124-703: Felsted School is a co-educational independent boarding and day school, situated in Felsted in Essex, England. It is in the British public school tradition, and was founded in 1564 by Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich . Felsted is one of the 12 founder members of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference , and a full member of the Round Square Conference of world schools. Felsted School
248-486: A leading tone is, you think, Oh my God. What a diatonic scale is—Oh my God! The logic of it. And, of course, what that meant to me was: Well, I can do that. Because you just don't know. You think it's a talent, you think you're born with this thing. What I've found out and what I believed is that everybody is talented. It's just that some people get it developed and some don't. The composer told Meryle Secrest: "I just wanted to study composition, theory, and harmony without
372-433: A Person Crazy", "Another Hundred People", " Getting Married Today ", "Side by Side", " The Ladies Who Lunch ", and " Being Alive ". Walter Kerr of The New York Times praised the production, the performances, and the score, writing, "Sondheim has never written a more sophisticated, more pertinent, or—this is the surprising thing in the circumstances—more melodious score". Documentary filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker captured
496-433: A baby!" Burt Shevelove invited Sondheim to a party where Sondheim arrived before him but knew no one else well. He saw a familiar face, Arthur Laurents , who had seen one of the auditions of Saturday Night , and they began talking. Laurents told him he was working on a musical version of Romeo and Juliet with Leonard Bernstein , but they needed a lyricist; Betty Comden and Adolph Green , who were supposed to write
620-650: A book by John Weidman . The show explored, in revue form, a group of historical figures who tried (with varying success) to assassinate the President of the United States. The musical closed on February 16, 1991, after 73 performances. The Los Angeles Times reported the show "has been sold out since previews began, reflecting the strong appeal of Sondheim's work among the theater crowd." In his review for The New York Times , Frank Rich wrote, " Assassins will have to fire with sharper aim and fewer blanks if it
744-431: A chance to work with very gifted professionals on a show that sounds interesting, and you could always write your own music eventually. My advice would be to take the job." West Side Story , directed by Jerome Robbins , opened in 1957 and ran for 732 performances. Sondheim expressed dissatisfaction with his lyrics, saying they did not always fit the characters and were sometimes too consciously poetic. Initially Bernstein
868-505: A class with boys, but other research suggests that when the previous attainment is taken into account, that difference falls away. According to advocates of coeducation, without classmates of the opposite sex, students have social issues that may impact adolescent development. They argue that the absence of the opposite sex creates an unrealistic environment not duplicated in the real world. Some studies show that in classes that are separated by gender, male and female students work and learn on
992-1083: A day pupil to £37,485 per year for full boarding. Felsted is one of the 12 founder members of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference , and a member of the Round Square Conference of world schools. Felsted School is featured in the Good Schools Guide and is regularly featured in Tatler's Schools Guide. Felsted School was shortlisted for 'Boarding School of the Year' 2020 by the Times Education Supplement (TES). Girls' boarding houses are Stocks' Follyfield (referred to as 'Follies') Garnetts and Thorne Boys' boarding houses are Elywn's Gepp's Deacon's and Windsor's. There are two day houses, Manor and Montgomery's. (referred to as 'Monts') Co-educational Mixed-sex education , also known as mixed-gender education , co-education , or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed ),
1116-432: A doorman said he had gotten into a limousine to go to John F. Kennedy International Airport . Bernstein burst into tears and said, "It's over". Sondheim later said of this experience: "I was ashamed of the whole project. It was arch and didactic in the worst way." He wrote one and a half songs and threw them away, the only time he ever did that. Eighteen years later, Sondheim refused Bernstein's and Robbins's request to retry
1240-457: A memory. Good God!—[an] adult musical!" The production earned 12 Tony Award nominations and won 6 awards, including Best Musical and Best Original Score . " Send in the Clowns ", a song from the musical, was a hit for Judy Collins and became Sondheim's best-known song. It has since been covered by Frank Sinatra , Barbra Streisand , and Judi Dench . The production was adapted to screen in
1364-476: A mixed-sex secondary school. Its first enrollment class consisted of 78 male and 36 female students. Among the latter was Rebecca Gratz who would become an educator and philanthropist. However, the school soon began having financial problems and it reopened as an all-male institution. Westford Academy in Westford, Massachusetts has operated as mixed-sex secondary school since its founding in 1792, making it
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#17327761756441488-499: A mock- Kabuki style. The show closed after a run of 193 performances, and was revived on Broadway in 2004. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), with a score by Sondheim and a book by Hugh Wheeler , is based on Christopher Bond 's 1973 stage play derived from the Victorian original. The original production starred Angela Lansbury , Len Cariou , Victor Garber , and Edmund Lyndeck . Popular songs from
1612-546: A more important aspect of civilization. Efforts of the ancient Greek and Chinese societies focused primarily on the education of males. In ancient Rome, the availability of education was gradually extended to women, but they were taught separately from men. The early Christians and medieval Europeans continued this trend, and single-sex schools for the privileged classes prevailed through the Reformation period. The early periods of this century included many religious schools and
1736-539: A mortar and 109 rifles . Their van was stopped by a police patrol and Cathal Goulding , Sean Stephenson, later known as Seán Mac Stíofáin and Manus Canning each received 8 years in prison. Major building works took place for the 400th anniversary celebrations in 1964, when the Queen Mother laid the foundation stone for the then new Music School, subsequently opened by Felsted governor Lord Butler of Saffron Walden , (formerly Rab Butler ). In 2008 this building
1860-747: A musical comedy based on the lives of colorful businessmen Addison and Wilson Mizner . A Broadway production starring Nathan Lane and Victor Garber , directed by Sam Mendes , and planned for spring 2000, was delayed. Renamed Bounce in 2003, the show premiered at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in a production directed by Harold Prince, his first collaboration with Sondheim since 1981. Poor reviews prevented Bounce from reaching Broadway, but
