As John Mulaney noted in a recent episode of Poker Face, Stephen Sondheim is “the best lyricist of the 20th century.” The Library of Congress was only a half-step behind Peacock’s mystery show, as the federal cultural institution announced on Wednesday that it has “acquired the manuscripts, music and lyric drafts, recordings, notebooks and scrapbooks” of the legendary composer. The collection includes manuscripts for shows like Into The Woods, Company, Follies, and Sweeney Todd, as well as “lesser-known works such as his plays and screenplays.”
There are approximately 5,000 items in this collection, including personal items like scrapbooks and “opening night telegrams.” Items “range from hundreds of music and lyric sketches of his well-known works to drafts of songs that were cut from shows or never made it to a production’s first rehearsal,” per the Library of Congress press release. “There are notes about characters who would ultimately sing his compositions as well as multiple iterations of nearly each finished work, providing an evolutionary road map of inspiration.”
Sondheim, who died in 2021 at age 91, previously donated his record collection of approximately 13,000 albums to the Library of Congress in 1995 and sat for a series of interviews for the institution in 1997. His music and lyrics will be available in the Library’s Performing Arts Reading Room by July 1, with the rest of the collection available later this summer. “Stephen Sondheim has been credited with reinventing American musical theater, and his papers support that claim,” Music Division Chief Susan Vita said in a statement. “The wit, intelligence and theatrical daring of his work has succeeded in the way most great art does—it illuminates our shared human condition. This incredible collection now enjoys a permanent home at the nation’s library, which celebrates creativity in all its forms. As a treasured addition to our performing arts collection, it serves to honor and preserve Sondheim’s legacy.”
