“My Name Is Stephen Joshua Sondheim”

[STEPHEN SONDHEIM, spoken]
My name is Stephen Joshua Sondheim. The Stephen and the Joshua come from the Bible. My parents were not religious, but they didn't know what to call me, so they merely stuck their finger in the Bible and came out with those two names. In fact I was called Josh until I was ten years old.

My father, Herbert Sondheim, was a self-taught piano player. He couldn't read music, but he liked to pick out Broadway tunes on the piano. And I used to sit next to him when I was very small, and he would put my hand on his, his little finger which played the melody up at the top of the piano. And so that was my first experience playing piano.

I took piano lessons for two years when I was seven years old, and, uh, then I took another two years when I was fourteen. And that's my piano playing experience.

The first show I wrote, I was in prep school, a place called George School in Pennsylvania. And I wrote a show that was about sort of local happenings, uh, in the school. And I think the first song I wrote was called "I'll Meet You at the Donut." The donut was a round seat in the center of the main hall.

(sung)
I'll meet you at the donut
And—

(spoken)
But that's enough of that song. I don't want to embarrass myself any further. Instead of going on with the songs from By George, uh, let's skip around.

The first show that I did both music and lyrics for that got on Broadway was a show called A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.