Stephen Sondheim

Credit: Rex Features

In a fitting finale to a year of celebrations to mark his 80th birthday, this year's Olivier Special Award, given for outstanding contribution to theatre, celebrates the legendary American musical theatre composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim.

Sondheim is rightly revered as a unique talent whose work has shaped musical theatre on both sides of the Atlantic, straddling the world’s two great theatre capitals of London and New York.

Born in New York in 1930, the young Sondheim found a mentor in Oscar Hammerstein II, the composer of Show Boat and Carousel, who encouraged him to write and became a great influence on his later work.

After studying in Massachusetts, Sondheim's first composition as a professional was 1954's Saturday Night. Though the musical didn't make it to the stage until 1997, it brought Sondheim to the attention of Leonard Bernstein. Following his big break, aged 27, writing the lyrics for Bernstein's West Side Story, which opened at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1958, Sondheim's cross-fertilisation of the Old World and the New, musicianship, ingenious, often dark, lyrics, wit and imagination have become the hallmarks of an illustrious résumé. His 14 original musicals include A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, Into The Woods (nominated for two 2011 Olivier Awards), Anyone Can Whistle, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday In The Park With George and Passion.

He has collected numerous awards, including the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Sunday In The Park With George and six Best Score Tony Awards, while his composition Sooner Or Later for the film Dick Tracy earned him an Academy Award for Best Song in 1999.

Sondheim's intellectual, sophisticated, unsentimental lyrics, challenged audiences raised on a diet of more saccharine musical fare and his work has inspired performers and directors all over the world. In particular, London's love affair with the composer has produced several acclaimed productions in the last few years, including Into The Woods, Sunday In The Park With George and A Little Night Music. Aptly, London’s Donmar Warehouse recently celebrated the composer's 80th birthday with a season dedicated to his work.

Jamie Lloyd, director of the Donmar's production of Passion, said: "Once upon a time someone knew who Beethoven was, or Mozart walked down the street. They've now become names, identities, massive icons of culture. One day Sondheim will be just that.”

Over fifty year's after his first success on the West End stage, The Society of London Theatre is delighted to honour this monumental figure in musical theatre history on one of the West End's most historic stages.