Broadway Icon Stephen Sondheim, 89, 'Temporarily Incapacitated' After Fall at Home
Stephen Sondheim is recovering after a fall at home left him injured.
The legendary 89-year-old Broadway composer and lyricist, who’s behind titles like West Side Story and Into the Woods, took a spill at his Connecticut home that left him with a torn ligament, according to British theater producer Cameron Mackintosh.
He is unable to travel to London for the opening of a West End theater in his name due to the injury. The Sondheim Theater was set to have an official opening on Jan. 14th after remodeling, with a production of Les Misérables currently playing at the venue.
“I would do nearly anything for Cameron. But to stand side by side with him on a West End Stage holding onto a stroller is not something I will let him enjoy teasing me about,” Sondheim said in a statement to Broadway World. “As I recover from my tumble, I’m impatient to throw away my cane, grab my hat and head across the pond as soon as I can to see on which cherub Cameron has tattooed my initials. I am, to put it mildly, chuffed to have my name on a theatre in the West End I have loved visiting ever since my first trip to London almost seventy years ago.”
Mackintosh shared details of Sondheim’s fall in his statement, where he announced the opening of the theater would be postponed indefinitely.
“I am very sorry to have to let you know that we have just been informed that Stephen Sondheim suffered a fall a few days ago at his Connecticut home where he tore a ligament which has seriously compromised his immediate mobility,” he said in the statement. “Though temporarily incapacitated, Steve is very much still here in feisty frustrated spirit with West Side Story and Company opening imminently on Broadway and the Sondheim Theatre and Sunday in the Park With George opening in London.”
West Side Story, which Sondheim wrote the lyrics for, is currently being remade into a movie by Steven Spielberg, while a new Broadway production of the musical is in previews before it opens later this winter.
