CNN Staff • Updated 10th December 2018
( CNN ) — At just 68, Stephen Sondheim is still writing a huge number of high-quality musicals. His final one — “Into the Woods” — will make its Broadway debut next year.
Yet this production, along with the upcoming “Pacific Overtures” (songs from “The King and I”) and “Sunday in the Park with George” (from “Sweeney Todd”), represent just the start of what’s expected to be a busy season.
Judy Collins was not surprised. In her 2005 memoir, she wrote about how she, composer/playwright/TV star/husband Elliot Goldenthal and lyricist-director Jason Robert Brown met in 1985.
“We’re all in the theater business for a reason,” she said in a 2015 CNN interview. “It’s a glittery business. There’s nothing boring about that, believe me. We all have a creative force inside ourselves. We all have a command of our craft that we need to come out and sing the roles we really want to do.”
A little over a decade later, Collins, Goldenthal and Brown, along with director Robert Israel and star Zachary Levi, will bring the Sondheim milestone to life in the April 2 premiere of “Into the Woods,” at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre in New York.
They’re not the only performers to be honored with a Sondheim tribute — recently, the theatrical world has paid tribute to Sondheim more than a dozen times. In fact, this year (another theater season) Sondheim has been saluted by actors on Broadway, film, television and in cabaret with premieres in London, France, Milan, Moscow and Broadway.
Here are the many tributes offered to the Broadway musical giant, courtesy of New York Times, Premiere Radio Networks, American Songbook and BroadwayWorld.com:
1 / 11 Aaron Tveit, Erika Henningsen, Zachary Levi, Elijah Blue, Shuler Hensley, Greer Grammer, Leslie Odom Jr. and Emily Skinner take the stage for a “Broadway 25/8” charity concert. Credit: Jessica Hill/Invision/AP
2 / 9 Harvey Fierstein directs a live television production of “Into the Woods.” Credit: Jemal Countess/Getty Images North America
3 / 8 As Broadway turned 50, the cast of “Annie” celebrates “Evita.” Credit: Mike Coppola/Getty Images North America