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Artist
Sondheim
12+ albums
genius
about
Early life Stephen Sondheim was born to a Jewish family in New York City and grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and later on a farm in Pennsylvania. An only child of well-to-do parents living in a high-rise apartment on Central Park West, Sondheim's childhood has been described as isolated and emotionally neglected. His parents, Herbert and Janet "Foxy" Sondheim, were non-religious Jews. While Foxy had grown up in an Orthodox family, Sondheim had no formal religious education or association, did not have a Bar Mitzvah, and reportedly did not set foot in a synagogue until he was 19. In 1950, he graduated magna cum laude from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. When Stephen was 10 years old, his father Herbert, always a somewhat distant figure, abandoned Stephen and his mother. This traumatic event had major repercussions on Sondheim's private life and was later reflected in Into The Woods. Under the laws of the day, Sondheim's mother retained full custody, which was perhaps unfortunate for her son; Foxy Sondheim was narcissistic, emotionally abusive, and a hypochondriac. After the departure of her husband, she became sexually predatory towards her son as a substitute for his absent father- she would suggestively lower her blouse or spread her legs in front of him, she would lounge about and absently ask him to make her drinks and she would hold his hand and stare at him through the entirety of a Broadway show. Many have speculated that it was this ear
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