For 2025 I set myself a focused cultural project: to immerse myself in the work of Stephen Sondheim by watching his 40 favourite films (a list he drew up in 2003), alongside related screenings, documentaries and a concerted effort to see his stage musicals I had never seen. What began as a structured viewing challenge gradually became a wide-ranging exploration of the ideas, forms and storytelling traditions that shaped Sondheim’s creative imagination.

Working chronologically through his film list (see links below) revealed an extraordinary sweep of international cinema, from early Hollywood dramas and British thrillers to French humanist films, Japanese anti-war masterpieces, European political satires and American independents. Across these films, recurring themes emerged: moral ambiguity, deception and duality, power and control, survival under pressure, political and social responsibility and the tension between performance and reality. Many of the films are tightly structured, psychologically rich and formally precise, qualities that strongly echo Sondheim’s own approach to musical theatre.

As the list progressed, the films became increasingly political and introspective, confronting historical trauma, collective guilt, mortality and legacy. Taken together, the 40 films form an illuminating self-portrait, not of Sondheim the celebrity but of Sondheim the thinker: rigorous, curious and deeply engaged with how stories work.

I managed to track down 37 of the 40 films. To round out the year, I also made a number of detours, watching ten other Sondheim-related films. These ranged from the screen adaptation of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which cuts many of the songs, to Dick Tracy, for which Sondheim wrote five songs, and the two Luis Buñuel films that inspired Here We Are. Along the way there was a murder-mystery double bill, a pair of films featuring Sondheim as a character, a revisit of Lady Bird after catching up with Merrily We Roll Along, and an outdoor screening of West Side Story.

Over the course of the year I also caught up with four Sondheim stage shows which I'd not seen live before. Central to that was Here We Are at the National Theatre, Sondheim’s final musical, which gave the whole project its sense of purpose. Cool, unsettling and structurally daring, it felt like a fitting last statement, still curious, still sharp and still resisting easy resolution. Merrily We Roll Along was seen in an intimate production by Associated Studios at The Playground Theatre, performed by graduating students whose stripped-back staging and evolving costumes beautifully captured the show’s backward journey through friendship, success and compromise. In Brighton, the Brighton & Hove Operatic Society’s production of Company showcased the strength of local theatre, with energetic performances that underlined how fresh and relevant Sondheim’s portrait of modern relationships remains. Finally, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, seen at the Roman Theatre in Verulamium, was a joyous burst of farce, its classical setting amplifying the anarchy. Taken together, these productions reinforced why this year became a celebration of Sondheim: a body of work that remains inventive, emotionally rigorous and endlessly alive on stage.

Although the year-long challenge is over, the process of watching, revisiting and discovering Sondheim’s work continues, with more stage productions, broadcasts and long-hoped-for revivals still to come.

Further Reading: The Sondheim Project in Full

2025: A Year of Sondheim and Storytelling initial overview

Sondheim’s Cinema 1–10 

Sondheim’s Cinema 11–20

Sondheim’s Cinema 21–30

Sondheim’s Cinema 31–40

Letterboxd list of Sondheim's Top 40, and the additional bonus watches

Hard‑to‑Find Films from Sondheim’s 40

There are three films from Sondheim’s list that I haven’t been able to locate yet:

• Dance of Life (1937, Julien Duvivier, France) – sometimes listed under other titles

• War and Peace (1967, Sergei Bondarchuk, USSR) – the full version is notoriously long and rare

• Adam’s Rib (1990, Vyacheslav Kristofovich, Russia) – a very obscure release outside Russia
  

Can you help me find them? I’d love to finally complete the full set and see every film Sondheim recommended to those Syracuse cinemagoers back in 2003.

Sondheim Stage Shows I’m Still Yet to See

Below are the Sondheim musicals I haven’t yet seen live. Some are rarities, others haven’t been produced in the UK recently, so if you know of any upcoming productions in London or the South East, please let me know: Saturday Night (1954)

Anyone Can Whistle (1964)

A Little Night Music (1973)

Sunday In The Park With George (1984)

Passion (1994)

Bounce (2003) which later became Road Show (2008)

To be a completist it would also be good to see:

Do I Hear A Waltz? (1965)

Marry Me A Little (1981)

You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow (1983)

Putting It Together (1993/99)

Moving On (2001)

Sondheim on Sondheim (2010)

Just Another Love Story (2012)

Sondheim's Old Friends (2022/23)

Looking Ahead

With Into the Woods* at the Bridge Theatre and the filmed Merrily We Roll Along already booked, 2026 is shaping up to be another Sondheim-filled year. I’m especially excited to catch the remaining stage shows I haven’t seen yet and am keeping an eye on rumours of Sunday in the Park with George coming to the West End in 2027. The journey through Sondheim’s musicals and favourite films continues, and I can’t wait to see where it leads next.

*Having enjoyed the last two years of year-long, focused projects combining theatre and film, I’m planning another for 2026. This time, James Lapine/Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods (which I have seen muliple productions of) will be the starting point for a new journey. Each month I’ll see a gothic-inflected stage production, then plan a small selection of films around that theme, with an additional element in the form of a related work of fiction to read alongside. A blog outlining the project in more detail will follow soon.