The Six Degrees of Sondheim

[MartinG]

Gary Barlow wrote songs for the musical of Finding Neverland, the Broadway premiere of which starred...
Laura Michelle Kelly, who played Lucy in the film of Sweeney Todd.


Frank Lloyd Wright

[Leighton]

Meryle Secrest wrote biographies of both Frank Lloyd Wright and SJS

Michael Owen

[Chris L]

Michael Owen was born in Chester.
So was Daniel Craig.
Daniel Craig made several James Bond films with Judi Dench.
...who played Desiree in the 1995 revival of A Little Night Music.

Theresa May

[MartinG]

From Sweeney:

There's a hole in the world like a great black pit
and the vermin of the world inhabit it
and its morals aren't worth what a pig could spit
and it goes by the name of London.
At the top of the hole sit the privileged few
Making mock of the vermin in the lonely zoo
turning beauty to filth and greed...

[MartinG]

...but seriously, folks...

Theresa May attended St Hugh's College, Oxford, whose alumni also include...
Suzy Klein, who in 2016 co-presented a BBC2 documentary on West Side Story.


Jean-Paul Sartre

[KathyB]

Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1964, but declined it.
T.S. Eliot is another Nobel laureate in literature.
Andrew Lloyd Webber adapted Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats into the musical Cats.
Lloyd Webber shares a birthday with Stephen Sondheim.



Michael Jordan

[MartinG]

Michael Jordan starred in a Nike commercial with...
Spike Lee, whose films He Got Game, Summer of Sam and Bamboozled starred...
Kim Director, who played April in Company at the Kennedy Centre.


Noddy Holder

[KathyB]

Noddy Holder has a star on Birmingham's Walk of Fame, as does Julie Walters.
Julie Walters was in Billy Elliott with Jamie Bell.
Bell is married to Kate Mara.
Mara was in Brokeback Mountain with Jake Gyllenhaal...
Who was George in last year's revival of Sunday in the Park with George.



Frances McDormand

[MartinG]

Frances McDormand appeared in the 1984 Broadway revival of Awake and Sing, which was presented on PBS in 1972 starring...
Walter Matthau, who appeared in the film Charade with...
Audrey Hepburn, who was voiced in My Fair Lady by...
Marni Nixon, whose magical voice is heard for Natalie Wood in the film of West Side Story.


Aphra Behn

[KathyB]

Aphra Behn was mentioned in A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf.
Woolf also wrote Orlando, a film version of which starred Tilda Swinton.
Swinton starred in Michael Clayton with Tom Wilkinson.
Wilkinson was in In the Bedroom with Marisa Tomei.
Tomei guest-starred on Seinfeld, playing George's (Jason Alexander's) would-be love-interest (if only George weren't engaged to Susan!)
Alexander was the original Joe Josephson in Merrily We Roll Along.


Isaac Asimov

[Bookman George]

Isaac Asimov wrote a collection of stories and essays called I Robot that was the basis of movie of the same name which starred
Will Smith, who starred in Men in Black with
Tommy Lee Jones, who played Brick in a TV movie version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof which featured, as Mae,
Penny Fuller, who played Eve in Applause, in which Bill Sampson was played by
Len Cariou , whose Sondheim connections are well-known.




D. H. Lawrence

[MartinG]

D. H. Lawrence's play The Daughter-in-Law premiered in March 1967 starring...
Judy Parfitt, who appeared in an episode of Murder, She Wrote called "From Russia...with Blood" with...
Angela Lansbury, on whom I need not elaborate.


Barbara Bush

[Bookman George]

Barbara Bush's husband was VP under
Ronald Reagan, who earlier had starred in King's Road with
Judith Anderson, who played Mrs. Danvers in the Hitchcock version of Rebecca, which starred
Laurence Olivier, at whose wedding to Vivien Leigh one of the witnesses was
Katharine Hepburn, who was for many years the Turtle Bay neighbor of ...
Stephen Sondheim.


Mia Farrow

[MartinG]

Mia Farrow appeared in Radio Days with...
Josh Mostel, whose father...
Zero Mostel appeared on stage and screen in Forum.


Mel Blanc

[Leighton]

Mel Blanc appeared in Who Framed Roger Rabbit with Bob Hoskins
Who appeared in Guys and Dolls with Julia McKenzie
Who has appeared in a range of Sondheim-productions (Follies, ITW, Side by Side by Sondheim etc.)


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