Interview: 'Art Should Not Be a Static Thing': Actor Lea Salonga on Legacy, Empowerment and Aching Feet in STEPHEN SONDHEIM'S OLD FRIENDS

Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, a show devised by Cameron Mackintosh to honour the legendary composer, has arrived in the West End at the Gielgud Theatre. With stars such as Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga, Old Friends is a tribute to Sondheim with performers from both sides of the pond, coming together to sing some of his greatest works. 

Lea Salonga is best known for her Tony Award winning role in Miss Saigon. In addition to the Tony, she has won Olivier, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World Awards. She was also the first Asian to play Eponine in Les Misérables on Broadway and returned to the beloved show as Fantine in the 2006 revival.

BroadwayWorld had the chance to speak with Lea during the run-up to the show's opening, about what it has been like bringing this show to the West End. We discussed the collaboration process with team members like Cameron Mackintosh and Julia McKenzie, her favourite Sondheim songs and mastering a British accent.

Tell us a bit about your current show, Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends?

It is a celebration of Stephen Sondheim. That is probably the most concise description I can think of! It is a celebration of his music, of his lyrics, of the shows that he has created, and the power of art and music, of being able to breathe all kinds of life into something that has existed for years and years and still find something new and exciting to mine from it. If anything, this show serves as proof that art should not be a static thing that needs to be venerated, like icons in the church, where you can't see something new in it. Obviously, when you see the show, you'll see “Oh, they're doing something from this show!”

The context has, in some way, been preserved because of just how popular those songs might be and the image of what those things evoke, but there's also stuff where we take things completely out of context and are then able to see it in a different way. What used to be really sad and tragic can be turned into something joyful. So it's been an interesting process to have that room to explore and to be encouraged to really dig into the material and to pay attention to lyrics.

And also to hear from people that had gotten to work with Steve. People like Julia McKenzie, and Cameron Mackintosh, who's had a long friendship with him, for them to, in very personal and protective ways, be able to say, “When we were working on this, this is what he liked.” They are great stewards of his work. And if there's even one wrong word in a line, and if I change a tense of something unintentionally, they will come after me! [Laughs] And say, “Wait, that's not the word he wrote, that's not what he meant. And that's not what that is supposed to be.” But they've also been so wonderful and so open in trying to dig even deeper than what they know.

All of us have been empowered and enabled to find the joy and the fun in his material, regardless of the show, regardless of the context. It's been quite the ride! At first, I thought that I was going to be very overwhelmed because there was a lot of material to learn, but because of the process being laid out in the way that it was, I found myself just naturally absorbing things. It's been fun! I've really had the most wonderful time. 

And to go back to your question, what is this? It's a celebration of Sondheim placed in the hands of some of the most incredible storytellers on the West End. It's also wonderful and completely appropriate that Bernadette Peters, who has been a muse of Sondheim, gets to make her first West End run singing his songs. It's absolutely right and appropriate, and it's exciting! I'm so excited for her that she gets to spend a nice chunk of time in this part of the world, doing eight shows a week in London. She's never done this before. And it's inspiring - and quite unbelievable! - that she's been around for as long as she has in the musical theatre world, but she's never done a West End run. She's just been so fantastic. And she's one of the fittest people in the company, really strong. And forever youthful! [Laughs]  Whatever her secret is, she should bottle it and sell it and make a bajillion bucks!

What has it been like bringing Sondheim’s work to life with the incredible cast and creative team?

Everybody is really fun! Everyone is joyful. Sure, we're tired. We're in tech, my hips are aching, my feet hurt, and everybody spends so many hours of the day in heels, but everyone's attitude and spirits are just so high - everybody wants to be in that room. And it's a really wonderful mix of young people and older people, but the older people outnumber the younger people in this production. A lot of us who are older feel a great responsibility to steward these young folks into this world and impart wisdom and knowledge, answer questions, and try to be positive examples for a new generation of musical theatre artists here in the West End.

