Sondheim shatters sales records at the Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., is presenting a historic four-month celebration of the works of gay composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim later this year, but the Associated Press reports that history was already made on Monday at the Kennedy Center box office. The day that tickets went on sale for the Sondheim retrospective, a record-breaking $639,000 worth of tickets were sold, easily besting the previous record-holder, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, which moved $526,000 in one day in 1996. By 4 p.m. Tuesday, another $230,000 worth of Sondheim tickets were sold. "One of the reasons we are doing this festival is to dispel certain myths," said Michael Kaiser, the center's president. "And one myth is that Sondheim works are not accessible and not popular." Kaiser expects that all the tickets to the festival, which ends in August, will be sold within the next six to eight weeks.