Obituary of Paul H. Ford

February 19, 2025

PAUL FORD, April 27, 1953 – Feb.19, 2025.

Broadway pianist, arranger, and music director Paul Ford died on Feb. 19, 2025 at age 71. His body was discovered in his longtime apartment on West 45th Street, just a stone’s throw from the theaters where he became an integral part of Broadway history. He was best known as a rehearsal/production pianist on such Stephen Sondheim shows as the Pulitzer Prize-winning Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Assassins, Passion, and Pacific Overtures, as well as Follies in Concert at Lincoln Center, and Anyone Can Whistle and Sondheim: A Celebration, both at Carnegie Hall. In two of his Tony Award acceptance speeches, Sondheim declared Paul the “indefatigable master of the musical theatre and the world’s most tireless music rehearsal pianist… A walking memory bank of every song that’s ever been written for any musical on any continent.”

Born in Atlanta, GA to J. Kenneth Ford and Mary Paul Parsons Ford, Paul’s love of old Hollywood films and classic musicals was instilled in him at a young age by his loving mother. Moving to New York City in 1978 after attending Georgia State College and performing around the theatre scene in Atlanta, Paul quickly became a mainstay of Broadway auditions, workshops, and national tours for over 30 years. Paul earned his place in musical theater history touring with such shows as Annie and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and on Broadway with A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine, The Rink, Falsettos, Rags, Dancin’, I Remember Mama, The Secret Garden, High Society, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Curtains, 110 in the Shade, and many more.

Paul worked alongside such luminaries as Julie Andrews, Robert Goulet, Chita Rivera, Lauren Bacall, Liza Minnelli, Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone, Elaine Stritch, Joanna Gleason, Charles Strouse, Stephen Schwartz, Jerome Robbins, and Kander and Ebb, to name a few. Paul’s most creative artistic period may have been his decades long collaboration as arranger and music director with Tony and Emmy Award winner Mandy Patinkin. Paul and Mandy appeared together on numerous TV shows, played at the White House, and toured their two-man Broadway concerts around the world from Scranton to Sydney, Australia. As a team, they also recorded seven eclectic albums: Dress Casual, Mandy Patinkin, Experiment, Oscar and Steve, Mamaloshen, Kidults, and Mandy Patinkin sings Sondheim.

Paul authored an acclaimed memoir, Lord Knows At Least I Was There, highlighting his collaborations with Sondheim and Patinkin, and his bouts with depression and alcoholism. Paul was proud to have stopped drinking on May 3, 1995, and inspired many others to continue along his path to freedom from alcohol abuse. Paul was diabetic and suddenly passed from cardiac arrest at his beloved home with his friends supporting him.

Paul is survived by his brother Tom and his wife Lynn Ford, and his nephews and nieces Thomas A. Ford Jr., Andrew Hayes Ford, Helen Hudson Bastek, Robin Hippel, Kelly Lynn Hanes, Matthew E. Hudson, J. Kenneth Ford III, Libbie Ford Martin, and Scott E. Ford. Paul was preceded in death by his parents J. Kenneth Ford and Mary Paul Parsons Ford, his siblings J. Kenneth Ford Jr. and Shirley Ford Hudson, and his former partner Charlie Stramiello.