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Review Quotes:
"Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn't Easy is a terrific book, the best that has been written about Steve. It captures him from every angle, and I learned things about him I never knew."--James Lapine, librettist,
Sunday in the Park with George,
Into the Woods, and
Passion
"Packed between the covers of this slim volume is the Stephen Sondheim I knew, evoked with insight, empathy, and elegance. A powerful and compelling read."--John Weidman, librettist,
Pacific Overtures,
Assassins, and
Road Show
"A marvelous feast of new insights."--John McWhorter,
New York Times
"[An] illuminating consideration of Sondheim's long career. Without grandstanding in a game of biographical gotcha, Okrent takes up key themes of Sondheim's life and links them persuasively to songs in his shows."--David Hajdu,
The Atlantic
"The entire book is sheer delight and Okrent... does a terrific job of telling Sondheim's life story alongside shrewd analysis of his body of work."--Emma Brockes,
Guardian
"One of the best biographies I have ever read."--Bill Goldstein, NBC New York
"A book perfectly weighted between the gossipy and erudite. . . You come for the biography and stay for the world of mid-20th-century New York."--Emma Brockes,
Guardian
"Excellent. . . . Sondheim, whose work I adore, emerges as a
monstre sacre--French for a super-talented diva--under the pen of biographer Daniel Okrent."--Alex Beam,
Boston Globe
"Drawing on rich research, Okrent vividly captures a clever, sensitive, complicated, and sometimes abrasive artist, and sheds fresh light on even Sondheim's most well-known productions. It's a stellar portrait of an American theater great."--
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A brisk, engaging read that avoids hagiography. Okrent highlights the emotional frailties that coexisted with the brilliance and generosity."--Julia Klein,
Los Angeles Times
"[A] short, shrewd biography of the legendary composer/lyricist. . . . An indispensable supplement to our understanding of a musical theater giant."--
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Daniel Okrent's superb new biography is a tightly written, emotionally perceptive, and often exhilarating study of a Broadway giant."--Chip Brown,
Air Mail
"Daniel Okrent follows Sondheim through the tumult of his upbringing ... and his rise to fame as both a lyricist and composer"--
The Paris Insider
"This is really a superb short biography of a very, very interesting figure. . . . [A] perfect book about maybe the most important American cultural figure of the last 50 or 60 years."--John Podhoretz,
Commentary Magazine Podcast
"A crisp and refreshing biography that skillfully blends the personal and professional into a portrait of the artist and the man. . . . An insightful look at a complicated man and talented artist whose work transformed twentieth-century musical theater."--Carolyn Mulac,
Booklist
"The highest compliment I can pay to Daniel Okrent's excellent new biography,
Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn't Easy, is that it more than meets its clear ambition: to capture the full range of its subject's mercurial personality, from bitter to sweet, ice-cold to hotly intemperate, peeved to magnanimous, and all gradations in between."--Rob Weinert-Kendt,
American Theatre
"Okrent exam-ines the composer's life with humor, intu-ition, and the utmost respect. . . . For the ded-i-cat-ed fan or some-one just begin-ning to learn about Stephen Sond-heim, this biog-ra-phy is an acces-si-ble and engag-ing resource . . . that will make the read-er laugh and think and feel with each turn of the page."--Isado-ra Kianovsky, Jewish Book Council
"This new biography from Daniel Okrent . . . is a great reminder of both the intricacies of Sondheim's life and the greatness of his work."--Tobias Carroll,
InsideHook
"In this compact, densely pleasurable life of Stephen Sondheim, Daniel Okrent has achieved the remarkable feat of bringing to fresh life an endlessly chronicled subject in a compellingly readable and authoritative way."--James Kaplan, author of
Irving Berlin
"An intricate, elegant tour through the life and psyche of an uneasy genius. Okrent's book is stuffed with new matter and fascinating insights even for specialists like me who've been immersed in Sondheim's biography and art for decades."--Laurie Winer, author of
Oscar Hammerstein II and the Invention of the Musical
Biographical Note:
Daniel Okrent had careers as a book and magazine editor and was the first public editor of the
New York Times. He is the prize-winning author of six books, including
The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America, and
Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. He lives in New York City and on Cape Cod.
Publisher Marketing:
A revelatory look at the complex inner world of one of the twentieth century's most beloved theatrical composers
"A superb biography of the musical master. Packed with gossip and incident, this book is also a fascinating study in the gestation of genius."--Guardian
"[An] illuminating consideration of Sondheim's long career. Without grandstanding in a game of biographical gotcha, Okrent takes up key themes of Sondheim's life and links them persuasively to songs in his shows."--David Hajdu, The Atlantic
Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021) was a towering figure in American musical theater. Celebrated for such iconic Broadway shows as Company, Sweeney Todd, and Into the Woods, his accolades include eight Tony Awards, multiple Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Pulitzer Prize. In this intimate biography, Daniel Okrent follows Sondheim through the tumult of his upbringing and his parents' divorce, his life-changing relationship with Oscar Hammerstein II and subsequent immersion in musical theater, and his rise to fame as both a lyricist and composer.
Okrent shines new light on Sondheim's complicated emotional life, wavering self-confidence, and alcoholism, drawing on the artist's intimate correspondence with such notable figures as Hal Prince, Leonard Bernstein, and Arthur Laurents; exclusive interviews with his close friends and collaborators, including James Lapine and John Weidman; and Sondheim's own oral history, which remained closed until his death. He also reveals a previously unknown (and crucial) aspect of the infamous letter from Sondheim's mother that made him believe she regretted his birth. As Okrent explores the ways Sondheim's music and lyrics express the inner man, he shows us a life that was defined by two parallel arcs: the movement from alienation to connection, and from ambivalence to resolution.
Review Citations:
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Publishers Weekly 02/09/2026 (EAN 9780300270211, Hardcover) - *Starred Review
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Booklist 02/01/2026 (EAN 9780300270211, Hardcover)
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Kirkus Reviews 01/01/2026 (EAN 9780300270211, Hardcover) - *Starred Review
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