The number of Stephen Sondheim anthologies since his passing or perhaps beginning with the unexpected success of a revived Merrily We Roll Along makes a new iteration difficult to distinguish itself. Originally a 2022 gala concert, then a 2023 London production, the show arrives on Broadway with frequent Sondheim alumnus Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga as tandem centerpiece.
An unnecessarily large cast often saps character and context by breaking up lyrics. “Being Alive” (Company) and “Broadway Baby” (Follies), for example, lose impact broken up among multiple vocalists.
Jeremy Secomb and Lea Salonga in Sweeney Todd
Producer Cameron Mackintosh, with no small self acknowledgment, has chosen musicals of which he was a part, including many of Sondheim’s more familiar songs. Even an audience conversant with material will wonder at its lack of source identification, however; placards or projected titles identifying each musical would work. Those who are unversed will be at sea. “The Boy From…” is, I believe, the only song not from a musical. Why include it?
Nor does sequencing help. Songs from a show are frequently not grouped. We might understand them more were trajectory at least indicated. Parentheses rush from one to another. The show could be successfully cut and allowed to breathe.
Jasmine Forsberg, Jacob Dickey, Kyle Selig, Maria Wirries, Daniel Yearwood and Company perform The Tonight Quintet
Style varies hugely. Selections from Sweeney Todd, West Side Story, Into the Woods, and Company are framed, while Lea Salonga’s “Loving You” (Fosca from Passion), Beth Leavel’s “The Ladies Who Lunch” (Joanne in Company), Gavin Lee’s “Could I Leave You?” (ordinarily Phyllis from Follies – making no sense ostensibly performed by her husband), and Jason Pennycooke’s “Buddy’s Blues” (Follies) are diminished when performed as if cabaret.
Though revues generally approach material outside of origin, Sondheim’s songs are so imbued with specifics that few benefit from generic manifestation. He wrote FOR moment, time, place, emotion, person.
Jacob Dickey and Bernadette Peters – Into the Woods
It’s as if Old Friends were put together by a committee. Even aesthetics lack singular vision. Matt Kinley’s sets consist of two towers/building segments that move in to create background for just a couple of numbers. (Sweeney Todd features furniture.) Warren Letton’s lighting is fine except for underwhelming neon prosceniums. Projections by George Reeve are the only consistently appropriate décor.
Costumes (Jill Parker) come and go, some numbers fully attired as to musical, others noted by a single prop or proverbial black formal wear which ranges from flattering to cheap looking. The latter is so jarring one might imagine it comes from actor’s own closets.
Choreography by Stephen Mear is apt and cute. “You Could Drive a Person Crazy” (Company), with Bonnie Langford (an imported find), Kate Jennings Grant and Joanna Riding, is zingy fun. “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid” (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) with rubber-limbed Gavin Lee, Jason Pennycooke, and Kyle Selig, arrives with nifty music hall footwork.
Gavin Lee, Kyle Selig, Jason Pennycooke – A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Musical staging – Matthew Bourne – routinely works, though mugging appears where irreverence might better serve. “Getting Married Today” (Company) is a full production number. Were vocalist Joanna Riding’s lyrics not speeding ahead of the music, her crawling away might’ve been funnier. Songs from West Side Story land well, though Lea Salonga’s “Somewhere” is pointlessly squeezed in before the better “Quintet.”
“Agony” with Kyle Selig and Kevin Earley as the princes and “Hello Little Girl” with Bernadette Peters and Jacob Dickey, the latter dining on lascivious tone, are deft and droll. (Both Into the Woods.) “Sunday” (Sunday in the Park with George) with Bernadette Peters (who starred in the original), Jacob Dickey and the company, is performed as the painting fills out on a screen above. (This is somehow always moving.) Choices from Sweeney Todd (Jeremy Secomb lacks fury; Lea Salonga has terrific comic flair) are highlights.
Jasmine Forsberg, Beth Leavel, Bernadette Peters, Kate Jennings Grant, Bonnie Langford, Lea Salonga, Maria Wirries and Joanna Riding – Follies
Lea Salonga has an impressive instrument, but is most often singing outside of story and to the balcony. We miss connection. The New York production might’ve easily omitted inclusion of her “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” being powerfully performed down the street. Bernadette Peters seems to be struggling- a cold?- her voice smaller, requiring pauses and swallows, movement somewhat stilted. Her best tremulously illuminates “Losing My Mind” (Follies), “I Know Things Now” (Into the Woods) and “Send in the Clowns” (A Little Night Music).
Maria Wirries and Bonnie Langford shine in everything they do. Jacob Dickey, Gavin Lee, and Kyle Selig also regularly stand out.
Bernadette Peters – A Little Night Music
An Entr’-‘acte overture from Merrily We Roll Along just makes one impatient. The show has too many endings. Singing to slides of Sondheim’s life elicits four successive numbers and an encore dissipating effect of a life and talent deeply missed. One more after the visuals would’ve been fine.
Is it entertaining, yes, but the show could’ve easily been tighter and more cohesive.
Photos by Matthew Murphy
Manhattan Theatre Club presents
Sondheim’s Old Friends
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Devised by Cameron Mackintosh
Direction and Musical Staging by Matthew Bourne
Through June 15, 2025
The Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th Street
https://www.manhattantheatreclub.com/
