Late Composer Stephen Sondheim Went To School In Middletown

Famed composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, who died last week at 91, attended high school in Middletown Township.

Sondheim, the son of well-to-do parents from New York City, graduated from the prestigious George School that is located on a large campus along Langhorne-Newtown Road in 1946.

Here’s how the school described his time on campus:

Eight Tony awards, an equal number of Grammys, an Oscar, a Pulitzer Prize, a Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom. The list of honors garnered by musical theater legend Stephen Sondheim is almost as long as the list of works for which he has written the score and/or lyrics. These include, but are far from limited to, West Side Story, Gypsy, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Side by SIde by Sondheim, Into the Woods, and Sweeney Todd.
Add to these accolades the George School Alumni Award in 1996. As Head of School David Bourns says at the Alumni Day award presentation, “At the 1993 celebration at the Kennedy Center, it was said of Stephen Sondheim that it is now impossible to imagine the theater without the great American invention, the musical. It is equally impossible to imagine the musical without the contributions of Stephen Sondheim.”
Though Stephen’s professional star ascends in the 1950s, when he writes the lyrics for West Side Story, the overture to his illustrious career actually dates to his time at George School. Here he pens a comic musical, By George, which is well received by his fellow students. Oscar Hammerstein, whose son James is a friend and fellow GS student, is a mentor.

The George School campus in Middletown Township.
Credit: Google Maps

Before attending the George School, Sondheim moved to Doylestown Township where he lived with his mother. He spent time at the nearby estate of composer Oscar Hammerstein and befriended his son James Hammerstein, who also graduated from the George School and was an acclaimed theater director.

Sondheim received the Presidential Metal of Freedom in 2015 from President Barack Obama at the White House.

“Stephen’s music is so beautiful, his lyrics so precise, that even as he exposes the imperfections of everyday life, he transcends them. We transcend them. Put simply, Stephen reinvented the American musical,” Obama said at the ceremony.