Paul Ford, Broadway Pianist Beloved by Sondheim, Dies at 71

Paul Ford, a self-described Broadway “piano-thumper” and a vital presence in the rehearsal room and the pit for Broadway musicals for three decades, including several works by Stephen Sondheim, has died. News of his passing was confirmed by his extended family. He was 71.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1953, Ford started playing piano—a Wurlitzer spinet piano that his grandmother had willed to his older brother—at the age of nine, teaching himself Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “A Hundred Million Miracles” from Flower Drum Song. He started piano lessons the following year, obsessively practising and listening to music for up to six hours a day—though not rock'n'roll, which he would detest for life.

Ford got his first paycheck for playing piano at the age of 17 and never looked back. “I dove head first into the fantasy world of the Broadway (and film) musical world with which I was obsessed,” he wrote in his 2022 memoir Lord Knows, At Least I Was There. “[N]ot just ‘any old music’ mind you, but the Broadway (and film) musical world. There would be nothing else… ever.”

At the age of 25, Ford moved to New York City, where his first job was playing auditions for one day for Annie Get Your Gun. He made his Broadway debut as a replacement pianist for the musical comedy A Day in Hollywood / A Night in Ukraine, which opened in 1980.

As a rehearsal pianist, he was in the room during the development of Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Follies, Assassins and Passion. Sondheim—who singled out Ford's contribution in two Tonys acceptance speeches—once called him the “indefatigable master of the musical theatre."

Ford's non-Sondheim show credits included The Secret Garden, Falsettos, High Society and, most recently, Pal Joey. He enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with Mandy Patinkin, serving as pianist and arranger for six of Patinkin's Broadway concerts and four albums. 

Ford credited his career to his skills of organization rather than his skills as a pianist. “I consider myself extremely fortunate to have worked with some of the greatest people and if I owe any success to anything it’s that I always showed up two hours early for every gig, show, rehearsal or auditions—I was NEVER late!” he said in an interview in 2023.

After serving as music director and pianist for An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin, which he also helped conceive, Ford stepped back from Broadway due to his deteriorating health.

Ford is survived by his extended family.