YMMV / Stephen Sondheim

• Awesome Music: He was, after all, Stephen frickin' Sondheim.
• Breakaway Pop Hit: "Send in the Clowns" was Sondheim's first and only song to become a pop hit.
• Growing the Beard: Company was the show where Sondheim really found his voice as a composer: he wrote that when he heard the orchestra rehearsal of the opening number, he thought, "Oh, that's who I am." It also won him his first Tony Awards (for both music and lyrics; the awards were given separately that year), finally getting him respect as a composer-lyricist after years of mostly being in demand for lyrics.
• Moment of Awesome: As noted below, Sondheim was often considered too complex/"unhummable" to make it as a Broadway composer and lyricist. This topic is addressed in his Merrily We Roll Along, which Sondheim admitted is somewhat autobiographical; to that end, a producer character has a solo in "Opening Doors," telling the main characters, who are auditioning their work, that their work is too inaccessible: "There's not a tune you can hum...I'll let you know when Stravinsky has a hit." Fast forward to 2013. Sondheim is now one of the most respected and admired composers/lyricists in history, with multiple Tonys, a Pulitzer Prize, and even an Oscar to his credit. HBO celebrated by putting out Six by Sondheim, a documentary about his life as told through six of his songs; the songs themselves are performed in music videos. Darren Criss, Jeremy Jordan, and America Ferrera play the leads in Merrily, singing "Opening Doors." And who appears as the producer in the audition portion? Sondheim himself. Think about that—he became so famous that he was able to play the very producer who once told him he'd never make it. If that isn't awesome, what is?
• Vindicated by History: Sondheim's lyrics were always well-received, but his music often received lukewarm reviews from critics who thought his songs were lacking in hummable melodies, and that his failure to produce more than one Breakaway Pop Hit was due to his failings as a composer. Today, especially after his death, he's universally admired equally for his words and his music.

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