Side by Side by Sondheim

The Jewish Ensemble Theatre continues its dynamic 2005-2006 season with its third production, Side by Side by Sondheim by Stephen Sondheim. Harold Jurkiewicz directs.

Stephen Sondheim was born in 1930, the son of a successful New York dress maker who abandoned him and his mother when he was 10. After moving to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, he met Oscar Hammerstein II, who was working on the musical, Oklahoma, and took young Stephen under his wing, teaching him the process of a well written musical. His first major success arrived working on West Side Story, with Leonard Bernstein in 1957 and Gypsy, with Jule Styne in 1959. Side by Side by Sondheim is a musical revue, conceived and first produced in London, England in 1976 as a benefit for a local theatre. It features Stephen Sondheim favorites and classics such as “Comedy Tonight,” from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, “You Gotta Get A Gimmick,” from Gypsy, and selected songs from Follies.