Review: A new Sondheim biography reveals some shockers and the dark side of genius

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Book ReviewStephen Sondheim: Art Isn't Easy By Daniel Okrent Yale University Press: 320 pages, $35If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.Stephen Sondheim’s death in 2021, at 91, was a gut punch to musical theater fans.Showered with honors and tributes, he had begun to seem eternal, a cultural constant.

Even his gnarliest shows enjoyed successful revivals — more acclaimed, and more profitable, than their original productions.His influence and mentorship shaped a new generation of theatrical composers that included Adam Guettel (“The Light in the Piazza”), Jason Robert Brown (“Parade”), Jeanine Tesori (“Fun Home”), Jonathan Larson (“Rent”) and Lin-Manuel Miranda (“Hamilton”).The most secular of Jews, Sondheim is now the subject of a biography in Yale University Press’ excellent Jewish Lives series.

Its author, Daniel Okrent, was the New York Times’ first public editor and has written acclaimed books on topics such as immigration and Prohibition.Okrent never met Sondheim, he tells us, but he had some near misses: He sat near the composer in the theater on more than one occasion and was even mistaken for him.For “Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn’t Easy,” Okrent spent three years absorbing the literature, interviewing collaborators and friends, and probing the archives.

He cites a particular debt to biographer Meryle Secrest’s extensive taped interviews, from the mid-1990s, with Sondheim and others.Entertainment & Arts From ‘Brigadoon’ to ‘Riverdance’ to Bruce Springsteen to Lily Allen, here’s what we’re most looking forward to from April to June in the Los Angeles area arts scene.The resulting volume is a brisk, engaging read that avoids hagiography.

Okrent highlights the emotional frailties that coexisted with the brilliance and generosity.He se...