The Broadway Theatre Review: Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends
By Ross
“Have ya noticed we haven’t started yet?” Bernadette Peters says, after sauntering out looking ageless and gorgeous in a long, shoulderless, sparkly gown, exactly as expected and forecasted by my companion. It’s not the staged opening that we were all waiting for, but it was something special. There was something every so charming and engaging in those first unscripted moments when Peters, joined soon after by Lea Salonga, felt they had to explain the later-than-typical start. The night before, we were told, was the opening night of Old Friends, the latest Broadway musical revue of Stephen Sondheim’s canon of work, and a few were having a little difficulty getting into place in a timely manner, after what I can only imagine had been quite the party the night before. And we all couldn’t help but be the most forgiving, as these two were as gracious and playful as one could be. And to be frank, these two megastars were really the reasons we had all made our way into the Manhattan Theatre Club‘s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre for, what was it, Sondheim’s third revue? But as it turns out, quite incredibly, those two stars are only the fantastic icing on a pretty delicious cake (or should I say, “pie“?), filled with delectable treats and delicious flavors that will only leave you wanting more. No wonder they were so celebratory the night before.
“More hot pies!” you might say, along with “God, that’s good!” and with Peters and Salonga leading the way with a quick (actual) beginning, “Side by Side,” this production unveils itself with energy and love. Directed and musically staged by Matthew Bourne (The Red Shoes) with choreography by Stephen Mear (Broadway’s 2017 Sunset Boulevard), it flies forward with speed and intent, lining up a whole crew of big, smiley talent ready to gift us with Sondheim presents galore, with a sometimes corny dash of “Comedy Tonight“, played for laughs and nudges. The show feels less like a detailed or thoughtful examination of the man and his music, and more of a pure, solid celebration, presenting delicious song after song, played with love and adoration, and maybe a tad bit non-contextual and too big of a wink, sometimes. But we can also, as it turns out, be very forgiving of that, too.
The show, as crafted together by megaproducer Cameron Mackintosh (Phantom of the Opera) with artistic consultant Julia McKenzie (Broadway’s Company) by his side (by side), is as celebratory and well-deserved as what I can only imagine was the party on the previous night. It was crafted as a one-night-only gala event in May 2022 at the Sondheim Theatre in London’s West End. The idea came about during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown when Sondheim wisely suggested to Mackintosh that they should create a follow-up of their revue productions Side by Side by Sondheim and Putting It Together. Sadly, during the development of this show in 2021, Sondheim died at the age of 91, and altered the piece, most lovingly, into a good-bye concert, filled to overflowing with megawatt stars lining up to deliver those trademark songs to delight and entertain. And mourn the loss of what many consider to be one of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theater, credited with reinventing the American musical and inspiring so many with his distinct sound and exacting lyrics.
Backed by the distinct and well-formulated orchestrations by Sondheim’s longtime collaborator Jonathan Tunick (Broadway’s Sweeney Todd), sharp sound design by Mick Potter (Broadway’s School of Rock), and the strong musical direction by Annbritt duChateau (Broadway’s Some Like It Hot), Old Friends unwraps itself with a set list made to focus on particular shows in groups, plus a few surprises mixed in, determined to remind us why he is considered one of the best in the business. And there is no denying it, especially as we watch each of his musical numbers being delivered with such careful deliberation, finding essences that we hadn’t heard before, unveiled in ways that pinpoint moments of emotionality that light up songs we thought we had heard performed at their highest level already.
The best example of this is when the tremendously sharp and brilliant Beth Leavel (Broadway’s The Prom) enters wrapped in a fur to deliver the iconic “The Ladies Who Lunch“. I had heard, numerous times, Patti LuPone sing that number in the Broadway revival, the West End revival, the streamed Lincoln Center production, and in Sondheim’s 80th Birthday iconic Red Dress segment, where six musical theatre goddesses performed six iconic songs at the highest of levels, and I really couldn’t believe anyone could top her, especially that Red Dress recital (watch here), but here, like numerous times throughout this Broadway revue, Leavel gave us something special and magnificently unique to her, finding and displaying a “copy of Life” like no other. It was transporting.
