Covering over thirty years of theater history, this is the fully authorized, behind-the-scenes account of the creation of West Side Story, Gypsy, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anyone Can Whistle, Do I Hear a Waltz?, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park with George, and Into the Woods. Much is in the principals' own words from interviews with such luminaries as Angela Lansbury, Zero Mostel, Anthony Perkins, Carol Burnett, Lee Remick, Barbara Cook, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Beverly Sills, Harold Prince, James Lapine, Michael Bennett, Herbert Ross, Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, and Sondheim himself. Each musical is discussed in full, along with the recording of Broadway cast albums, musical staging, casting, orchestrations, designing the artwork for show posters, and the craft of songwriting. Taking the reader beyond Broadway to Hollywood sound stages, classical concert halls, and pop recording studios, the book also contains exclusive insights from Barbra Streisand about her unique collaboration with Sondheim on her triple-platinum-selling The Broadway Album. With 130 photographs, many of which have never before been published, and appendixes of Broadway, off-Broadway, regional theater, and opera credits, cast, songs, awards, motion picture and TV performances, original Broadway cast recordings, this is the definitive book on Stephen Sondheim and a classic history of the American musical theater.