1984-514: A musical version of The Exception and the Rule ; according to Robbins, Bernstein would not work without Sondheim. When Sondheim agreed, Guare asked: "Why haven't you all worked together since West Side Story ?" Sondheim answered, "You'll see". Guare said that working with Sondheim was like being with an old college roommate, and he depended on him to "decode and decipher their crazy way of working"; Bernstein worked only after midnight, and Robbins only in
2108-430: A musical. He then decided to work only when he could write both music and lyrics. Sondheim asked author and playwright James Goldman to join him as bookwriter for a new musical inspired by a gathering of former Ziegfeld Follies showgirls: initially titled The Girls Upstairs , it became Follies . In 1966, Sondheim semi-anonymously provided lyrics for " The Boy From... ", a parody of " The Girl from Ipanema " in
2232-963: A need for advanced education for women at a time when they were not admitted to most institutions of higher education." Notable examples include the Seven Sisters colleges, of which Vassar College is now coeducational and Radcliffe College has merged with Harvard University . Other notable women's colleges that have become coeducational include Wheaton College in Massachusetts, Ohio Wesleyan Female College in Ohio , Skidmore College , Wells College , and Sarah Lawrence College in New York state, Pitzer College in California, Goucher College in Maryland and Connecticut College . By 1900
2356-463: A nine-performance bomb (although it introduced Angela Lansbury to musical theater). Do I Hear a Waltz? , based on Laurents's 1952 play The Time of the Cuckoo , was intended as another Rodgers and Hammerstein musical with Mary Martin in the lead. A new lyricist was needed, and Laurents and Rodgers's daughter, Mary , asked Sondheim to fill in. Although Richard Rodgers and Sondheim agreed that
2480-550: A positive impact of single-sex schooling on education achievement [...] but others finding average null effects"; they concluded that after controlling for "individual, parental and school-level factors [...] on average, there is no significant difference in performance for girls or boys who attend single-sex schools compared to their mixed-school peers in science, mathematics or reading." Stephen Sondheim Stephen Joshua Sondheim ( / ˈ s ɒ n d h aɪ m / ; March 22, 1930 – November 26, 2021)
2604-537: A private Quaker preparatory school in Bucks County, Pennsylvania , where he wrote his first musical, By George , in 1946. From 1946 to 1950, Sondheim attended Williams College . He graduated magna cum laude and received the Hubbard Hutchinson Prize, a two-year fellowship to study music. Sondheim traced his interest in theater to Very Warm for May , a Broadway musical he saw when he
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#17327761756442728-715: A production of Stephen Sondheim 's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women . The audience consisted of life prisoners and received international news coverage. The success of this venture led to three further productions in the Correctional Facility: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (2010), The Secret Garden (2012) and Cabaret (2014). In July 2012 part of
2852-601: A revised version opened off-Broadway as Road Show at the Public Theater on October 28, 2008. Directed by John Doyle , it closed December 28, 2008. The production won the 2009 Obie Award for Music and Lyrics and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics. Asked about writing new work, Sondheim replied in 2006: "No ... It's age. It's a diminution of energy and the worry that there are no new ideas. It's also an increasing lack of confidence. I'm not
2976-671: A show" and found a new collaborator in James Lapine after he saw Lapine's Twelve Dreams off-Broadway in 1981: "I was discouraged, and I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't discovered Twelve Dreams at the Public Theatre "; Lapine has a taste "for the avant-garde and for visually oriented theater in particular". Their first collaboration was Sunday in the Park with George (1984), with Sondheim's music evoking Georges Seurat 's pointillism . Sondheim and Lapine won
3100-399: A single-sex setting could be less prepared, nervous, or uneasy. However, some argue that at certain ages, students may be more distracted by the opposite sex in a coeducational setting, but others point to this being based on an assumption that all students are heterosexual. There is evidence that girls may perform less well in traditionally male-dominated subjects such as the sciences when in
3224-826: A trend towards increased coeducational schooling with new coeducational schools opening, few new single-sex schools opening and existing single-sex schools combining or opening their doors to the opposite gender. The first mixed-sex institution of higher learning in China was the Nanjing Higher Normal Institute , which was renamed National Central University and Nanjing University . For millennia in China, public schools, especially public higher learning schools, were for men. Generally, only schools established by zōng zú (宗族, gens) were for both male and female students. Some schools, such as Li Zhi 's school during
3348-561: A variety of composers (especially Jerome Kern ). Sondheim told Secrest that Kern had the ability "to develop a single motif through tiny variations into a long and never boring line and his maximum development of the minimum of material". He said of Babbitt, "I am his maverick, his one student who went into the popular arts with all his serious artillery". At Williams, Sondheim wrote a musical adaption of Beggar on Horseback (a 1924 play by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly , with Kaufman's permission) that had three performances. A member of
3472-491: A wedding, and Ayers commissioned Sondheim for three songs for the show; Julius Epstein flew in from California and hired Sondheim, who worked with him in California for four or five months. After eight auditions for backers, half the money needed was raised. The show, retitled Saturday Night , was intended to open during the 1954–55 Broadway season, but Ayers died of leukemia in his early forties. The production rights transferred to his widow, Shirley, and due to her inexperience
3596-531: A week in New York City for four hours. (At the time, Babbitt was teaching at Princeton University .) According to Sondheim, they spent the first hour dissecting Rodgers and Hart or George Gershwin or studying Babbitt's favorites ( Buddy DeSylva , Lew Brown , and Ray Henderson ). They then proceeded to other forms of music (such as Mozart 's Jupiter Symphony ), critiquing them the same way. Fascinated by mathematics, Babbitt and Sondheim studied songs by
3720-541: A young age, and he was mentored by Oscar Hammerstein II . He began his career by writing the lyrics for West Side Story (1957) and Gypsy (1959). He transitioned to writing both music and lyrics for the theater, with his best-known works including A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sunday in
3844-671: Is a hugely amusing recitation of the attributes given by the different professions—priest, lawyer, and so on—to the pies they contribute to. At other times the lyrics have a black, piercing poetry to them." Lansbury's performance was captured alongside George Hearn in the Los Angeles production, which was filmed and shown on PBS as part of Masterpiece Theatre . It later earned five Primetime Emmy Award nominations. It has been revived on Broadway in 1989, 2005, and 2023. The 2023 production starred Josh Groban , Annaleigh Ashford , Jordan Fisher , and Gaten Matarazzo . A film adaptation
