Stephen Sondheim interviewed by James Lipton in 1994 at The Actor's Studio 

"There is Stephen Sondheim ... and the rest of musical theater." He remains irreplaceable.

I'm not even into musicals and I could listen to this guy all day, he's brilliant!

ZT"l Stephen - you're music inspired and mesmerized me. You're music is your legacy and will never be forgotten.

When the singers turned to him to sing “give us more to see”….that was very touching.

Thank you, Greenleaf Productions. In my grief, I come back to this interview. How wonderful it is to see Mr. Sondheim so engaging and spirited, so energetic, so alive and well. We are forever saddened by losing him but so fortunate for he has given us so much joy by sharing his genius with us. We love you, Mr. Sondheim. Rest in peace!

Sondheim's long time accompanist, Paul Ford, at the piano.

I always love how he looks at the singers while they are performing. He looks like the proudest papa.

George Plympton enthralled in the audience.

Even after all the decades, I never cease to be amazed at his brilliance. I miss you, Steve.

He creates with Majesty. Like reading a good book. Student of the great masters of popular song, Kids of eastern European parents . you can hear echos of the shtetl. Magnificent humanity.

I enjoy all Sondheim interviews, but this one is my favorite, by far.

While writing his songs for characters (hence the difficulty of lifting many or works out of their shows to sing as isolated singles ) Sondheim also wrote his songs for actors, taking Hammerstein's 'three act' structure into a realm of his own. "The Ladies Who Lunch', 'Could I Leave You?" ''Being Alive', "Getting Married Today'"I Remember', "I'm Still Here', "The Miller's Son' among several others, are all, essentially what Sondheim would, in his own words, describe as 'list songs': textually they don't evolve, they 'merely' describe or list things, but TEXTURALLY - in the hands of the talented actor/singer, they build to an incredible pitch: Joanne's drunken bitterness, Phyllis' seething anger, Bobby's baffled acceptance, Amy's hysterical unravelling, Ella's plaintive recollection of the outer world [an under celebrated lyric: note how everything she recalls is filtered through similes and metaphors of things you can find in a department store] Carlotta's kick-ass anthem to survival, Petra's lusty ambition (and philosophical treatise) to joyously f- her way to the top...these are great, great gifts to an actor who must infuse these qualities into the words.

Thank your ❤️ Steven!

Enjoy this interview. There are 5 or 6 people born with this talent every 50 years. In the entire world

Thank you for sharing this.

Saw it when he was on and thank you so much, now I can watch it again and again

Little night music=masterpiece

Thank you - I’ve been looking for this!

priceless.

Thanks for posting. It is quite interesting. It opens up your mind on things you may not have been aware of. Nice to know these things.

Great to see Plimpton in the audience.

Thank you

Muchas Gracias por tanto bien compartido

This is from 1994.

Is there some reason that we couldn't have seen this interview from the beginning?

Why is the picture RU-vid has up for this video of James Lapine and not Sondheim? Just curious.

Wrong mics! Damn🎉

I’ve never liked Liz singing Sondheim’s music. Her voice has no weight or maturity to me.