Theater News

James Lapine Will Receive Signature Theatre's Stephen Sondheim Award

Lapine and Sondheim authored the musicals ”Sunday in the Park With George” and ”Into the Woods”.

Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine are the authors of the musicals Sunday in the Park With George, Into the Woods, and Passion.
Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine are the authors of the musicals Sunday in the Park With George, Into the Woods, and Passion.
(© David Gordon)

Tony and Pulitzer Prize winner James Lapine will receive the Signature Theatre's Stephen Sondheim Award, presented at a ceremony at the Embassy of Italy on March 30, 2015. The Sondheim Award Gala benefits the Virginia-based theater's artistic, education, and community programs.

"With the opening of Sunday in the Park With George in our 25th Anniversary season and the upcoming film of Into the Woods, it is more than fitting that we honor James Lapine with this year's Stephen Sondheim Award," Signature Theatre Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer said in a statement. Sondheim added, "James has been my good friend and collaborator over the course of thirty-two years, and it’s about time I thanked him ostentatiously."

Lapine's collaboration with Sondheim began in 1984 when they penned Sunday in the Park With George, and continued with Into the Woods in 1987 and Passion in 1994. Along with writing the book, Lapine also directed all three productions, which were subsequently taped for television broadcast and home video release. Lapine created the 2010 revue Sondheim on Sondheim, as well as coproduced and directed the Emmy-nominated HBO documentary Six by Sondheim.

The Stephen Sondheim Award was created in 2010 to recognize the importance of Sondheim's work to Signature and to theater in general. Past recipients include Sondheim musical veterans Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone, director Harold Prince, and orchestrator Jonathan Tunick.