Shakespeare meets Sondheim

Stephen Sondheim will write some of the music for the New York Public Theater’s production of “King Lear,” starring Kevin Kline as Shakespeare’s tormented monarch.

Sondheim, composer of such landmark musicals as “Sweeney Todd,” “Follies” and “Company,” will share the revival’s music credit with Michael Starobin, best known in the theater as an orchestrator. Starobin has done the orchestrations for more than a dozen Broadway shows, including Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park With George.”

“King Lear,” which will be directed by James Lapine, opens March 7 at the Public.