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3968-422: Is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to the 19th century, mixed-sex education has since become standard in many cultures, particularly in western countries. Single-sex education remains prevalent in many Muslim countries. The relative merits of both systems have been the subject of debate. The world's oldest co-educational school
4092-423: Is featured in the Good Schools Guide and is regularly featured in Tatler's Schools Guide. Felsted School was shortlisted for 'Boarding School of the Year' 2020 by the Times Education Supplement (TES). Felsted is notable for having educated a British head of state, Richard Cromwell . Felsted was founded in 1564 by Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich (also known as Riche) who, as Lord Chancellor and Chancellor of
4216-460: Is nothing ordinary about the music." Sondheim later said: "Did I feel betrayed? I'm not sure I would put it like that. What did surprise me was the feeling around the Broadway community—if you can call it that, though I guess I will for lack of a better word—that they wanted Hal and me to fail." Sondheim and Furth continued to revise the show in subsequent years. An acclaimed feature documentary on
4340-474: Is one of the many Muslim countries where most schools and colleges are single-gender although some schools and colleges, and most universities are coeducational. In schools that offer O levels and A levels, co-education is quite prevalent. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, most universities were coeducational but the proportion of women was less than 5%. After the Islamization policies in
4464-399: Is that she wanted to stand there in her bare feet, suffering for her art". After Do I Hear a Waltz? , Sondheim devoted himself solely to writing both music and lyrics for the theater—and in 1970, he began a collaboration with director Harold Prince resulting in a body of work that is considered one of the high water marks of musical theater history, with critic Howard Kissel writing that
4588-549: Is thought to be Archbishop Tenison's Church of England High School, Croydon , established in 1714 in the United Kingdom , which admitted boys and girls from its opening onwards. This has always been a day school only. The world's oldest co-educational both day and boarding school is Dollar Academy , a junior and senior school for males and females from ages 5 to 18 in Scotland , United Kingdom. From its opening in 1818,
4712-419: Is to shoot to kill." Assassins was eventually staged on Broadway in 2004. Saturday Night was shelved until its 1997 production at London's Bridewell Theatre . The next year, its score was recorded; a revised version, with two new songs, ran off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre in 2000 and at London's Jermyn Street Theatre in 2009. Sondheim and Weidman reunited during the late 1990s for Wise Guys ,
4836-403: Is used to refer to a mixed school. The word is also often used to describe a situation in which both sexes are integrated in any form (e.g., "The team is coed"). Less common in the 21st century is the noun use of word "coed", which traditionally referred to a female student in a mixed gender school. The noun use is considered by many to be sexist and unprofessional, the argument being that applying
4960-597: The Ziegfeld Follies , that played in that theater between the world wars). The production also featured choreography and co-direction by Michael Bennett , who later created A Chorus Line . The original production starred Dorothy Collins , John McMartin , Alexis Smith , and Gene Nelson . It included the songs " I'm Still Here ", " Could I Leave You? ", and " Losing My Mind ". The production earned 11 Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical. It won 7 Tony Awards, including Best Original Score . The show
5084-408: The 1977 film of the same name starring Elizabeth Taylor , Dianna Rigg , Len Cariou , and Hermione Gingold . It was revived on Broadway in 2009 in a production starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury . Pacific Overtures (1976), with a book by John Weidman , was one of Sondheim's most unconventional efforts: it explored the westernization of Japan, and was originally presented in
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5208-530: The American Revolution supplanted church institutions, were almost always coeducational, and by 1900 most public high schools were coeducational as well. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, coeducation grew much more widely accepted. In Great Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union, the education of girls and boys in the same classes became an approved practice. In Australia, there is
5332-842: The Beta Theta Pi fraternity, he graduated magna cum laude in 1950. "A few painful years of struggle" followed, when Sondheim auditioned songs, lived in his father's dining room to save money, and spent time in Hollywood writing for the television series Topper . He devoured 1940s and 1950s films, and called cinema his "basic language"; his film knowledge got him through The $ 64,000 Question contestant tryouts. Sondheim disliked movie musicals, favoring classic dramas such as Citizen Kane , The Grapes of Wrath , and A Matter of Life and Death : "Studio directors like Michael Curtiz and Raoul Walsh ... were heroes of mine. They went from movie to movie to movie, and every third movie
5456-762: The Court of Augmentations , acquired considerable wealth from the spoils of the Dissolution of the Monasteries including the nearby Leez Priory where he lived. The school became a notable educational centre for Puritan families in the 17th century, numbering a hundred or more pupils, under Martin Holbeach, Headmaster from 1627 to 1649, and his successors (see below). John Wallis and Isaac Barrow were educated at Felsted in this period, as were four of Oliver Cromwell 's sons. Another era of prosperity set in under
5580-668: The Hui and Salars , find coeducation to be controversial, owing to Islamic ideas on gender roles. On the other hand, the Muslim Uyghurs have not historically objected to coeducation. Admission to the Sorbonne was opened to girls in 1860. The baccalauréat became gender-blind in 1924, giving equal chances to all girls in applying to any universities. Mixed-sex education became mandatory for primary schools in 1957 and for all universities in 1975. St. Paul's Co-educational College
5704-484: The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra conducted by David Loud . In Playbill , Steven Suskin called the concert "neither a new musical, a revival, nor a standard songbook revue; it is, rather, a staged-and-sung chamber jazz rendition of a string of songs ... Half of the songs come from Company and Follies ; most of the other Sondheim musicals are represented, including the lesser-known Passion and Road Show ". For
5828-614: The Ming dynasty and Yuan Mei 's school during the Qing Dynasty , enrolled both male and female students. In the 1910s, women's universities were established, such as Ginling Women's University and Peking Girls' Higher Normal School, but there was no coeducation in higher learning schools. Tao Xingzhi , the Chinese advocator of mixed-sex education, proposed The Audit Law for Women Students (規定女子旁聽法案, Guī Dìng Nǚ Zi Páng Tīng Fǎ Àn) at
