There’s so much glistening, glittering, and gleaming in Sondheim’s Old Friends, the fabulous revue now on Broadway as the latest memorial to lyricist-composer Stephen Sondheim, that it’s a happy challenge to figure out where to begin lavishing praise.
All right, why not with top-billed Bernadette Peters, for whom Sondheim wrote on more than one occasion and who, after Elaine Stritch left, assumed the unofficial title of foremost Sondheim interpreter? She confirms as much throughout Sondheim’s Old Friends but nowhere more movingly than with her acting in both ”Losing My Mind” and “Send in the Clowns” (which ends with the lyric he revised at Barbra Streisand’s insightful request). She has fun with Little Red Riding Hood of Into the Wood, and, really, every time she participates elsewhere. Throughout, she’s clearly delighted to be celebrating her old friend, so much so that she’s all but understandably keeper-of-the-flame about it.
Lea Salonga is also top-billed, and her appearance is revelatory, although her credits since she was Kim in Miss Saigon thirty-four years ago should have alerted audiences to her maturity. Every time she strides on for a solo, she distinguishes herself, almost immediately with “Loving You” and then later with a forceful “Somewhere” and even more so on “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” which even Ethel Merman might have declared not bad. Her unquestionable high points are “The Worst Pies in London” and “A Little Priest,” during which she reveals amazing Mrs. Lovett comedy chops.
[Read Steven Suskin’s ★★★☆☆ review here.]
From hot start to hotter finish a roster of other musical comedy vets unleashes expertise on the 40 Sondheim songs chosen from his vast trove. As far as solos go—the entire cast shows up in the many ensemble numbers—Beth Leavel shines in “The Little Things We Do Together” and later shows the audience what’s what with “The Ladies Who Lunch.” Bonnie Langford, a welcome London import where’s she’s adored, does mighty right by “I’m Still Here.” (She was previously seen on B’way as Baby June in the Angela Lansbury Gypsy revival.)
Another Londoner paying a stateside visit is leading lady Joanna Riding, who does plenty in the “You Could Drive a Person Crazy” trio as well as in “You Gotta Get a Gimmick” (with Leavel and Peters). Riding calls the show to a halt as the hesitant bride in the nearly impossibly agitated “Not Getting Married,” which is Sondheim exercising his frequent ambivalence theme to its show-stopping limit.
And that’s not the whole of it. Gavin Lee, Kate Jennings Grant, Jason Pennycooke, Jeremy Secomb (blade-sharp as Sweeney Todd), Maria Wirries, Kyle Selig, Alexa Lopez, Jacob Dickey, Kevin Earley, Paige Faure, Jasmine Forsberg, and Daniel Yearwood give inestimable support whenever conscripted.
All of this is achieved on Matt Kinley’s flashily elegant set, in Jill Parker’s elegantly flashy costumes, under Annbritt duChateau’s musical direction, and most of all under Matthew Bourne’s direction and choreography (with the solid Stephen Mears adding on). Bourne won his two Tonys for the ground-breaking Swan Lake (1998) and here demonstrates that his prowess has only strengthened since. If he makes any missteps—occasionally he goes out of his way to literalize a lyric—it’s hardly enough to become an irritant.
Watching Old Friends not only means having so much of Sondheim’s work sweep luxuriously over the auditorium. It unfailingly prompts thoughts about his achievements in the history of musicals as well as triggers implications about his impact on the future. Maybe most pressing is its enforcing the beauty, joy, and breadth of his melodies, so often orchestrated by Jonathan Tunick as if they were marble plinths on which to display Sondheim’s genius. Indeed, his lyrics are so encompassing, so enthralling that too often his melodies are regarded as no more than notes on which the inspired lyrics are placed.
No idolators will attend Sondheim’s Old Friends without bringing a mental list of songs they’d like to hear. I was hoping for “Something’s Coming” (Leonard Bernstein the composer), “What Can You Lose?” from Dick Tracy, and the unusually autobiographical “Anyone Can Whistle.” I didn’t get them, but no matter. What’s on display is unmitigatedly glorious. In other words, Sondheim as nonpareil influencer may be repeatedly remembered with a breathless retrospective, but as the new extravaganza also demonstrates, his belief in the potential of the musical to break new ground will persist.
Sondheim’s Old Friends opened April 8, 2025, at Samuel J. Friedman Theatre and runs through June 15. Tickets and information: manhattantheatreclub.com
