Happy Birthday to Pulitzer-winning writer-director James Lapine, born Jan. 10, 1949, in Mansfield, Ohio. He earned his bachelor’s from Franklin and Marshall College and his master’s from Cal Arts. He then worked as a photographer, graphic designer, and professor at the Yale School of Drama. At Yale, he also wrote and directed an adaptation of Gertrude Stein’s play Photograph, which was produced Off-Broadway in 1977. He returned Off-Broadway in 1981 to direct William Finn’s musical March of the Falsettos, the first of their many collaborations. Below is Lapine in About the Work, a guest artist series of the School of Drama at the New School.
In 1982, he met his other frequent collaborator, Stephen Sondheim, and they began to work on Sunday in the Park with George, which Playwrights Horizons produced Off-Broadway in 1983 and transferred to Broadway in 1984. For that show, Lapine received two Tony nominations (for book and direction) and shared the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with Sondheim. A year later, Lapine directed George Furth and Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along at La Jolla. Lapine and Sondheim’s own next musical was Into the Woods, which premiered on Broadway in 1987. That show brought Lapine the Tony for his book and a nomination for his direction. Below is the original cast of Sunday at the 1984 Tonys.
In 1990, Lapine worked with Finn on the Off-Broadway musical Falsettoland, which became the 1992 Broadway musical Falsettos. For that show, Lapine again earned a Tony for his book and a nomination for his direction. Lapine then collaborated with Sondheim on the musical Passion, which ran on Broadway in 1994. Once again, Lapine again earned a Tony for his book and a nomination for his direction. Lapine then worked with Finn on A New Brain, which premiered Off-Broadway in 1998. Lapine ended the 1990s working with Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz on the original Berlin version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Below are clips from the 1999 Berlin production, featuring Drew Sarich, Norbert Lamla, Andre Bauer, and Chris Murray.
In 2000, Lapine earned Tony nominations for his direction of both Claudia Shear’s play Dirty Blonde and the Broadway revival of Into the Woods. In 2003, he earned a Drama Desk nomination for directing Michel Legrand’s Amour. Lapine then directed Finn’s musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which premiered Off-Broadway in 2005 and transferred to Broadway, earning him another Tony nomination. Below is the original cast in “Spelling Bee / Prayer of the Comfort Counselor” at the 2005 Tonys.
Lapine’s latest collaboration with Sondheim is the revue Sondheim on Sondheim, presented on Broadway in 2010. His latest with Finn is Little Miss Sunshine, which premiered in 2011 at La Jolla Playhouse. Lapine’s other recent musical work includes directing the 2012 Broadway revival of Annie and writing the screenplay for the 2014 film adaptation of Into the Woods. In 2014, he received an Emmy nom for directing the TV special Six by Sondheim and a Tony nomination for his play Act One. In 2015, he won the SDC Foundation’s Mr. Abbott Award “in recognition of a lifetime of exceptional achievement in the theater.”
This year, his book Putting It Together: How Stephen Sondheim and I created Sunday in the Park with George will be released and the musical Flying over Sunset, for which he is librettist and director, will premiere on Broadway at Lincoln Center’s Beaumont Theater. Below is a peak inside rehearsals.