5952-479: The Shubert Theatre on February 25, 1973, and ran for 601 performances and 12 previews. Clive Barnes of The New York Times wrote, " A Little Night Music is soft on the ears, easy on the eyes, and pleasant on the mind. It is less than brash, but more than brassy, and it should give a lot of pleasure. It is the remembrance of a few things past, and all to the sound of a waltz and the understanding smile of
6076-840: The Upper West Side of Manhattan and, after his parents divorced, on a farm near Doylestown, Pennsylvania . The only child of affluent parents living in the San Remo at 145 Central Park West , he was described in Meryle Secrest 's biography Stephen Sondheim: A Life as an isolated, emotionally neglected child. When he lived in New York City, Sondheim attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School . He spent several summers at Camp Androscoggin . His mother sent him to New York Military Academy in 1940. From 1942 to 1947, he attended George School ,
6200-446: The anthology series ABC Stage 67 and produced by Hubbell Robinson , it was broadcast on November 16, 1966. According to Sondheim and director Paul Bogart , the musical was written only because Goldman needed money for rent. The network disliked the title and Sondheim's alternative, A Little Night Music . After Sondheim finished Evening Primrose , Jerome Robbins asked him to adapt Bertolt Brecht 's The Measures Taken despite
6324-602: The 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play, and it was revived on Broadway in 2008, and again in a limited run in 2017. They collaborated on Into the Woods (1987), a musical based on several Brothers Grimm fairy tales . Although Sondheim has been called the first composer to bring rap music to Broadway (with the Witch in the opening number of Into the Woods ), he attributed the first rap in theater to Meredith Willson 's "Rock Island" from The Music Man (1957). Into
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#17327761756446448-480: The 19th century. The world's oldest co-educational school is thought to be Archbishop Tenison's Church of England High School, Croydon , established in 1714 in the United Kingdom, which admitted 10 boys and 10 girls from its opening, and remained co-educational thereafter. This is a day school only and still in existence. The Scottish Dollar Academy was the first mixed-sex both day and boarding school in
6572-693: The Bible. The practice became very popular in northern England, Scotland, and colonial New England, where young children, both male and female, attended dame schools . In the late 18th century, girls gradually were admitted to town schools. The Society of Friends in England, as well as in the United States, pioneered coeducation as they did universal education, and in Quaker settlements in the British colonies, boys and girls commonly attended school together. The new free public elementary, or common schools , which after
6696-485: The Briton Frederic Harrison said after visiting the United States that "The whole educational machinery of America ... open to women must be at least twentyfold greater than with us, and it is rapidly advancing to meet that of men both in numbers and quality". Where most of the history of coeducation in this period is a list of those moving toward the accommodation of both men and women at one campus,
6820-788: The HBO feature-length documentary Six by Sondheim , which he executive produced with former New York Times theater critic Frank Rich , a longtime champion of Sondheim's work. Sondheim himself acts and sings in the documentary as Joe, the cynical theater producer in the song "Opening Doors". Sondheim collaborated with Wynton Marsalis on A Bed and a Chair: A New York Love Affair , an Encores! concert on November 13–17, 2013, at New York City Center . Directed by John Doyle with choreography by Parker Esse, it consisted of "more than two dozen Sondheim compositions, each piece newly reimagined by Marsalis". The concert featured Bernadette Peters , Jeremy Jordan , Norm Lewis , Cyrille Aimée , four dancers, and
6944-712: The Park with George (1984), and Into the Woods (1987). Sondheim's numerous awards and nominations include eight Tony Awards , an Academy Award , eight Grammy Awards , an Olivier Award , and the Pulitzer Prize . He also was awarded the Kennedy Center Honor in 1993 and a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. A theater is named after him both on Broadway and in the West End of London . Film adaptations of his works include West Side Story (1961), Gypsy (1962), A Funny Thing Happened on
7068-627: The UK. Founded in 1818, it is the oldest both boarding and day mixed-sex educational institution in the world still in existence. In England, the first non-Quaker mixed-sex public boarding school was Bedales School , founded in 1893 by John Haden Badley and becoming mixed in 1898. Ruckleigh School in Solihull was founded by Cathleen Cartland in 1909 as a non-denominational co-educational preparatory school many decades before others followed. Many previously single-sex schools have begun to accept both sexes in
7192-589: The United States were single-sex. Examples include Collegiate School , a boys' school operating in New York by 1638 (which remains a single-sex institution); and Boston Latin School , founded in 1635 (which did not become coeducational until 1972). Nonetheless, mixed-sex education existed at the lower levels in the U.S. long before it extended to colleges. For example, in 1787, the predecessor to Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania , opened as
7316-579: The Way to the Forum (1966), A Little Night Music (1977), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Into the Woods (2014), and West Side Story (2021). Sondheim was born on March 22, 1930, into a Jewish family in New York City, the son of Etta Janet ("Foxy"; née Fox; 1897–1992) and Herbert Sondheim (1895–1966). His paternal grandparents, Isaac and Rosa, were German Jews , and his maternal grandparents, Joseph and Bessie, were Lithuanian Jews from Vilnius . His father manufactured dresses designed by his mother. The composer grew up on
7440-493: The Woods was revived on Broadway in 2002 and at the St. James Theatre in 2022. Sondheim's and Lapine's last collaboration on a musical was the rhapsodic Passion (1994), adapted from Ettore Scola 's Italian film Passione D'Amore . With a run of 280 performances, Passion was the shortest-running show to win a Tony Award for Best Musical . Assassins opened off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons on December 18, 1990, with
7564-754: The actors to age in real time. An Off-Broadway revival starring Jonathan Groff , Daniel Radcliffe , and Lindsay Mendez ran from November 2022 to January 2023 at the New York Theatre Workshop ; it moved to Broadway in fall 2023. Merrily ' s failure greatly affected Sondheim; he was ready to quit theater and do movies, create video games or write mysteries: "I wanted to find something to satisfy myself that does not involve Broadway and dealing with all those people who hate me and hate Hal." After Merrily , Sondheim and Prince did not collaborate again until their 2003 production of Bounce . Sondheim decided "that there are better places to start
