In this sixth Sondheim show on Broadway since his death in 2021, a cast of 19 including Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga perform 40 songs selected from 14 shows for which Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and/or the lyrics. These are talented performers putting over some tuneful and clever numbers, in what is the latest of many Sondheim revues – which have their obvious pleasures, as well as some potential pitfalls. “Old Friends” tries to minimize the downside of the revue format, and succeeds (mostly.)
I long wondered why Sondheim’s songs have been detached so frequently from the musicals for which he wrote them, since he always put a priority on character and context. Assigning his individual songs to smiling singers dressed in elegant evening wear to deliver at random, as if at a cocktail party, felt like a violation.
I certainly enjoyed these revues anyway, but his comprehensive grasp of theater – which is what drew me to him in the first place – felt missing.
It later occurred to me that these revues might have been acts of defense and defiance by the Sondheim-Is-God contingent, attempting to disprove the accusation by the unfaithful that his lyrics were difficult to follow and his melodies impossible to hum. To paraphrase Gypsy: Here they are world. Judge for yourself.
The playbill of “Old Friends” lists the songs and who’s singing them, but does not mention the musicals in which they originated. (I do so in the song list below.) There is also no narration, except for brief introductory remarks by Peters and Salonga at the start, in which they explain that producer Cameron Mackintosh made the selection of the songs, based on his long collaboration with Sondheim. But “Old Friends” does try to supply the missing context by grouping the songs from each musical together, and staging them with extensive costumes and even some imposing sets.
Set designer Matt Kinley’s most elaborate effort is for the five songs clustered together from “Sweeney Todd” — dark Gothic towers lit with dim London streetlamps, with the ensemble suddenly dressed in grimy-looking 19th century waistcoats or petticoats. It’s worth noting here that Jeremy Secomb sings as Sweeney in four of the five songs. (Lea Salonga sings solo as Mrs. Lovett for the fifth, “The Worst Pies in London.”) Secomb is one of the five cast members making their Broadway debuts, but he’s an old hand at Sweeney, having done a chilling and hilarious turn as the demon barber of Fleet Street Off-Broadway in 2017, in a small downtown theater that had been redesigned to replicate a famous London pie shop. I probably appreciated his excerpted performance on Broadway better for having seen him in the role close up and in full eight years ago — which I suspect is one reason why revues can feel satisfying to veteran theatergoers. An individual song can evoke memories of the full musical in which we originally experienced it.
Jill Parker’s costumes are at their most vivid for the six songs from “Into the Woods,” such as “Hello, Little Girl” with Bernadette Peters as the red-caped Little Red Riding Hood and Jacob Dickey as the bare-chested, furry-eared big bad wolf. Kudos as well in “Agony” to hair and wig designer Stefan Musch for supplying Maria Wirries as Rapunzel with glorious blonde locks dangling just out of reach from a window in a tower (repurposed for Sweeney Todd.)
“West Side Story,” though represented by only two songs (“Somewhere” and “Tonight Quintet”), also stands out for the way it’s staged.
“Company” gets less attention from the designers; it’s not as necessary. The musical is driven less by its plot, which is pretty loose, and more by its riff on the theme of love and marriage. That makes it easier for the individual songs to stand on their own. This helps explain why there are eight songs from “Company” in the revue, more than from any other musical. Still, several are also grouped together, more or less – placed interspersed with other shows’ songs about love or dating.
Not every song is grouped together by show. There are some puckish juxtapositions. “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid” from “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” performed playfully by three of the men, is followed by “You Gotta Get a Gimmick,” the comically sexy number from Gypsy performed by three of the women.
I haven’t talked about showstopping performances. There are a few; Lea Salonga in “Everything is Coming Up Roses” is certainly one; she has a clear belt that can knock you into your seat, but il’s somehow delivered with an edge of sadness and panic that lets us know: This is the character Mama Rose.
