He followed with another collaboration, with composer Jule Styne: 'Gypsy,' starring Ethel Merman. Sondheim's lyrics for such songs as 'Something's Coming,' 'Maria,' 'Tonight,' 'America,' 'Cool' and 'I Feel Pretty' were sharp, pungent and вЂ“ combined with Bernstein's vibrant music вЂ“ timeless. He'd contributed one song to the 1956 play 'Girls of Summer' before he began collaborating with composer Leonard Bernstein on 'West Side Story,' an updated telling of 'Romeo & Juliet' via rival street gangs in Manhattan. Be true to yourself.'ДЄ graduate of Williams College in Massachusetts, Sondheim learned at the knee of Hammerstein, and from avant-garde composer Milton Babbitt, and he brought to his work a playful precision and a love of word games and puzzles that would color his output (including, in 1973, a screenplay for the twisting murder mystery, 'The Last of Sheila').

But he also took to heart Hammerstein's advice to his protГ©gГ©: 'Don't copy me. In 2002 Sondheim told 'Sunday Morning' correspondent Martha Teichner that if it hadn't been for Hammerstein, he probably would have become a mathematician.

The composer and/or lyricist of some of Broadway's most revolutionary and artistically challenging musicals, Stephen Sondheim (March 22, 1930-November 26, 2021) is credited with helping to reinvent musical theater вЂ“ a giant of the stage whose distinctive artistic temperament would give life to such shows as 'West Side Story,' 'Gypsy,' 'Company,' 'Follies,' 'A Little Night Music,' 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,' 'Sunday in the Park With George,' and 'Into the Woods.'ДЄs a youngster, Sondheim and his family were friends with Broadway titan Oscar Hammerstein, who became a father figure and mentor to Stephen. The Associated Press contributed to this gallery. В© Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/via Getty ImagesДЄ look back at the esteemed personalities who left us this year, who'd touched us with their innovation, creativity and humanity.Д«y senior producer David Morgan.

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