It's so good to be in this company. I look forward to going into rehearsals every day because everybody has been incredible to work with. And even though you're being pushed out of your comfort zone, you're constantly encouraged to keep seeking and digging and figuring stuff out. Because everyone in the process is, regardless of how much you know, encouraged to ask questions and dig and to be curious and to feel empowered. It's been such a fantastic process to be a part of.

How has Sondheim had an impact on your life? 

I remember when I first started watching his shows! Perhaps because of the lack of life experience in my own life, they felt difficult to understand. They just felt far away. But the older that I got, then it started to make more sense. Unless you're like my 17-year-old kid who is probably the biggest Sondheim fanatic in the world - I'm sure that there are people who will likely jockey for that position! - unless you're someone like that, and I certainly wasn't, as a younger person, it felt hard to understand. My brain really needed time to wrap itself around it. But the older I got, the more easily it became to understand, like, “Oh, now I understand what that is. Now I get why the rhymes are the way that they are.” Even if you're not able to articulate it, there's something about your heart that understands it.

He used his great intelligence to craft these shows, the word play, and the rhyming, and the words that he chose. And Julia McKenzie would say, everything had intention behind it, everything was on purpose - every comma, every period, every word. So we had to interpret why the comma was there and figure that out in order to make it really accessible and easier to access by the audience. Our job is for the audience to get it, and it being a work of art, it has to hit you right where it matters. And so it really started to hit me! All of a sudden, whatever obstacles that I might have placed for myself in accessing his material, they all fell away. And that probably was one reason that the rehearsal process was not as overwhelming as I surely thought it was going to be, because I think my heart was more ready for it. So now, it's like, “Oh, God, I forgot what the next word is!” And you're limited then to what rhymes so it helps! [Laughs]  

Do you have a favourite Sondheim song to perform?

Oh my God, I don't know that I have a favourite song to perform! I get to perform quite a few of them in the show. But my photograph at the front of house has me holding a cleaver, which is a really obvious clue as to what song I'll be doing. [Laughs] “Worst Pies in London” has been a lot of fun. That's one of the favourites. It's hard! And even Cameron and Steven Brooker, our musical supervisors, say [imitating British accent] “This Sweeney section, it's bloody hard!”

[Laughs]

And I, with a very dry expression in mind, say, “Yeah, and you happen to task this song to one of the non-Brits in this company. Thanks a lot! [Laughs] But I'm glad to do it. I'm actually really happy that I get to do it. It's been so much fun! [imitating British accent] Bloody ‘ard, but it's been fun. So I will name that as my favourite. But I get to sing some really awesome material. Even with my achy feet, and my achy back, and whatever body part happens to be aching at that second, I'm just so happy to be here. I'm really lucky. But one of the favourites that actually doesn't make an appearance in the show is “Another Hundred People” from Company. It is a tribute, an ode, and a love letter to New York, which is my favourite city in the world. My mind just goes crazy with the images of the city whenever I sing the song in concert. It's just one of the fun songs I get to sing whenever I get to do it.

What do you hope audiences take away from Old Friends? 

Just how great the work is. What a great sense of humour this man had, because it's all over the material. Not just how smart he is, because that's pretty obvious, but how he put his intelligence to good use in order to show us his heart. And from just the sound of the music, it was pretty damn big. And how he still had questions from the world and how curious he seemed to be in examining the human condition with the shows that he did. I just hope that audiences take away that he was a master at what he did, that there was no one that did what he did the way that he did it. It's just such beautiful pieces of art.

And how would you describe the show in one word?

Oh, God, I don't think I could! Steve could! [Laughs] Rich is a good word, and it’s one that he's used. But I think that's a pretty good word to describe the show, and you can use it to fill in whatever blank might come into your head. It's rich with the material, it is rich with the talent that Cameron has assembled to interpret it, it is rich in humour and pathos and emotion. It is rich in all the good things.

Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends is at the Gielgud Theatre until 6 January 2024