National Medal of Arts in 2016 from President Barack Obama and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2017.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Francis McMartin (August 21, 1929 – July 6, 2016) was an American actor of stage, film and television.
Description above from the Wikipedia article John McMartin, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Donna Murphy (born March 7, 1959) is an American stage, film, television actress and singer. Murphy has won two Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Musical for her roles in Passion as Fosca and in The King and I as Anna Leonowens. She received three more Tony Award nominations for Best Actress in a Musical for her performances in Wonderful Town as Ruth Sherwood,Lovemusik as Lotte Lenya and The People in the Picture as Raisel/Bubbie. She is known, most recently, for her role as Mother Gothel in the animated Disney film Tangled (2010), Anij, Captain Jean-Luc Picard's love interest, in Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) and her numerous stage roles in musical theatre.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Donna Murphy, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Mandy Patinkin is an American stage, film and television actor and tenor vocalist. Patinkin is a noted interpreter of the music of Stephen Sondheim and is known for his work in musical theatre, originating iconic roles such as Georges Seurat in Sunday in the Park with George, Archibald Craven in The Secret Garden and Burrs in The Wild Party. He has also appeared in television series' such as Chicago Hope, Dead Like Me, the first two seasons of Criminal Minds, and Homeland. His most noted film role was as Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride.
Bernadette Peters (born February 28, 1948) is an American actress, singer, and children's book author. Over a career spanning five decades, she has starred in musical theatre, television and film, performed in solo concerts and released recordings. She is a critically acclaimed Broadway performer, having received seven nominations for Tony Awards, winning two (plus an honorary award), and nine nominations for Drama Desk Awards, winning three. Four of the Broadway cast albums on which she has starred have won Grammy Awards.
Regarded by many as the foremost interpreter of the works of Stephen Sondheim, Peters is particularly noted for her roles on the Broadway stage, including in the musicals Mack and Mabel (1974), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Song and Dance (1985), Into the Woods (1987), The Goodbye Girl (1993), Annie Get Your Gun (1999), Gypsy (2003), A Little Night Music (2010), Follies (2011), and Hello, Dolly! (2018).
Peters first performed on the stage as a child and then a teenaged actress in the 1960s, and in film and television in the 1970s. She was praised for this early work and for appearances on The Muppet Show, The Carol Burnett Show and in other television work, and for her roles in films including Silent Movie, The Jerk, Pennies from Heaven and Annie. In the 1980s, she returned to the theatre, where she became one of the best-known Broadway stars over the next three decades. She also has recorded six solo albums and several singles, as well as many cast albums, and performs regularly in her own solo concert act. Peters continues to act on stage, in films and on television in such series as Smash and Mozart in the Jungle. She has been nominated for three Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards, winning once.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Bernadette Peters, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Elaine Bawson Stritch (born February 2, 1925) is an American actress and vocalist. She has appeared in numerous stage plays and musicals, feature films, and many television programs. She is known for her performance of "The Ladies Who Lunch" in Stephen Sondheim's 1970 musical Company, her 2001 one-woman show Elaine Stritch at Liberty, and recently for her role as Jack Donaghy's mother Colleen on NBC's 30 Rock. She has been nominated for the Tony Award four times in various categories, and won for Elaine Stritch at Liberty.
Jim Walton is best known for his many roles on and off Broadway. Jim made his debut in the 1980 musical revue, Perfectly Frank. He is also known for a multitude of roles in various musicals by composer, Stephen Sondheim.
Chip Zien is an American stage and screen actor. He is a graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was the president of "Mask & Wig", the nation's oldest all-male collegiate musical comedy troupe.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Stephen Joshua Sondheim (March 22, 1930 – November 26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. Among the most important figures in 20th-century musical theater, Sondheim was praised for having "reinvented the American musical" with shows that tackled "unexpected themes that range far beyond the [genre's] traditional subjects" with "music and lyrics of unprecedented complexity and sophistication". His shows addressed "darker, more harrowing elements of the human experience" with songs often tinged with "ambivalence" about various aspects of life.
Sondheim started his theatre career by writing the lyrics for West Side Story (1957) and Gypsy (1959) before becoming a composer and lyricist. Sondheim's best-known works include A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), and Into the Woods (1987).
Sondheim's accolades include eight Tony Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Tony in 2008), an Academy Award, eight Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, a Laurence Olivier Award, and a 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom. He has a theater named for him both on Broadway and in the West End of London. Sondheim wrote film music, contributing "Goodbye for Now" for Warren Beatty's Reds (1981). He wrote five songs for 1990's Dick Tracy, including "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)", sung in the film by Madonna, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Film adaptations of Sondheim's work include West Side Story (1961), Gypsy (1962), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), A Little Night Music (1977), Gypsy (1993), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Into the Woods (2014), West Side Story (2021), and Merrily We Roll Along (TBD).
