The man of the hour was notably absent during the telecast in which he received a lifetime achievement Tony. Instead, Mandy Patinkin showed up in Steve’s beard and proceeded to frighten all the kiddies (and read a very classy and gracious letter that cited all of his book writers through the years).
Well, according to Michael Riedel,
“Sondheim wasn’t at the Tonys because he was traipsing through Europe.
I hear he found out about the award only when it was announced in the press. Nobody from the Tonys bothered to tell him beforehand, so he didn’t change his travel plans. “