Page "Stephen Sondheim" Paragraph 30

Sondheim collaborated with producer / director Harold Prince on six musicals between 1970 and 1981.

Company ( 1970 ) centered on a set of characters and themes rather than a straightforward plot.

Follies ( 1971 ) was similarly structured, filled with pastiche songs echoing styles of earlier composers.

A Little Night Music ( 1973 ), a more traditionally plotted show based on the film Smiles of a Summer Night by Ingmar Bergman, was one of his greatest successes.

Time magazine called it " Sondheim's most brilliant accomplishment to date.

" Notably, the score was mostly composed in waltz time ( either ¾ time, or multiples thereof.

) Further success was accorded to A Little Night Music when " Send in the Clowns " became a hit single for Judy Collins.

Although it was Sondheim's only Top 40 hit, his songs are frequently performed and recorded by cabaret artists and theatre singers in their solo careers.