Review: STEPHEN SONDHEIM'S OLD FRIENDS, Gielgud Theatre

Genius is an overused term these days, but there is really no other word to attribute to the late composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim. From Follies, to Gypsy, to A Little Night Music to West Side Story; few other people have had such a profound impact on musical theatre.

Sondheim sadly died in November 2021, after beginning work with longtime collaborator Cameron Mackintosh on a third revue of his work. Mackintosh, along with Maria Friedman, ran with the baton and arranged Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, a sell-out staged memorial concert to the great man in May last year. Such was the buzz around the show (due to the phenomenal ticket demand it was also live-streamed to the Prince Edward Theatre) that it was decided that it deserved the widest possible audience and a limited run at the Gielgud Theatre is now open.

Although the line-up is not quite as stellar as the one-off concert, Cameron Mackintosh has scored quite the coup by including Broadway icon Lea Salonga and legendary Sondheim collaborator and Tony-winning Bernadette Peters, who, astonishingly, is making her West End debut in the show.

The “Old Friends” part of the title is taken from Merrily We Roll Along, one of numerous shows featured in this jam-packed production. It must have been almost impossible to select from his vast body of work, but Sondheim fans and newbies alike will be pleased with the 39 songs included. Performed by a wonderful cast, including Joanna Riding, Bonnie Langford and Janie Dee; they all look as though they are having a ball.

A wide-eyed Jeremy Secomb reprises the incredible role that took him from Harrington’s Pie Shop in Tooting to a pie shop on Shaftesbury Avenue and then to New York as Sweeney Todd. He performs a chillingly funny version of “The Worst Pies In London” with Lea Salonga, who masters a cockney accent surprisingly well.

Salonga shows why she has had a stellar career spanning 45 years, giving a delicately beautiful rendition of a segment of “Somewhere” from West Side Story.

Peters takes over Judi Dench’s role in the concert with a heartbreaking, stripped back rendition of “Send In The Clowns”. She also holds the audience in the palm of her hand with a highly emotional version of “Losing My Mind” from Follies, which captures Sondheim's skill at character introspection so beautifully.

There is a wonderful rendition of “Tonight” that makes one yearn for a revival of West Side Story as soon as possible, mainly due to the vocal power of Bradley Jaden as Tony. He is also fabulous paired with a cutely adolescent Bernadette Peters in a very sexy version of “Hello, Little Girl”. 

Such was Sondheim's skill for comedy, there’s unsurprisingly a lot of humour in the production. Joanna Riding is brilliantly desperate in “Getting Married Today”, deftly handling the sharp and clever lyrics. Clare Burt and Gavin Lee are very funny in a wry performance of brilliantly observed “The Little Things You Do Together” and Lee teams up with Damian Humbley and Jason Pennycooke to vamp it up with “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid,” from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

Performed as ensemble pieces, masterpiece “Being Alive” and the highly symbolic “Not A Day Goes By” leave very few dry eyes in the house. As well as being a fitting tribute to the man, the production showcases the extent of both his range and the incredible structure of his work. From comedy, to pathos, to droll observation, Sondheim captured it all in his lyrics, but this show also demonstrates his superlative composition. The onstage Sondheim Orchestra is on top form, conducted by an effervescent Alfonso Casado Trigo.

Inevitably the repertoire jumps around from show to show, but Matthew Bourne’s direction ensures the staging is very fluent. Working with Julia McKenzie, who surely did more than anyone to bring Sondheim’s work to this side of the pond, means that the original and authentic essence of his work is retained. Lea Salonga told BroadwayWorld “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!”

Whether you are an old friend of Sondheim or a new one, you will leave the theatre moved, thoroughly entertained and surely breathless for a revival or three.

Read our interview with the incredible Lea Salonga here.

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

Photo Credit: Danny Kaan