Collection Includes Music and Lyrics for “Send in the Clowns,” “Company,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Into the Woods” and More

The Library of Congress has acquired the manuscripts, music and lyric drafts, recordings, notebooks and scrapbooks of legendary composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, widely considered one of the most influential and innovative musical theater songwriters of his generation. Winner of eight Tony Awards, including a special Tony for lifetime achievement, Sondheim was a prolific creator, as evidenced by the works found in this extensive collection.

The collection includes approximately 5,000 items documenting Sondheim’s creative acumen. The materials 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. 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.

The collection also contains manuscripts for some of Sondheim’s most celebrated shows, including “Company,” “Follies,” “Sweeney Todd” and “Into the Woods,” as well as lesser-known works such as his plays and screenplays. Of a more personal nature, there are dozens of scrapbooks that hold programs, clippings, opening night telegrams and more.

A few highlights of the collection include:

“Stephen Sondheim has been credited with reinventing American musical theater, and his papers support that claim,” said Music Division Chief Susan Vita. “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.”

Sondheim began writing music as a teenager and graduated from Williams College, receiving its Hutchinson Prize for Music Composition. He went on to study music theory and composition privately with avant-garde composer Milton Babbitt. Sondheim began his professional career in 1954, ultimately writing the score for 16 stage musicals and the lyrics for three more: “West Side Story,” “Do I Hear a Waltz?” and “Gypsy.” (Sondheim donated his manuscripts for these shows to the Wisconsin Historical Society in the 1960s; copies are held by the Library.) There have been several anthologies of his work, including “Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends,” currently playing on Broadway.

In addition to his stage work, Sondheim composed songs and scores for film and television, was a screenwriter for a television series, and even created crossword puzzles for New York Magazine.

Sondheim's music and lyrics earned him numerous accolades over the years. In addition to eight Tony Awards, he garnered multiple Grammy and New York Drama Critics Circle Awards, an Academy Award, a Pulitzer Prize and the Kennedy Center Honors. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. Broadway’s Henry Miller’s Theatre was renamed the Stephen Sondheim Theatre in 2010, and in London, he became the first living artist to have a West End theater named in his honor when the Queen’s Theatre became the Sondheim Theatre to commemorate his 90^th birthday. Sondheim died Nov. 26, 2021, in Connecticut. Broadway marquee lights in New York City were dimmed in his honor.

The manuscripts of Sondheim join those of other Broadway composers in the Library of Congress, as well as those of his mentor Oscar Hammerstein II and collaborators such as Leonard Bernstein, Richard Rodgers, Mary Rodgers (Richard’s daughter), and Arthur Laurents. The papers of Harold Prince, director of six of Sondheim’s shows, are also housed at the Library, as well as manuscripts by Babbitt, his former instructor. The Library’s George and Ira Gershwin collection moved Sondheim to tears when he viewed the manuscript of “Porgy and Bess” during a visit here with Senior Music Specialist Mark Horowitz in 1993. It was at that time that Sondheim decided to leave his manuscripts to the Library.

Sondheim made his first donation to the Library in 1995: his vast record collection of approximately 13,000 albums. The collection of classical and contemporary music was accompanied by a hand-typed card catalog. He also sat for a series of interviews with Horowitz in 1997, which can be viewed here.

The Library celebrated Sondheim’s 70^th birthday in 2000 with a concert that included Broadway stars Nathan Lane, Audra McDonald, Marin Mazzie, Debra Monk and Brian Stokes Mitchell.

The music and lyrics in the Sondheim collection will be available in the Performing Arts Reading Room by July 1, with the remainder of the papers – as well as a complete finding aid – available later in summer 2025.

The Music Division at the Library of Congress – formally established in 1897 within the Library’s Jefferson Building upon its completion – traces the origin of its collections to the 13 books on music literature and theory in Thomas Jefferson’s library, purchased by Congress in 1815. Today, the division’s collections number close to 30 million items, including the manuscripts and papers of hundreds of composers, lyricists, playwrights, screenwriters, performers, musicians, directors, designers and choreographers, in addition to music and book collections, microforms and copyright deposits.

The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States – and extensive materials from around the world – both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov; access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov; and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.

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Deb Fiscella, [email protected]
PR 25-039
June 25, 2025
ISSN 0731-3527