What do you say, old friend? Ready for some more Sondheim? The music of Broadway's most revered composer is back on Broadway in Manhattan Theatre Club's (in association with Cameron Mackintosh and Daryl Roth) Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends- a musical that celebrates the master himself, with an ensemble cast led by Tony Award winners Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga.
Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends comes to Broadway from London’s West End, and plays Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles before arriving on Broadway.
Old Friends is a great big Broadway show born out of Cameron Mackintosh and Stephen Sondheim’s lifetime of friendship and collaboration. The two of them came up with the idea during the pandemic, drawing on the many shows that they had done together in collaboration with their good friend Julia McKenzie. Once theatres reopened in London and New York in the fall of 2021, Mackintosh was able to visit Sondheim again and this new show remained something they continued to discuss; but, sadly, shortly after, Sondheim passed away in November 2021.
It fell to Mackintosh to pick up where he and Sondheim left off, collating their notes, and structuring the show that would initially become a spectacular star-studded gala at the Sondheim Theatre in London’s West End in May 2022 to celebrate Sondheim’s life and work, and also raise funds for the newly formed Stephen Sondheim Foundation.
Stephen Sondheim is widely acknowledged as the most innovative, most influential, and most important composer and lyricist in modern Broadway history. He is the winner of an Academy Award, numerous Tony Award, multiple Grammy Awards and a Pulitzer Prize. Some of his other accolades include a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center Honors (1993), the National Medal of Arts (1996), the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Gold Medal for Music (2006) and a special Tony Awards for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre (2008).
Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for Road Show (2008), Passion (1994), Assassins (1991), Into the Woods (1987), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sweeney Todd (1979), Pacific Overtures (1976), The Frogs (1974), A Little Night Music (1973), Follies (1971; revised in London, 1987), Company (1970), Anyone Can Whistle (1964) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), as well as the lyrics for West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965) and additional lyrics for Candide (1973). Side by Side by Sondheim (1976), Marry Me a Little (1981), You're Gonna Love Tomorrow (1983) and Putting It Together (1993/99) are anthologies of his work, as is the new musical Sondheim on Sondheim.
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.
*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.
| 2023 | West End |
West End |
| 2025 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Sound Design of a Musical | Mick Potter |
| 2025 | Drama League Awards | DISTINGUISHED PERFORMANCE | Beth Leavel |
| 2025 | Drama League Awards | DISTINGUISHED PERFORMANCE | Lea Salonga |
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