But there aren’t as many such moments as intended. The producers apparently believe that showstoppers sell a show. But it’s unreasonable to expect cast members, no matter how capable, to deliver one number after another that outshine the iconic performances with which Sondheim-lovers in New York are well-acquainted. And there’s that problem of a lack of context. Too many of these numbers, revved up from nothing, start to make the revue feel like a singing competition. Everybody is supposed to be old friends, no?
Which brings me to Bernadette Peters. She’s the person in the cast – the performer on Broadway, period – most associated with Stephen Sondheim, originating roles in two of the musicals excerpted in “Old Friends,” and appearing on Broadway in three of the others. When she sings some dozen of the songs in the revue, even with a voice that may not be what it used to be – solos like “Send in the Clowns” and “Losing My Mind,” duets like “Sunday” and “Children Will Listen,” group numbers like a slinky ‘Broadway Baby,” and a heartfelt “Side by Side” – it doesn’t just evoke memories of the shows she’s been in (like the phenomenon I talked about of seeing Jeremy Secomb again in “Sweeney Todd.”) It somehow also elicits a feeling about our continuing connection to Stephen Sondheim; as if, to paraphrase Follies, he’s still here.
Act I
Prologue
Side by Side – Company
Comedy Tonight – A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Company – Company
The Little Things You Do Together – Company
You could Drive a Person Crazy – Company
Live Alone and Like It – Dick Tracy the movie (also Putting It Together, the Broadway revue)
Loving You – Passion
Getting Married Today – Company
Into The Woods – Into the Woods
On the Steps of the Palace – Into the Woods
Agony – Into the Woods
I Know Things Now/Bounce – Into the Woods/ Bounce (aka Road Show)
Hello, Little Girl – Into the Woods
Children Will Listen – Into the Woods
A Weekend in the Country – A Little Night Music
Send In the Clowns – A Little Night Music
The Ballad of Sweeney Todd – Sweeney Todd
The Worst Pies in London – Sweeney Todd
My Friends – Sweeney Todd
Pretty Women – Sweeney Todd
A Little Priest – Sweeney Todd
The Ladies Who Lunch – Company
Sunday – Sunday in the Park With George
Act II
Entr’act Overture from Merrily We Roll Along
Somewhere – West Side Story
Tonight Quintet – West Side Story
Broadway Baby – Follies
Everybody Ought to Have a Maid – A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
You Gotta Get A Gimmick – Gypsy
Waiting for the Girls Upstairs – Follies
I’m Still Here – Follies
Could I Leave You? – Follies
Buddy’s Blues – Follies
The Boy From – The Mad Show
Losing My Mind – Follies
Everything’s Coming Up Roses – Gypsy
Not a Day Goes By – Merrily We Roll Along
Being Alive – Company
Old Friends – Merrily We Roll Along
Side by Side – Company
Love is in the Air – “originally written as the opening number for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, but ultimately it was cut from the show.”
Sondheim’s Old Friends
MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theater through June 15
Running time: 2 hours and 35 minutes, including intermission
Tickets: $144 – $422
Featuring music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Devised by Cameron Mackintosh
Direction and musical staging by Matthew Bourne
Choreography by Stephen Mear. Julia McKenzie serves as artistic consultant.
Musical supervision by Alfonso Casado Trigo and Stephen Brooker, musical arrangements by Stephen Metcalfe, conducted by Annbritt duChateau.
Set design by Matt Kinley, projection design by George Reeve, costume design by Jill Parker, lighting design by Warren Letton, hair and wig Design by Stefan Musch, and sound design by Mick Potter.
Cast: Bernadette Peters, Lea Salonga, Jacob Dickey, Kevin Earley, Jasmine Forsberg, Kate Jennings Grant, Bonnie Langford, Beth Leavel, Gavin Lee, Jason Pennycooke, Joanna Riding, Jeremy Secomb, Kyle Selig, Maria Wirries, and Daniel Yearwood, along with Paige Faure, Alexa Lopez, Greg Mills and Peter Neureuther.
