Fellow musical theatre icon Barbra Streisand has led tributes to Stephen Sondheim, who has died aged 91.

Regarded as one of the foremost artists of the 20th century, Sondheim wrote the lyrics for West Side Story and composed Into the Woods among many others including Sweeney Todd and Company.

Cameron Mackintosh, the British theatre producer behind Les Miserables and Mary Poppins also paid tribute to Sondheim in a statement: “The theatre has lost one of its greatest geniuses and the world has lost one of its greatest and most original writers,” he said.

But the brilliance of Stephen Sondheim will still be here as his legendary songs and shows will be performed for evermore.

Phantom of the Opera creator Andrew Lloyd Webber described Sondheim as a “musical theatre giant of our times, an inspiration not just to two but to three generations”