As the former executive editor and publisher of the website Everything Sondheim and managing editor of The Sondheim Review, Pender has impeccable credentials for producing this volume. The alphabetically arranged entries cover all aspects of Sondheim’s career, including all musicals and other works and significant personnel such as George Abbott and Arthur Laurents. Ten songs are covered in depth to illustrate the breadth and depth of Sondheim’s composition, and additional essays cover such varied topics as favorite films, opera, and musical likes (and dislikes). Essays on individual shows include synopses of production history, musical numbers, scores, critical reviews, recordings, and original cast and characters; all essays are well written and focused on facts rather than Pender’s opinions…[T[his encyclopedia is required reading for those interested in musical theater, and it will be particularly valuable when read in conjunction with Hat Box: The Collected Lyrics of Stephen Sondheim (2011). Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals; general readers.

Choice Reviews

Assembling this comprehensive compendium of Stephen Sondheim (b. 1930)—one of the most widely regarded and important figures in 20th-century musical theater—was no small task. Pender, a theater critic who has written extensively about Sondheim for years, makes an impressive effort to do justice to his subject in a single hefty volume. Alphabetically arranged entries cover Sondheim’s work (Into the Woods; Company; Follies), his collaborators (Larry Gelbart) and influences (Oscar Hammerstein), and people who performed in his shows (Elaine Stritch; Angela Lansbury). Pender supplements each entry with references for readers who want to go even deeper into the scholarship. Pender’s expansive reporting on Sondheim’s productions, cohorts, and collaborators goes beyond biography to give readers a wider historical view of American musical theater. The book is ostensibly a reference work aimed at enthusiasts (of which Sondheim has many), but casual theater and performing arts fans will find much to appreciate as well.

Library Journal

Besides being knowledgeable about Greater Cincinnati's theater history, [Pender] is one of the foremost scholars writing about the work of Sondheim, who many regard as America's finest musical thea­ter composers and lyricists. For many years, Pender was the executive editor and publisher of the "Everything Sondheim' website and managing editor of a quarterly journal called "The Sondheim Review." ... Besides a predictably comprehensive entry about Sondheim and nearly every aspect of his career, the book offers information about Sondheim's many collaborators, from direc­tors and producers to singers who created notable roles in his various works.

Cincinnati Enquirer

A wonderful encyclopedia on all things Sondheim that you will love reading. You can start anywhere from A to Y. He’s still writing Z.

Bernadette Peters, Tony Award-winning actor and star of the original productions of Sunday in the Park with George as Dot and Into the Woods as the Witch

The Stephen Sondheim Encyclopedia is impressive in its depth and detail and a fitting testament to Steve’s extraordinary work. It’s also a lot of fun for any musical theater fan to endlessly peruse.

James Lapine, playwright and director; bookwriter and director for Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and Passion

Anyone who's been touched by Stephen Sondheim's extraordinary body of work will be grateful for this bottomless well of facts, figures, anecdotes and insights. A remarkable and entertaining resource.

John Weidman, bookwriter for Pacific Overtures, Assassins, and Road Show