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#17327761756447688-437: The attendant musicology that comes in graduate school. But I knew I wanted to write for the theater, so I wanted someone who did not disdain theater music." Barrow suggested that Sondheim study with Milton Babbitt , whom Sondheim called "a frustrated show composer" with whom he formed "a perfect combination". When they met, Babbitt was working on a musical for Mary Martin based on the myth of Helen of Troy . The two met once
7812-461: The campus serving black students at the site of what is now Florida A&M University . Florida did not return to coeducation at UF and FSU until after World War II, prompted by the drastically increased demands placed on the higher education system by veterans studying via GI Bill programs following World War II. The Buckman arrangements officially ended with new legislation guidelines passed in 1947. Several early primary and secondary schools in
7936-480: The composer's general dislike of Brecht's work. Robbins wanted to adapt another Brecht play, The Exception and the Rule , and asked John Guare to adapt the book. Leonard Bernstein had not written for the stage in some time, and his contract as conductor of the New York Philharmonic was ending. Sondheim was invited to Robbins's house in the hope that Guare would convince him to write the lyrics for
8060-475: The country. However, for quite a while, women sometimes were treated rudely by their male classmates. The prejudice of some male professors proved more unsettling. Many professors disapproved of the admission of women into their classes, citing studies that claimed that women were mentally unsuited for higher education, and because most would "just get married", they were using resources that, they believed, male students would use better. Some professors simply ignored
8184-399: The credit. Sondheim later said he wished "someone stuffed a handkerchief in my mouth because it would have been nice to get that extra percentage". After West Side Story opened, Shevelove lamented the lack of "lowbrow comedy" on Broadway and mentioned a possible musical based on Plautus 's Roman comedies. Sondheim was interested in the idea and called a friend, Larry Gelbart , to co-write
8308-795: The duo had set "Broadway's highest standards". The first Sondheim show with Prince as director was 1970's Company . A show about a single man and his married friends, Company (with a book by George Furth ) lacked a straightforward plot, instead centering on themes such as marriage and the difficulty of making an emotional connection with another person. It opened on April 26, 1970, at the Alvin Theatre , running for 705 performances after seven previews, and won Tony Awards for Best Musical , Best Music, and Best Lyrics. The original cast included Dean Jones , Elaine Stritch , and Charles Kimbrough . Popular songs include " Company ", "The Little Things You Do Together", "Sorry-Grateful", "You Could Drive
8432-440: The early 1980s, the government established Women's colleges and Women's universities to promote education among women who were hesitant to study in mixed-sex environment. Today, however, most universities and a large number of schools in urban areas are co-educational. In the United Kingdom the official term is mixed , and today most schools are mixed. A number of Quaker co-educational boarding schools were established before
8556-407: The early morning. Bernstein's score, which was supposed to be light, was influenced by his need to make a musical statement. Stuart Ostrow , who worked with Sondheim on The Girls Upstairs , agreed to produce the musical, initially titled A Pray by Blecht , then The Race to Urga . An opening night was scheduled, but during auditions Robbins asked to be excused for a moment. When he did not return,
8680-665: The first coeducational public or state university in the United States in 1855, and for much of the next century, public universities, and land grant universities in particular, would lead the way in mixed-sex higher education. There were also many private coeducational universities founded in the 19th century, especially west of the Mississippi River. East of the Mississippi, Wheaton College (Illinois) graduated its first female student in 1862. Bates College in Maine
8804-728: The first major public schools in the country had been established for males and females. In the 16th century, at the Council of Trent , the Roman Catholic church reinforced the establishment of free elementary schools for children of all classes. The concept of universal elementary education, regardless of sex, had been created. After the Reformation, coeducation was introduced in Western Europe, when certain Protestant groups urged that boys and girls should be taught to read
8928-437: The first three women to graduate with bachelor's degrees did so in 1840. By the late 20th century, many institutions of higher learning that had been exclusively for men or women had become coeducational. In early civilizations, people were typically educated informally: primarily within the household. As time progressed, education became more structured and formal. Women often had very few rights when education started to become
9052-566: The headmastership of William Trivett between 1778 and 1794; but numbers dwindled under his successors . Thomas Surridge (headmaster 1835–1850) discovered from research among the records, that a larger income was really due to the foundation, a re-organisation took place by Act of Parliament , and in 1850, under the headmastership of the Rev. Albert Henry Wratislaw , the school was put under a new governing body (a revised scheme coming into operation in 1876). Thereafter, Felsted rapidly developed into one of
9176-630: The lack of strong Christian principles among the settlers of the American West. They decided to establish a college and a colony based on their religious beliefs, "where they would train teachers and other Christian leaders for the boundless most desolate fields in the West". Oberlin College and the surrounding community were dedicated to progressive causes and social justice. Though it did reluctantly what every other college refused to do at all, it
9300-439: The lyrics, were under contract in Hollywood. He said that although he was not a big fan of Sondheim's music, he enjoyed the lyrics from Saturday Night and he could audition for Bernstein. The next day, Sondheim met and played for Bernstein, who said he would let him know. Sondheim wanted to write music and lyrics; he consulted with Hammerstein, who said, as Sondheim related in a 2008 New York Times video interview, "Look, you have
9424-652: The main character was a woman, Bobbie, portrayed by Katrina Lenk ). The 2006 and 2021 productions won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical . Follies (1971), with a book by James Goldman , opened on April 4, 1971, at the Winter Garden Theatre and ran for 522 performances after 12 previews. The plot centers on a reunion, in a crumbling Broadway theater scheduled for demolition, of performers in Weismann's Follies (a musical revue, based on
9548-539: The making of the original cast recording shortly after the show opened on Broadway in his 1970 film Original Cast Album: Company . Stritch, Sondheim, and producer Thomas Z. Shepard are featured prominently. Company was revived on Broadway in 1995, 2006, and 2020/2021 (the last revival began previews in March 2020, but shut down before resuming in November 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic ; in this revival,
