FIRST OFF . . .

Composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim, whose works include “Sweeney Todd,” “Sunday in the Park With George” and “Into the Woods,” will go to England in January to become Oxford University’s first visiting professor of drama and musical theater. The post is funded by a $2.9-million endowment from impresario Cameron Mackintosh, who staged the first musical productions of “Cats” and “The Phantom of the Opera.” Sondheim will serve the academic year at St. Catherine’s College, where he is expected to forgo formal lectures and teach through workshops, master classes and observing professional productions of his musicals. Mackintosh’s benefaction also will endow a permanent fund to support and stimulate the creation of student drama and musicals. In the fall, university officials will decide whether to establish the visiting professorship on a permanent basis to bring other theater masters to Oxford.