And that was not the only time that I completely forgot about my favourite versions of so many of these songs. Some were a bit overplayed, poking too hard on the jokes that Sondheim stitched into his lyrics with clever word play and creative composition or taking the whole theatrical framing too seriously, like the group of Sweeney Todd songs. Although I must say that watching Lea Salonga (Broadway’s Once On This Island) embody the devious Mrs. Lovett so fabulously alongside Jeremy Secomb (arena world tour’s Les Misérables), one could forgive the overdone pokes at the baked-in jokes. And boy, the star-making turn of Bonnie Langford (Broadway’s Sweet Charity) singing “I’m Still Here” along with almost every number she was in (the maid in “A Weekend in the Country“) is something to remember and completely delight in. Made me forget all those others who came before her, including Elaine Stritch and Shirley MacLaine.
There was only one moment when the humor overpowered the truth in a song, and that was, I’m sorry to say, Gavin Lee’s missed opportunity to sing “Could I Leave You?” from a different perspective. His forced delivery focusing on the joke rather than the true, bitter heart of the matter made it the only time in this two-act revue when I didn’t believe in the song and when I could not forget Donna Murphy singing that song as perfectly as one could (watch here). Lee (Broadway’s SpongeBob…), a tall drink of talented water who had such fun with Leavel singing “The Little Things You Do Together” as well as “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid“, from 1962’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, alongside the talented Jason Pennycooke (West End’s Moulin Rouge!) and the delicious focus-stealing Kyle Selig (Broadway’s Mean Girls), deserved a better formula and focus for that stellar song from Follies and that singular moment. But that was the one and only time I sat back and thought of other times when I saw other performers find the truth inside the smart lyrics and music. And that was the surprise of the night.
Headliner Peters was misused initially, in “I Know Things Now” mixed with “Bounce“, but I could relate to her desire to sing it, as it is one of my favourite songs from Into the Woods mainly because it is so much more than what it initially appears to be, and that, in a wicker basket, is what I most love about Sondheim. Yet, when Peters walks out to unleash those more emotionally stunning ballads, “Send in the Clowns“, “Losing My Mind“, and the beginning of “Sunday” from Sunday in the Park with George, and the gorgeously sad “Not a Day Goes By” (joined quickly by Salonga, Joanna Riding, Langford, Kat Jennings Grant, and Leavel), we can’t help but be transported and delivered to a place a pure majesty, where song and voice combine so brilliantly that tears well up in my eyes at the shear beauty of the moment and in the care she unpacks within a song.
Peters, Leavel, and Joanna Riding (NT’s Carousel) find hilarious, deadpan energy in their captivatingly lazy rendition of “You Gotta Get a Gimmick” from Gypsy that brings down the house, as well as Salonga’s magnificent “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” that delivered a power that I didn’t know was there. Selig and Kevin Earley (RT’s Death Takes a Holiday) were anything but “Agony” as they masterfully delighted us with that clever song from Into the Woods. And the unraveling of Company‘s “Getting Married Today” makes you forget everyone else, although I would have been more charmed by a more straightforward approach, rather than the staging that shifted focus from the most excellent vocal dexterity delivered by Riding.
If you really want to dive deep into the delicious mind of Sondheim, you might want to open up his lyric memoir “Finishing The Hat” and “Look, I Made a Hat“. It’s a masterpiece of clever unveiling. But if you want to just sit back and take in the musical full-throated glory of this “Broadway Baby” composer/lyricist, then this is the golden ticket you should get. “Losing My Mind” at every turn, there won’t be a ‘day that goes by’ when you won’t remember and be transported back to a song or a performance from Broadway’s latest Stephen Sondheim revue. “It was like old times,” said my old friend and companion at the theatre that night, where “all of life’s lessons can be learned inside Sondheim.” It’s gloriously delicious, akin to “Being Alive” with some Old Friends, “Side by Side.”