9672-484: The meeting of Nanjing Higher Normal School held on December seventh, 1919. He also proposed that the university recruit female students. The idea was supported by the president Kuo Ping-Wen , academic director Liu Boming , and such famous professors as Lu Zhiwei and Yang Xingfo, but opposed by many famous men of the time. The meeting passed the law and decided to recruit women students next year. Nanjing Higher Normal School enrolled eight Chinese female students in 1920. In
9796-474: The music and lyrics was A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum , which opened in 1962 and ran for 964 performances. The book , based on farces by Plautus , was by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart . The show won six Tony Awards (including Best Musical ) and had the longest Broadway run of any show for which Sondheim wrote both music and lyrics. Sondheim had participated in three straight hits, but his next show—1964's Anyone Can Whistle —was
9920-504: The music and lyrics, Merman refused to let another first-time composer write for her and demanded that Jule Styne write the music. Sondheim, concerned that writing lyrics again would pigeonhole him as a lyricist, called his mentor for advice. Hammerstein told him he should take the job, because writing a vehicle for a star would be a good learning experience. Sondheim agreed; Gypsy opened on May 21, 1959, and ran for 702 performances. The first Broadway production for which Sondheim wrote
10044-516: The musical include "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd", "The Worst Pies in London", "Pretty Women", "A Little Priest", " Not While I'm Around ", "By the Sea", and "Johanna". The production earned 9 Tony Award nominations and won 8 awards, including Best Musical , Best Original Score, Best Actress, and Best Actor. Richard Eder of The New York Times wrote: "Mr. Sondheim's lyrics can be endlessly inventive. There
10168-419: The off-Broadway revue The Mad Show . The song was credited to "Esteban Río Nido", Spanish for "Stephen River Nest", and in the show's playbill the lyrics were credited to " Nom De Plume ". That year Goldman and Sondheim hit a creative wall on The Girls Upstairs , and Goldman asked Sondheim about writing a TV musical. The result was Evening Primrose , with Anthony Perkins and Charmian Carr . Written for
10292-494: The oldest continuously operating coed school in America. The oldest continuously operating coed boarding school in the United States is Westtown School , founded in 1799. A minister and a missionary founded Oberlin in 1833. Rev. John Jay Shipherd (minister) and Philo P. Stewart (missionary) became friends while spending the summer of 1832 together in nearby Elyria . They discovered a mutual disenchantment with what they saw as
10416-601: The only one. I've checked with other people. People expect more of you and you're aware of it and you shouldn't be." In December 2007, he said that in addition to continuing work on Bounce , he was "nibbling at a couple of things with John Weidman and James Lapine". Lapine prepared the multimedia production iSondheim: aMusical Revue , which was scheduled to open in April 2009 at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta ; it
10540-407: The opening of South Pacific , Hammerstein's musical with Richard Rodgers . The comic musical Sondheim wrote at George School, By George , was a success among his peers and buoyed his self-esteem. When he asked Hammerstein to evaluate it as though he had no knowledge of its author, he said it was the worst thing he had ever seen: "But if you want to know why it's terrible, I'll tell you." They spent
10664-422: The original play did not lend itself to musicalization, they began writing a musical version. The project had many difficulties, including Rodgers's alcoholism. Sondheim later called it the one project he truly regretted writing, given that the reasons he wrote it—as a favor to Mary, as a favor to Hammerstein, as an opportunity to work again with Laurents, and as an opportunity to make money—were not reasons to write
10788-602: The past few decades: for example, Clifton College began to accept girls in 1987. The first higher-education institution in the United Kingdom to allow women and men to enter on equal terms, and hence be admitted to academic degrees, was the University of Bristol (then established as University College, Bristol ) in 1876. Given their dual role as both boarding house and educational establishment, individual colleges at Oxford and Cambridge remained segregated for much longer. The first Oxford college to house both men and women
10912-472: The preparatory department at Oberlin in 1833 and the college department in 1837. The first four women to receive bachelor's degrees in the United States earned them at Oberlin in 1841. Later, in 1862, the first black woman to receive a bachelor's degree ( Mary Jane Patterson ) also earned it from Oberlin College. Beginning in 1844, Hillsdale College became the next college to admit mixed-sex classes to four-year degree programs. The University of Iowa became
11036-436: The regular public schools of the modern English type, under the Rev. W. S. Grignon. New buildings were built on an elaborate scale, numbers increased to more than 200, and a complete transformation took place, which was continued under Grignon's successors, like Frank Stephenson, who ordered large extensions to the buildings and playing-fields. This allowed admittance up to 475 pupils, nearly all of whom were boarders. The school
11160-467: The request that it was "weird...it's like asking your father to inscribe something." Reading the inscription ("For Stevie, My Friend and Teacher") choked up the composer, who said, "That describes Oscar better than anything I could say." Sondheim began attending Williams College , a liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts , whose theater program attracted him. His first teacher there
11284-478: The rest of the day going over the musical, and Sondheim later said, "In that afternoon I learned more about songwriting and the musical theater than most people learn in a lifetime." Hammerstein designed a course of sorts for Sondheim on constructing a musical. He had the young composer write four musicals, each with one of the following conditions: None of the "assignment" musicals were produced professionally. High Tor and Mary Poppins have never been produced:
11408-409: The rights holder for the original High Tor refused permission (though a musical version by Arthur Schwartz was produced for television in 1956), and Mary Poppins was unfinished. Hammerstein's death Hammerstein died of stomach cancer on August 23, 1960, aged 65. Sondheim later recalled that Hammerstein had given him a portrait of himself. Sondheim asked him to inscribe it, and said later of
11532-557: The same level as their peers, the stereotypical mentality of the teacher is removed, and girls are likely to have more confidence in the classroom than they would in a coeducational class. In a 2022 study published in the British Educational Research Journal which examined the Irish educational system, the authors stated that the existing "empirical evidence is somewhat ambiguous, with some studies finding
