“The Two of You”: Early Sondheim
Sunday marks the 96th anniversary of the birth of American composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021). In 1952, long before musicals such as West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, and Into the Woods brought him fame, the 22-year-old Sondheim submitted a song to Kukla, Fran and Ollie, a popular television show involving puppets. Broadcast from Chicago between 1947 and 1957, the show was created for children, but it gained an even larger adult audience. …