When Steve Met Tony: Through the Years with the Legendary Sondheim

You know you love him. How could you not adore the man and worship his relentless, artistic chutzpah? Even if you gripe at cocktail parties about how you detest all things Sondheim blasphemy!, you probably still admire him underneath it all. Most Stephen Sondheim naysayers doth protest way too much.

The truth is few understand Broadway's ongoing obsessive relationship with Sondheim better than the artist himself. During "An Audience with Stephen Sondheim," a bonus feature on the recently released Company DVD, Sondheim pinpoints how he and collaborator Harold Prince were perceived early on in their careers. "We were mavericks but we were successful," he explains. "We weren't living in fifth-floor walkups, yet each show was an odd show. [Broadway] didn't mind Rodger and Hammerstein making lots of money because the shows were predictable. And it was OK if you wrote an odd show if you were starving."

This season the Broadway community once again seemed like the Stephen Sondheim Admiration Society, with acclaimed productions of Gypsy and Sunday in the Park with George, both of which felt more like rediscoveries than mere revivals. And don't forget Tim Burton's masterful adaptation of Sweeney Todd, which proved you don't have to use electric guitars or drop the f-word in a chorus to make a punk-rock musical.

As the 2008 Tony Awards prepares to present Sondheim with a lifetime achievement honor, Broadway.com presents its own tribute—a timeline of the man's 50-year history with the Tony Awards.

1957
Sondheim's first brush with Tony recognition, as lyricist for Best Musical nominee West Side Story, later made him cringe, particularly the line "it's alarming how charming I feel" from "I Feel Pretty," the infectious Act II number. "That would be not unwelcome in Noel Coward's living room," Sonheim noted on the Company DVD, and he didn't mean that in a good way.

1963
After earning another Tony nod with Gypsy's creative team, Sondheim elevated his game with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, his first Broadway gig as a composer and lyricist. Alas, his score wasn't nominated. No one even thanked him from the podium.

1971
Company wins six Tonys, thus kicking off the Sondheim-Prince golden age, and a slew of contradictory reactions. In Meryle Secrest's book Stephen Sondheim: A Life, producer Cameron Mackintosh remembers, "I stood and cheered three times during the performance, absolutely hysterical, and yet I hadn't liked the show!"

1972
Another Tony for Follies, and more strongly divided reviews. "Exhausting and intermissionless," said critic Walter Kerr. His colleague Clive Barnes loved the lyrics, even when "the music sends shivers of indifference up your spine."

1973
The winning streak continues! Another best score award for A Little Night Music, a waltz-driven romance that Sondheim admits was a deliberate move toward accessible material after two unconventional works.

1976
Another nod but no win for the Asian-themed Pacific Overtures, which baffled audiences with its kabuki-style presentation, but reaffirmed Sondheim's bold range. "I always try to pick something that frightens me," he says on the Company DVD. "A writer should frighten himself, or you tend to write the same thing again."

1979
Sondheim and Prince sweep the Tonys with their finest moment, Sweeney Todd. Sondheim felt particularly validated when one his heroes, composer Jule Styne, stated, "I think the most unbelievable job of writing, and I say this with deep reverence and envy… is Sweeney Todd."

1982
Another nod for the critically butchered Merrily We Roll Along, Sondheim's first bona-fide flop. During an intermission, he actually overheard this remark: "This is the end of Prince and Sondheim." The two soon parted ways.

1984
Teaming with James Lapine for Sunday in the Park with George, Sondheim wins a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, but loses Best Original Score to Jerry Herman. Accepting his Tony, the La Cage Aux Folles composer proclaimed, "The simple, hummable show… is alive and well at the Palace!" Though Herman has noted many times that he meant no harm by his remark, many found it dismissive of Sunday's intricate melodic structure.

1988
A Tony for Best Original Score, this time for Into the Woods. The same critics who pegged Sondheim as too "unsentimental" now griped that he was too "sentimental."

1994
Passion earns Sondheim his seventh Tony, still more than any other composer. The show became the shortest-running production ever to win Best Musical.

2004
Assassins, Sondheim and John Weidman's daring musical about the people who murdered U.S. Presidents or tried to was awarded the Tony for Best Musical Revival, though many people considered it a new musical; the show had played 71 performances at Playwrights Horizons in 1990.

2008
These days, you can bank on a revival or two of a Sondheim musical virtually every season. From the musical revue Putting it Together and Barbara Cook's Tony-nominated concert Mostly Sondheim to two revivals apiece of Company and Gypsy and new productions of Follies, Forum, Pacific Overtures, Into the Woods, The Frogs, Assassins, Sweeney Todd and this season's Sunday in the Park with George. Is there any doubt why the Tony committee is honoring the man's lifetime achievements? Expect a rapturous ovation, and later on at the after-parties, someone might kvetch over cocktails and insist that Sondheim's overrated. If you hear such a thing, just roll your eyes and know that the kvetcher is also an admirer. Who wouldn't be?