Stephen Sondheim Webcase now available

A webcast of a recent Salon session with Stephen Sondheim is now available for viewing at the Academy for New Musical Theatre's new website: www.anmt.tv.The original event, "A Salon with Stephen Sondheim," a seminar presented by the Academy for New Musical Theatre, on March 13, 2008, sold out less than three minutes after tickets went on sale in February of 2008. Tickets went on sale online for the Academy for New Musical Theatre's salon with musical theatre's legend at 10:00 a.m., and were sold out by 10:03. A waiting list as long as the reservation list was complete by 10:10 a.m.

"Stephen Sondheim is the rock star of the musical theatre world," said Scott Guy, the Academy's Executive Director. "We knew he was revered, of course, but we weren't prepared for such an enormous response."

Mr. Sondheim has generously agreed to allow a webcast of the salon to be broadcast via the Academy's website, www.anmt.tv . Fifty precent of the proceeds from this video go directly to Mr. Sondheim's personal charity, Young Playwrights, Inc. The remainder of the proceeds go to the not-for-profit Academy for New Musical Theatre. In a fascinating one-hour video from that Salon, Mr. Sondheim discusses his approach to the craft of writing for musical theatre, followed by a Q&A session. The session includes questions from composers, writers and producers of original musical theatre, including Steve Cuden (co-creator of Broadway's Jekyll and Hyde), Calvin Ramsberg (Sweeney Todd's Beadle Bamford) and Steven Banks, the Head Writer of Sponge Bob Square Pants.

"Our Salons are very intimate 'insider' events," says ANMT's Executive Director Scott Guy. "Part of the reason we're able to attract such wonderful guests is that our events are small, casual affairs."

Salon guests in the past have included Winnie Holzman (Wicked), Jeff Marx (Avenue Q), Jason Robert Brown ("The Last Five Years"), Marty Panzer (Barry Manilow's lyricist) and Arthur Kopit (Nine).

"But Sondheim has trumped them all. His tickets sold like a rock concert."

The Salon was eventually moved to the larger Colony Theatre, where it again sold out.

"It was one of the most wonderful, magical, unforgettable afternoons of my life," says the Colony Theatre's Artistic Director, Barbara Beckley. "We were honored and awed to host this event."

To view "A Salon with Stephen Sondheim," visit www.anmt.tv .