NYC’s Paley Center for Media to Present Celebrating Sondheim at 80 Screenings

The Paley Center for Media in New York is present Celebrating Sondheim at 80, a series of three screening packages put together in honor of Stephen Sondheim’s 80th birthday.

From March 19-21, the package includes the song “The Two of You,” written in 1952 for the children’s program Kukla, Fran & Ollie; a London Weekend Television Theatreland segment on the 1997 Bridewell Theatre production of Sondheim’s musical Saturday Night; an episode of Topper (CBS, 1954) and Rendezvous: “In An Early Winter” (NBC, 1959), both written by Sondheim; and his only musical written expressly for television, Evening Primrose (ABC, 1966), starring Anthony Perkins and Charmian Carr.

From March 24-28, the Center will present A Conversation with Stephen Sondheim which was taped in March 2000, in honor of Stephen Sondheim’s 70th birthday. The evening begins with a 30-minute highlight tape of Sondheim’s work on television, after which Mr. Sondheim joins museum president Robert M. Batscha onstage to discuss his life and career. Among the topics covered are Sondheim’s relationship with his mentor Oscar Hammerstein II, his collaborations with various actors (including Bernadette Peters, Mandy Patinkin, Anthony Perkins, and Angela Lansbury) and directors Hal Prince and James Lapine on his musicals, his take on the London productions of his work versus the New York productions, his thoughts on opera, and the future of live theater.

Finally, from March 31-April 4, the package features Camera Three: Anatomy of a Song (CBS, 1976), in which Sondheim talks to host Frank Rich about the creative process — specifically the novel technique he devised to tell the story of the signing of a Japanese-American treaty in the song “Someone in a Tree” for the Broadway show Pacific Overtures; a 45-minute episode of Pebble Mill (BBC1, 1996) about the Royal National Theatre production of A Little Night Music starring Judi Dench; an excerpt from The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (NBC, 1973) that features D’Jamin Bartlett singing “The Miller’s Son”; and an excerpt from The Best of Broadway (PBS, 1982), in which Glynis Johns and Len Cariou perform “Send in the Clowns.”

Screenings are free with museum admission. For more information, call 212-621-6600 or visit www.paleycenter.org.