The Six Degrees of Sondheim

[Leighton]

Agatha Christie wrote Miss Marple

Who has recently been played by Julia McKenzie

Who was in Follies, Into the Woods, and Side by Side in London



Mitt Romney

[MartinG]

Mitt Romney appeared as himself in the short film Americans with... 
Sean Penn who was married to...
Madonna who appeared (with Mandy Patinkin) in Dick Tracy which features five songs by SJS.




Julian Assange 

[KathyB]

Julian Assange had many secrets found out by Chelsea Manning
Who was a member of the U.S. Army
As was fictional character Sgt. Bilko, played by Phil Silvers
Who was Pseudolus in one of the revivals of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Marcus Lycus in the movie.


Paula Abdul

[MartinG]

Among the celebrity guests in Series 3 of the BBC drama Hotel Babylon were Paula Abdul and John Barrowman, who appeared on Broadway in Putting It Together and as Bobby in Company at the Kennedy Centre.


Lizzie Borden

[KathyB]

Besides being a bobblehead that Aileen sent me for Secret Sondheim one year (I'm not sure how many degrees of separation that counts as being), Lizzie Borden...

was from Fall River, Massachusetts,
Also the hometown of Emeril Lagasse,
Who voiced Marlon the Gator in The Princess and the Frog,
Which also featured the voice of Anika Noni Rose,
Who was Marta in Company with Neil Patrick Harris (NY Philharmonic concert).


Pablo Picasso

[Bookman George]

Pablo Picasso lived in Paris and was a regular at the Salon hosted by Gertrude Stein ...

who was portrayed (in the world premiere of the opera 27 by Ricky Ian Gordon) by Stephanie Blythe ...

who played Mrs. Lovett in a production of Sweeney Todd at San Francisco Opera




Howard Keel

[Hester Jean]

Howard Keel was in the Movie version of Show Boat whose lyrics were written by Oscar Hammerstein and we all know his relation to Sondheim! 

Iggy Pop

[Bookman George]

Very good, Connie. I was thinking that Howard Keel was in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which also starred Russ Tamblyn, who played Riff in the movie of West Side Story.

I'll have to think about

Iggy Pop

[Leighton]

Iggy Pop and David Bowie worked together on Raw Power
Bowie wrote the music and lyrics for Lazarus, which starred Alan Cumming in a video insert
Cumming starred alongside Michele Pawk in Cabaret
Pawk has starred in Merrily and Bounce

Terry Wogan

[KathyB]

Terry Wogan was born in Limerick, Ireland, also home to Frank McCourt,
Who wrote Angela's Ashes, the movie version of which starred Emily Watson,
Who was in Gosford Park with Maggie Smith,
Who was in the Harry Potter movies with Helena Bonham Carter,
Who was Mrs. Lovett in the movie version of Sweeney Todd.


Alexander Graham Bell

[Hester Jean]

Bell invented the telephone which plays a part of Company. 

Henry James

[Bookman George]

Henry James wrote the novel The Europeans

Which was made into a movie starrting Lee Remick

Who starred in the original cast of Anyone Can Whistle




Jonas Salk

[Hester Jean]

Jonas Salk invented a polio vaccine.

FDR had polio.

An attempted assassination of FDR is in Assassins!

John Muir

[Chris L]

John Muir

Assuming that this is the John Muir who founded the Sierra Club...

John Muir traveled to Yosemite National Park with Theodore Roosevelt...
...who was a distant cousin of Franklin Delano Roosevelt...
...who was almost assassinated by Giuseppe Zangara...
...as described in Stephen Sondheim's Assassins.

Elon Musk

[Hester Jean]

Elon Musk used Tesla solar panels on San Juan's Children Hospital for power after Maria. (Thank you random Facebook post!)

Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote a song for Maria's survivors based on Sondheim's Maria.

Big Head Todd