Burr Ridge’s Eleri Ward continues her celebration of Sondheim on second album

Eleri Ward poses for a photo in New York earlier this year to promote her album “Keep a Tender Distance.” (AP)

NEW YORK — It was 2019 and aspiring Broadway actor Eleri Ward had Stephen Sondheim’s “Every Day a Little Death” stuck in her head.

“I would see friends at auditions and whatnot, and having been awake since like 4 or 5 a.m., they’d ask me how I’m doing,” she said. “And I responded with, ‘Oh, every day a little death.’ I was saying it as a stupid joke.”