Even four years after his death at age 91, Stephen Sondheim remains a towering figure in American musical theater. The breadth of his talents as a composer, lyricist, and storyteller get a loving tribute in Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, an affectionate and high-gloss revue featuring Sondheim vets like Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga as well as a first-rate 14-piece orchestra that captures the musical essence of this inimitable Broadway legend.
This isn’t a book-in-hand sort of retrospective concert either that stints on the visuals. As devised by Cameron Mackintosh and directed by Matthew Bourne, Old Friends presents not just a medley of familiar (and unfamiliar) Sondheim tunes but also a mini-staging of some of his most famous musical moments thanks to Jill Parker’s detailed, sequin-heavy costumes and Matt Kinley’s surprisingly elaborate set pieces where side structures re-create both the gritty London streets of Sweeney Todd and the balcony-laden Manhattan neighborhood of West Side Story. Not only does the show sound great, it looks and feels like a lavish production that you might see on TV.
What the show recognizes is that even more than most Broadway composers, Sondheim’s best songs often depend on context. They fit into their shows like a gown that’s been tailored so perfectly that the individual has been sown into it. Sure, he wrote some standalone hits like “Send in the Clowns,” here delivered with a bittersweet flourish by Peters. But much of his work might best be described as story-driven character songs that showcase his wit and lyrical gymnastics as well as later penchant for minor keys, tricky time signatures, and discordant harmonies.
So Mackintosh and Bourne smartly set up staged mini-versions of classics like Company, Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, and Follies with five or six songs from each performed back to back. This also allows the production to showcase the depth of the cast: Salonga and Jeremy Secord are standouts as the devilish Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney Todd, while Salonga and Peters come together wonderfully for the Into the Woods ballad “Children Will Listen.”
At 77, Peters remains a vocal sensation — and she also shows off her comedic shops as the past-her-prime stripper Mazeppa from Gypsy (Sondheim wrote the lyrics to Jule Styne’s score). Heck, she even plays the trumpet on stage, at one point bending over and pointing her horn between her enviably still-toned legs. She’s joined by the also-hilarious Beth Leavel and Joanna Riding on the number “You Gotta Get a Gimmick.” (The choreography is by Stephen Mear.)
Salonga, a Tony winner in 1991 for Miss Saigon, shows impressive range throughout, both vocally and dramatically — from her uproarious physical humor as Mrs. Lovett to her powerful delivery of ballads like “Somewhere” and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.” (I’d love to see her take over for Audra McDonald as Mama Rose in the current revival of Gypsy a few blocks south.)
The entire cast 19-member cast are offered moments to shine, from Riding’s rapid-fire delivery as a jittery bride in “Getting Married Today” (from Company) to Gavin Lee’s distaff take on “Could I Leave You?” (from Follies) to Jason Pennycooke’s sprightly version of “Live Alone and Like It” (from the 1990 movie Dick Tracy for which Sondheim won an Oscar with the Madonna-sung ballad “Sooner or Later”).
“Sooner or Later” isn’t on the song list here, but there are other deep cuts from the Sondheim catalog that are refreshing to hear — including a snippet of “Bounce” from the project eventually titled Road Show, the plain-spoken “Loving You” from Passion, and a cleverly bouncy parody of “The Girl From Ipanema” that Sondheim wrote with composer Mary Rodgers for a 1966 Off Broadway revue. This isn’t a completist’s guide to Sondheim — fans of Pacific Overtures, Assassins, or the posthumous Here We Are should brace themselves for disappointment.
But Sondheim wrote too many great songs in his storied multi-decade career. It’s a delight to hear even a few dozen of them, produced so artfully in a production that doesn’t stint on visual showmanship. Old Friends, whose title nods to the signature trio from Merrily We Roll Along, welcomes us back into that not-so-exclusive club of fans who appreciate Sondheim’s life and work. Here’s to us. Who’s like us? Damn few. ★★★★☆
STEPHEN SONDHEIM’S OLD FRIENDS
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, Broadway
Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes (1 intermission)
Tickets on sale through June 15 for $114 to $422
Culture Sauce 