11656-427: The same time,' women were considered to be the physical manifestations of the coeducation movement. While men were called students, women were called coeds. The message was that women . . . were not really students." Numerous professional organizations require that the gender-neutral term "student" be used instead of "coed" or, when gender is relevant to the context, that the term "female student" be substituted. If
11780-619: The same year Peking University also began to allow women students to audit classes. One of the most notable female students of that time was Chien-Shiung Wu . In 1949, the People's Republic of China was founded. The Chinese government pursued a policy of moving towards co-education and nearly all schools and universities have become mixed-sex. In recent years, some female or single-sex schools have again emerged for special vocational training needs, but equal rights for education still applies to all citizens. Indigenous Muslim populations in China,
11904-540: The school admitted both boys and girls of the parish of Dollar and the surrounding area. The school continues in existence to the present day with around 1,250 pupils. The first co-educational college to be founded was Oberlin Collegiate Institute in Oberlin, Ohio . It opened on 3 December 1833, with 44 students, including 29 men and 15 women. Fully equal status for women did not arrive until 1837, and
12028-555: The school was devastated by fire after a blaze broke out in the roof and first floor of Follyfield House, one of the girls' boarding houses. The school term had ended but about 25 students and staff from a summer school were on site and evacuated. Nobody was injured. The school reopened as normal in September, with a new, temporary house situated next to the Lord Riche Hall. Soon after, an all new state-of-the-art boarding house
12152-463: The script. The show went through a number of drafts, and was interrupted briefly by Sondheim's next project. In 1959, Laurents and Robbins approached Sondheim for a musical version of Gypsy Rose Lee 's memoir after Irving Berlin and Cole Porter turned it down. Sondheim agreed, but Ethel Merman – cast as Mama Rose – had just finished Happy Hunting with an unknown composer (Harold Karr) and lyricist (Matt Dubey). Although Sondheim wanted to write
12276-612: The sexes were educated together, we should have the healthy, moral and intellectual stimulus of sex ever quickening and refining all the faculties, without the undue excitement of senses that results from novelty in the present system of isolation. For years, a question many educators, parents, and researchers have been asking is whether it is academically beneficial to teach boys and girls together or separately at school. Some argue that coeducation has primarily social benefits by allowing males and females of all ages to become more prepared for real-world situations and that students familiar with
12400-501: The show and its aftermath, Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened , directed by Merrily cast member Lonny Price, and produced by Bruce David Klein , Kitt Lavoie, and Ted Schillinger, premiered at the New York Film Festival on November 18, 2016. A film adaptation of Merrily We Roll Along , directed by Richard Linklater , began production in 2019 and is planned to continue for the next two decades to allow
12524-402: The show did not continue as planned; it opened off-Broadway in 2000. Sondheim later said, "I don't have any emotional reaction to Saturday Night at all—except fondness. It's not bad stuff for a 23-year-old. There are some things that embarrass me so much in the lyrics—the missed accents, the obvious jokes. But I decided, leave it. It's my baby pictures. You don't touch up a baby picture—you're
12648-509: The show. Sondheim lived in a Turtle Bay, Manhattan brownstone from his writing of Gypsy in 1959. Ten years later, he heard a knock on the door. His neighbor, Katharine Hepburn , was in "bare feet—this angry, red-faced lady" and told him, "You have been keeping me awake all night!" (she was practicing for her musical debut in Coco ). "I remember asking Hepburn why she didn't just call me, but she claimed not to have my phone number. My guess
12772-462: The state of Florida was an exception. In 1905, the Buckman Act was one of consolidation in governance and funding but separation in race and gender, with Florida State College for Women (since 1947, Florida State University ) established to serve white females during this era, the campus that became what is now the University of Florida serving white males, and coeducation stipulated only for
12896-485: The term solely to women implies that "normal" education is exclusively male: technically both male and female students at a coeducational institution should be considered "coeds". Writing for the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development in 2017, author and educator Barbara Boroson described the noun use as "unfortunate", observing that "Although coeducation means 'the education of both sexes together at
13020-492: The women students. By the end of the 19th century 70% of American colleges were coeducational, although the state of Florida was a notable exception; the Buckman Act of 1905 imposed gender-separated white higher education at the University of Florida (men) and Florida State College for Women . (As there was only one state college for blacks, the future Florida A&M University , it admitted both men and women.) The white Florida campuses returned to coeducation in 1947, when
13144-484: The women's college became Florida State University and the University of Florida became coeducational. In the late 20th century, many institutions of higher learning that had been exclusively for people of one sex became coeducational. A number of Greek-letter student societies have either been established (locally or nationally) or expanded as co-ed fraternities. In American colloquial language, "coed" or "co-ed"
13268-433: Was Robert Barrow: everybody hated him because he was very dry, and I thought he was wonderful because he was very dry. And Barrow made me realize that all my romantic views of art were nonsense. I had always thought an angel came down and sat on your shoulder and whispered in your ear "dah-dah-dah-DUM." It never occurred to me that art was something worked out. And suddenly it was skies opening up. As soon as you find out what
13392-430: Was also credited as a co-writer of the lyrics, but he later offered Sondheim solo credit, as Sondheim had essentially done all of them. The New York Times review of the show did not mention the lyrics. Sondheim described the division of the royalties, saying that Bernstein received 3% and he received 1%. Bernstein suggested evening the percentage at 2% each, but Sondheim refused because he was satisfied with just getting
13516-632: Was an American composer and lyricist. Regarded as one of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theater , he is credited with reinventing the American musical. With his frequent collaborators Harold Prince and James Lapine , Sondheim's Broadway musicals tackled unexpected themes that ranged beyond the genre's traditional subjects, while addressing darker elements of the human experience. His music and lyrics are tinged with complexity, sophistication, and ambivalence about various aspects of life. Sondheim's interest in musical theater began at
