‘Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends’ Review: Not Just a Broadway Tribute but a Musical Feast

” The Little Points You Do With each other,” from “Firm,” is typically sung because musical by a viewer, yet is currently wittily carried out by an older married couple, with Lee and Leavel making the song not so much commented upon as humorously lived.

As it develops to its upsurge, Peters, 77, steps into the structure, opens her sunshade and strikes her legendary profiled position of the role she produced more than 40 years earlier. Suddenly you feel that not just is the author being commemorated below, yet Peters, also, and indeed all the decades of innovative talents surrounding such timeless moments in our collective Sondheim experience. Absolutely, a gathering of old buddies– and new buddies, too.

There’s likewise Bonnie Langford bringing a half century of movie theater background– she was Child June in Angela Lansbury’s “Gypsy”– for a well-seasoned “I’m Still Right here” (putting Sondheim’s verse fine-tune for the movie “Postcards from the Edge”). Kate Jennings Give accomplishes the high-jump in the etymological hurdle of “The Kid From …” (the composer’s contribution to the Off Broadway production “The Mad Show” performance), and Peters bringing a tender frailty to “Send in the Clowns.”.

Not just are the tunes changed. Are star identities, the most eye-popping being Salonga going all out as Mrs. Lovett (from “Sweeney Todd”), come with by Jeremy Secomb in splendid voice as Todd. Yet much more impressive is Salonga’s Mom Rose with “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” (from “Gypsy”), displaying a belt and a fierceness that make the number a showstopper.

At times it appears like Sondheim favored the ladies, below the guys likewise remarkably tip up to the limelight, particularly Kyle Selig, Jason Pennycooke, Kevin Earley, and Jacob Dickey, who soloed with a soaring “Being Alive.”.

Meaningfully, the dozen-plus participants of the orchestra are symbolically placed in full sight, recognizing not only the composer’s work however his musicians, and indirectly the orchestrators, arrangers and music directors that made it all occur. It’s likewise a chance to completely value the knockout of an advance– Sondheim’s only– to “Merrily We Roll Along” as the show’s entr’ acte.

“Old Pals” started life as a London gala backed by the author’s buddy and manufacturer Cameron Mackintosh, following Sondheim’s death in 2021 at the age of 91. That led to a completely understood business production in 2023, which became a hit in London with Bernadette Peters making her West End bow. After that, the show was predestined for Sondheim’s home turf.

A quieter and reflective minute arrives when Georges Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” painting comes to life as the ensemble sings the rich “Sunday” from “Sunday in the Park With George.”.

Manufacturing:.
A presentation by Manhattan Theatre Club, created in organization with CMI and Daryl Roth and offering the production developed by Cameron Mackintosh of a musical in two acts with songs and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

Sondheim fanatics will unavoidably carp about tunes– and also shows, like “Assassins” and the under-appreciated “Pacific Overtures” and “The Frogs”– that are not represented. Or they might disagree with songs in which Sondheim only contributed verses. But the performance’s sensational “Tonight Quintet” from “West Side Story” and the ever-hysterical “You Obtained ta Obtain a Gimmick” make those quibbles moot.

There’s a gender swap for the “Follies” tune “Can I Leave You?” with Lee bitching up all those quips with a sting. And as opposed to the duty of the Witch in the “Into the Woods” sector (the function which she originated), Peters playfully emerges as Little Red Riding Hood to sing “I Know Points Now”– with a couple of bars from the title tune of strength from “Bounce” (the show that later became “Roadway Program”) insinuated for enjoyable.

With no forced running narrative, “Old Friends” teams the numbers mainly around specific programs, with one track and sector relocating into the following, staged with dignity by Matthew Bourne and choreographed by Stephen Mear. George Reeve’s forecasts discreetly suggests Manhattan, Paris and London with Matt Kinley’s set items offering the manufacturing some layout heft.

The manufacturing’s 40 numbers are controlled greatly by Sondheim’s biggest hits. Sondheim’s credo was to write tracks for his programs’ characters, and that regulation is valued below with the best of the best.

Peters returns for the Manhattan Theatre Club’s fresh, extremely unique and shocking Broadway manufacturing, following its run in Los Angeles. Lea Salonga brings extra star power to the large lineup of extraordinary skills, including Tony and Olivier winners Gavin Lee, Beth Leavel and Joanna Riding.

Starting with the title, the program occurs simply yet remarkably. It’s clearly a labor of love, curated by Mackintosh– mainly from the Sondheim reveals he’s generated– and starring several of the author’s professional players. This is no musical shiva for close friends and household. Greater than a tribute, it’s a banquet– and among the most joyous and wholehearted programs of the period.

Various other highpoints consist of two more tracks from “Firm.” Leavel leaves the barstool and possessing the entire stage for her own pungent version of “The Ladies That Lunch,” and Joanna Riding nails “Marrying” with excellent clarity and humor. (Significant credit rating to Mick Potter’s sound design, in which nary a syllable of a lyric is shed.).

“Old Friends” began life as a London gala backed by the author’s good friend and manufacturer Cameron Mackintosh, following Sondheim’s fatality in 2021 at the age of 91. After that, the show was destined for Sondheim’s home grass.

It’s clearly a labor of love, curated by Mackintosh– mainly from the Sondheim reveals he’s created– and starring some of the composer’s expert players. Sondheim fanatics will certainly carp about tunes– and even shows, like “Assassins” and the under-appreciated “Pacific Overtures” and “The Frogs”– that are not stood for. Instantly you really feel that not only is the author being celebrated right here, however Peters, as well, and certainly all the decades of creative abilities bordering such traditional minutes in our cumulative Sondheim experience.