Stephen Sondheim at 80

Broadway Bound
In 1957, Sondheim was introduced to Leonard Bernstein, who, impressed with the young man's talent, offered him the chance to write the lyrics for a musical he was working on about rival gangs in New York that was roughly based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Unaware that he had been offered the chance of a lifetime, Sondheim hesitated to take the job, hoping instead to break into Broadway as a composer and lyricist. Prodded by Hammerstein, however, he relented and the resulting project, titled West Side Story, would become a classic of modern American theater, spawn an Oscar-winning movie and launch Sondheim's career.

• Glee's Broadway Roots