Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends Broadway Reviews

*CRITIC'S PICK* Old Friends,” which opened on Tuesday at Manhattan Theater Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theater, is in that sense a lot like its predecessors. The 41 numbers it features come from the main pool, with an emphasis on songs from Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Company, Follies and Into the Woods. Most of them were brilliant in their original context; many remain so outside it. Some are sung spectacularly by a bigger-than-usual cast of 17, led by Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga. Others are middling, a few are misfires. [...] Though directed by the British choreographer Matthew Bourne — the show began life as a one-night gala in London — Old Friends has a stodgy quality that I find surprising. A couple of boxy towers [...] dominate Matt Kinley’s set design, moving back and forth as if in a very slow chess endgame.

Old Friends stretches to two and a half hours, counting an intermission, which is both way too long and woefully incomplete. You can’t take offense at the concept — it accomplishes exactly what it aims to do, which is to remind you that Sondheim wrote some really great songs — but you do start to fantasize about it all slowing down and just committing to the dramatic frames that contained them.

The headliners are wonderfully showcased. Ms. Peters has been an exemplary interpreter of Sondheim’s work for decades, having starred in the original stagings of Sunday in the Park With George and Into the Woods. While her voice has lost some of its rich timbre, her rendition of Send in the Clowns is so deeply infused with soul-searching that any vocal imperfections are quickly forgotten as Ms. Peters’s evocation of a love that might have been—could have, should have—burrows into your heart. Equally extraordinary is her performance of another exquisite song of ill-fated yearning, Losing My Mind.

Beginning with the title, the show presents itself simply yet exquisitely. It’s clearly a labor of love, curated by Mackintosh — mostly from the Sondheim shows he’s produced — and starring some of the composer’s veteran players. But this is no musical shiva for close friends and family. More than a tribute, it’s a feast — and one of the most heartfelt and joyous shows of the season.

‘Old Friends’ tries to be everything at once, moving from ‘Company’ to ‘Into the Woods’ to ‘A Little Night Music’ to ‘Sweeney Todd’ at breakneck speed. The result feels more like a mixtape than a tribute, more exhausting than illuminating.

But the main takeaway here is that not only is Sondheim now gone, his peers are no spring chickens, either. [...] And these are real ‘Old Friends’ on stage at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. [...] This whole crew was mostly in the original creative kitchens; I say, catch ‘em while you still can.

But the main takeaway here is that not only is Sondheim now gone, his peers are no spring chickens, either. (Neither are some of us critics who adored his work). And these are real “Old Friends” onstage at the Manhattan Theatre Club.

Yet another Stephen Sondheim revue is playing on Broadway. This one is called Old Friends, and it opened Tuesday at MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre after engagements in London and Los Angeles. This is the sixth Sondheim revue to open on Broadway. In recent decades, legendary composers from George Gershwin to Richard Rodgers have not received this kind of attention. Hands down, the three best moments in Old Friends come when five wonderful singers (Jacob Dickey, Jasmine Forsberg, Kyle Selig, Maria Wirries and Daniel Yearwood) deliver a memorable Tonight Quintet from West Side Story. The two other great moments belong to Lea Salonga, who brings down the house twice, first with Somewhere from West Side Story and then Everything’s Coming Up Roses from Gypsy. Salonga presents a great Rose, and what adds to the excitement is how different Rose is from the roles that made Salonga a star: Kim in Miss Saigon, Fantine in Les Miz and the singing voice of Jasmine in the film Aladdin. If there were any justice, Cameron Mackintosh, who devised this Sondheim revue, would have instructed Matthew Bourne, who directs, to include Rose’s Turn for Salonga to finish off the evening.

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.

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?

Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, hosted by megawatt stars Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga, is as cozy as a longtime friend’s living room. Best of all, the honeyed orchestrations (originally by Sondheim’s longtime collaborator Jonathan Tunick) and crisp sound mixing in the Old Friends setlist help remind us why the best of composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim’s repertoire still attracts talented titans.

“Sondheim’s Old Friends, the new revue at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Friedman Theatre, offers wonderful numbers well performed by talented performers. But to quote Charley Kringas, in act two of Merrily We Roll Along: ‘true greatness is knowing when to get off.’”

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.

Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends is a celebration of a fearless artist that is itself quite timid, a memorial piece that seems overly desperate to keep out the spectre of death. Once you accept the show’s limited ambitions, as I gradually did over the course of this pleasant and jauntily staged musical revue, you can let yourself to have a good time. Sure, Steve himself would doubtless have rolled his eyes at the whole affair—but there’s no denying the production’s considerable nostalgic charm.

Perhaps fittingly, the best reason to see Old Friends is the oldest thing in it: Bernadette Peters. At 77, she remains astonishingly youthful-looking; when she takes the stage to sing “I Know Things Now” as Little Red Riding Hood from Into the Woods, it really doesn’t seem like that big a stretch. She does a little cavorting—especially when clowning with Leavel and Riding in Gypsy’s “You Gotta Get a Gimmick”—but mainly she offers emotional ballads and ballast. Most of her solos are in songs she has done before, including some that she has done on Broadway (“Send in the Clowns,” “Losing My Mind”), but her versions are in constant, exquisite evolution. She knows things now, many valuable things, and she brings them to Sondheim’s work like the best kind of friends: the ones who can tell you the truth.

After an evening of hurt, heart and hilarity, the moving climax is a slideshow of images of Sondheim, who died in 2021, next to his old friends as the cast wails gorgeous arrangements of “Not a Day Goes By” and “Being Alive.” Sondheim and a fantastic company of actors, standing side by side by side.