Beth Leavel, Ryan McCartan, Gavin Lee & More Join STEPHEN SONDHEIM’S OLD FRIENDS

Manhattan Theatre Club has revealed the Broadway co-stars who will join two-time Tony Award winner Bernadette Peters and Tony Award winner Lea Salonga in Cameron Mackintosh’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends. The production, presented by MTC in association with Cameron Mackintosh and Daryl Roth, will open April 8, 2025 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Previews begin Tuesday, March 25, 2025.
 
Joining Broadway Legends Peters and Salonga will be Jasmine Forsberg, Kate Jennings Grant, David Harris, Bonnie Langford, Tony Award winner Beth Leavel, two-time Tony Award nominee Gavin Lee, Ryan McCartan, multiple Olivier Award nominee Jason Pennycooke, two-time Olivier Award winner Joanna Riding, Jeremy Secomb, Maria Wirries, and Daniel Yearwood. The company will also include Kevin Earley, Paige Faure, Alexa Lopez, and Peter Neureuther. The final co-star will be announced soon.
 
Cameron Mackintosh said today, “It was Steve’s idea to do a third revue of his work but sadly he died before we had pieced it all together. I always wanted this one to be driven by his greatest melodies. To celebrate his great life and legacy I wanted to put on an all-star gala in London but first I had to finish the hat. Miraculously, in only a few days all the shows, songs, and fun we had enjoyed together fell onto the page in sequence (undoubtedly nudged from above by Steve) and the running order has hardly changed since. The gala was wonderful but more importantly, proved that the material wasn’t just a concert, but the great big Broadway show Steve wanted it to be. For our West End season, Matthew Bourne and I put together an all-star ensemble of old friends, led by Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga, around whom we wove the material as if in a play. I am thrilled that nearly half of our rapturously received London old friends are able to join our brilliant new American friends to bring this show to Broadway. It's an added delight that I am reunited with Lynne Meadow and MTC, with whom Steve and I did our second revue, Putting it Together, starring the incomparable Julie Andrews. For all of us working on this show it is our love letter and thank you to Steve – a musical genius but also an old friend whose brilliant work and memory will last forever.”
 
Lynne Meadow and Chris Jennings of Manhattan Theatre Club said, “We are proud that MTC will co-produce the Broadway premiere of Old Friends. We are thrilled to reunite with the brilliant and prolific Cameron Mackintosh, with whom we co-produced Sondheim’s Putting it Together Off-Broadway in 1993; Daryl Roth, with whom we first partnered on our Broadway transfers of Proof and The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife in 2000; and Bernadette Peters, who returned to New York in 1982 to star in MTC’s Off-Broadway production of Sally and Marsha. We are also pleased to be welcoming a fabulous group of actors, many of whom are joining Lea Salonga and director Matthew Bourne in making their MTC debuts, for this production. Stephen Sondheim was an early Board member of Manhattan Theatre Club (1971-1985), and we are honored to pay tribute to this legendary artist.” 
 
Daryl Roth said, “It's a joy to celebrate Stephen Sondheim's remarkable legacy, and I’m especially thrilled to work with the legendary Bernadette Peters, the brilliantly talented Lea Salonga, and a fantastic group of actors from Broadway and the West End. Together, we're honoring a true master whose work will continue to inspire us and enrich the world of musical theatre for years to come.”

Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles will present the North American premiere of Old Friends at the Ahmanson Theatre from February 8 through March 9, 2025 in advance of the Broadway premiere.
 
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.