13640-402: Was built in a different location, nearer to Gepp's & Deacon's houses, and opened as planned in September 2014. On 6 May 2014, the school was visited by reigning monarch Queen Elizabeth II to mark the 450th anniversary of Felsted School. She unveiled plaques for the visit as well as officially opening the newly constructed Follyfield House. Fees in 2020/2021 range from £24,495 per year for
13764-548: Was canceled due to "difficulties encountered by the commercial producers attached to the project ... in raising the necessary funds". Later revised as Sondheim on Sondheim , the revue was produced at Studio 54 by the Roundabout Theatre Company ; previews began on March 19, 2010, and ran from April 22 to June 13. The revue's cast included Barbara Cook , Vanessa L. Williams , Tom Wopat , Norm Lewis , and Leslie Kritzer . In 2013, Lapine directed
13888-643: Was evacuated to three Herefordshire houses near Ross-on-Wye during the Second World War at the owners invitation to be out of the way of German bombing. Most of the school was in Goodrich Court and Windsor's and Ingle's Houses occupied Hill Court Manor . On 25 July 1953 the school's Combined Cadet Force armoury was raided by the Irish Republican Army (1922–69) , making off with 8 Bren guns , 12 Sten guns , an anti-tank gun,
14012-496: Was good and every fifth movie was great. There wasn't any cultural pressure to make art". At age 22, Sondheim had finished the four shows Hammerstein requested. Screenwriters Julius and Philip Epstein 's Front Porch in Flatbush , unproduced at the time, was being shopped around by designer and producer Lemuel Ayers . Ayers approached Frank Loesser and another composer; both turned him down. Ayers and Sondheim met as ushers at
14136-428: Was made in 2007 directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp , Helena Bonham Carter , and Alan Rickman . Merrily We Roll Along (1981), with a book by George Furth , is one of Sondheim's most traditional scores; songs from the musical were recorded by Frank Sinatra and Carly Simon . According to Sondheim's music director Paul Gemignani , "Part of Steve's ability is this extraordinary versatility". The show
14260-489: Was nine. "The curtain went up and revealed a piano", Sondheim recalled. "A butler took a duster and brushed it up, tinkling the keys. I thought that was thrilling." Sondheim detested his mother, who was said to be psychologically abusive and to have projected her anger from her failed marriage onto her son: "When my father left her, she substituted me for him. And she used me the way she used him, to come on to and to berate, beat up on, you see. What she did for five years
14384-470: Was not the success their previous collaborations had been: after a chaotic series of preview performances, it opened to widely negative reviews, and closed after a run of less than two weeks. Due to the high quality of Sondheim's score, the show has been repeatedly revised and produced in the ensuing years. Martin Gottfried wrote, "Sondheim had set out to write traditional songs ... But [despite] that there
14508-425: Was open to women from its founding in 1855, and graduated its first female student in 1869. Cornell University and the University of Michigan each admitted their first female students in 1870. Around the same time, single-sex women's colleges were also appearing. According to Irene Harwarth, Mindi Maline, and Elizabeth DeBra: " women's colleges were founded during the mid- and late-19th century in response to
14632-478: Was replaced by a larger new building which was opened in 2009 by Dame Evelyn Glennie . The Princess Royal opened the new Lord Riche Hall in 1989. Girls were taken into the Sixth Form in 1970, and into the whole school in 1993. The success of taking drama productions every two years to perform in American high schools from 2000 onwards, led to the school being invited in 2008 by the U.S. authorities to put on
14756-431: Was revived on Broadway in 2001 and 2011. A Little Night Music (1973), based on Ingmar Bergman 's Smiles of a Summer Night and with a score primarily in waltz time , was among Sondheim's greatest commercial successes. Time magazine called it his "most brilliant accomplishment to date". The original cast included Glynis Johns , Len Cariou , Hermione Gingold , and Judy Kahan . The show opened on Broadway at
14880-579: Was the first college to admit both women and African Americans as students. Women were not admitted to the baccalaureate program, which granted bachelor's degrees, until 1837; prior to that, they received diplomas from what was called the Ladies' Course. The initial 1837 students were Caroline Mary Rudd, Elizabeth Prall, Mary Hosford, and Mary Fletcher Kellogg. The early success and achievement of women at Oberlin College persuaded many early women's rights leaders that coeducation would soon be accepted throughout
15004-1039: Was the first mixed-sex secondary school in Hong Kong . It was founded in 1915 as St. Paul's Girls' College. At the end of World War II , it was temporarily merged with St. Paul's College , which is a boys' school. When classes at the campus of St. Paul's College were resumed, it continued to be mixed and changed to its present name. Some other renowned mixed-sex secondary schools in town include Hong Kong Pui Ching Middle School, Queen Elizabeth School , and Tsuen Wan Government Secondary School . Most Hong Kong primary and secondary schools are mixed-sex, including government public schools, charter schools, and private schools. Mongolia's first co-educational school, named Third School, opened in Ulaanbaatar on November 2, 1921. Subsequent schools have been co-educational and there are no longer any single-sex schools in Mongolia. Pakistan
15128-442: Was the graduate-only Nuffield College in 1937; the first five undergraduate colleges ( Brasenose , Hertford , Jesus , St Catherine's , and Wadham ) became mixed in 1974. The first mixed Cambridge college was the graduate-only Darwin from its foundation in 1964. Churchill , Clare , and King's Colleges were the first previously all-male colleges of the University of Cambridge to admit female undergraduates in 1972. Magdalene
15252-492: Was the last all-male college to become mixed in 1988. The last women's college in Oxford, St Hilda's , became mixed as of Michaelmas term 2008. Two colleges remain single-sex (women-only) at Cambridge: Murray Edwards (New Hall) and Newnham . The oldest extant mixed-sex institute of higher education in the United States is Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio , which was established in 1833. Mixed-sex classes were admitted to
15376-757: Was treat me like dirt, but come on to me at the same time." She once wrote him a letter saying that the only regret she ever had was giving birth to him. When she died in 1992, Sondheim did not attend her funeral. He had been estranged from her for nearly 20 years. When Sondheim was about ten years old (around the time of his parents' divorce), he formed a close friendship with James Hammerstein , son of lyricist and playwright Oscar Hammerstein II , who were neighbors in Bucks County. The elder Hammerstein became Sondheim's surrogate father, influencing him profoundly and developing his love of musical theater. Sondheim met Hal Prince , who later directed many of his shows, at
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