Hirschfeld's Sondheim

For the first time ever, Al Hirschfelds iconic art of Stephen Sondheims musicals are made available, packaged in an affordable, oversized removable poster book featuring texts by Bernadette Peters and Ben Brantley Al Hirschfeld drew his first Sondheim show in 1957West Side Story. Since then, in his iconic, illustrative style, Hirschfeld captured almost all of Sondheims Broadway shows and several films featuring the composers songs and scripts. Sondheim was a Hirschfeld collector, acquiring drawings directly from the artist and through his friends and collaborators like Hal Prince. In his last interview just five days before his death on November 26, 2021, the New York Times ran a photo of Sondheim in his home with an image of Hirschfelds Putting it Together in the background. This first volume in a series of deluxe Hirschfeld poster books, Hirschfelds Sondheim, contains 25 of his art drawn from life before the opening night of each of Sondheims productions. Hirschfelds images capture the essence of the performances even better than the photographs of the shows. All of Sondheims best-known plays are includedWest Side Story, Follies, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, and Sunday in the Park with Georgein 25 ready-to-frame, removable art prints. All images will be scanned from the archives of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation. On the reverse siderare, ancillary images from the archives, as well as an introduction by Bernadette Peters, an essay by Ben Brantley, and text by David Leopold, Hirschfelds archivist and creative director of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation.