Review: OLD FRIENDS at Ahmanson Theatre

“White. A blank page or canvas. His favorite. So many possibilities.”

So concludes SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, a musical that many consider to be Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece. For the record, that musical’s closing number, “Sunday,” does make it into SONDHEIM’S OLD FRIENDS, the latest Broadway-bound revue of the composer’s music in its U.S. premiere at the Ahmanson Theatre. In fact, it’s the only song from SUNDAY that makes the cut. Some of the Sondheim faithful will invariably take issue with what’s in and what’s out of this Cameron Mackintosh-produced “great big Broadway show” that is OLD FRIENDS. Overheard on opening night during intermission was an attendee expressing his disgruntlement over the total omission of any songs from ASSASSINS.  Yeah, tough choices need to be made when you’re dealing with a musical catalog this vast.

More productive, one would hope, would be to concentrate on what is included, which is pretty formidable. That’s 2.5 hours’ worth of favorites from Sondheim classics, from NIGHT MUSIC to SWEENEY TODD, from FOLLIES to COMPANY to INTO THE WOODS along with some lesser-known but no less sparkly gems. The headliners are Tony Award winners Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga while their most un-slouchy co-stars feature a cavalcade of musical theater vets from Broadway and the London stage including Gavin Lee, Beth Leavel, Joanna Riding, Jeremy Secomb, Kate Jennings Grant and Kevin Earley.

Remember George’s love of “so many possibilities.” To watch these singers perform these numbers is to dream about entire revivals of Sondheim shows built around some of these actors, maybe even productions that have their genesis at the Ahmanson as was the case with the first revival of INTO THE WOODS which played the Ahmanson pre-Broadway in 2002. Lee and Leavel have been on this stage, the former in MARY POPPINS, the latter in the pre-Broadway bow of THE DROWSY CHAPPERONE. Salonga fronted the reimagined production of FLOWER DRUM SONG in 2001 next door at the Mark Taper Forum. So, yeah, we’ve got no shortage of old friends in our midst.

Director Matthew Bourne plugs several of his singer-dancers into familiar slots, letting them cut loose on material some have played before while also doing some frisky stunt-casting. Lee, for example, puts a decidedly scabrous charge into “Could I Leave You?” Phyllis Rogers Stone’s solo from FOLLIES. Then again, that’s hardly surprising, given the way Lee and Leavel bit into each into each other during COMPANY’s “The Little Things You Do Together” in the previous act. Peters famously originated the role of the Witch in INTO THE WOODS, but in OLD FRIENDS’ suite from WOODS, she turns up as … surprise! … Little Red Ridinghood to deliver a savvy “I Know Things Now” medleyed up with “Bounce” (from ROAD SHOW) followed by a duet with a bare-chested, tail-waggling Jacob Dickey on “Hello Little Girl.” It’s by no means the only time Peters – a musical theater force of nature - cedes the spotlight to another performer (more on this presently).  

The foibles and pains of l’amour are themes of so many of Sondheim’s shows, many of which do not end happily. Listening to Salonga cut loose on “Loving You,” you certainly hear the longing of PASSION’s Fosca, and then some. And how could anyone not include the swooningly romantic “Tonight” and “Somewhere” from WESTSIDE STORY (to which Sondheim wrote lyrics to Leonard Bernstein’s score). On the flip side, Jason Pennycooke gives a Sinatra-esque I can take-it-or-leave it air to “Live Alone and Like It” first heard in, of all places, the film DICK TRACY.

Bourne and Mackintosh have clustered the numbers together mostly by show, with a lot of time devoted to NIGHT MUSIC, FOLLIES and SWEENEY TODD. Pieces of Matt Kinley’s scenery slide in and out to establish a London tenement, a fairy tale forest or a westside alley. Music Director Annbritt duChateau’s vibrant orchestra sits in view, behind a stairway.  Whether wearing toga sashes, formal wear or Viennese country finery, the ensemble has plenty of room to execute the demands of Stephen Mear’s none too taxing dance steps.

As previously noted, there is a lot of musical muscle here, and damned near every performer gets an opportunity to front an 11 o’clock number. There’s Bonnie Langford defiantly planting a flag for showbiz endurance with “I’m Still Here” and Beth Leavel brining every inch of Joanne’s whiskey-soaked bile to “The Ladies Who Lunch.” Kookier but no less memorable is Kate Jennings Grant boozily tongue-twisting her way to celebrate  the Mary Rogers/Sondheim ditty “The Boy From… Tacarembo la Tumbe del Fuego Santa Malipas Zacatecas la Junta del Sol y Cruz.”

On the subject of Broadway Babies, Lea Salonga who was barely out of her teens when she took home her MISS SAIGON trophy, is a sight (and a voice) to behold. That magnificent voice, showcased both on stage and as the singing voice of Disney animated heroines, remains bell-sweet while also dexterous enough to handle Sondheim’s lyrical complexities. Saloga brings comic bounce to Mrs Lovett scheming opposite Jeremy Secomb’s Sweeney Todd and, later, entitled ferocity – along with a touch of madness – to Mama Rose’s “Everything’s Coming up Roses.” SWEENEY TODD and GYPSY have both enjoyed recent Broadway revivals, but someone needs to get this lady into both of these musicals.

The actress’s shining turn in OLD FRIENDS feels like the passage of a torch from, well… from someone like Bernadette Peters.

Of the stable of Sondheim’s old friends, Peters is one of the oldest. Having originated two major Sondheim roles and played several others, the actress knows this territory and has sung it before. Comedienne that she is, Peters can play the songs straight ahead, cockeyed, romance-suffused and everything in between. In OLD FRIENDS, she is happy to send up anything (including herself) with a cutesy prolog to “Broadway Baby” and as one of “You Gotta Get a Gimmick’s” resourceful strippers. When things get serious, she can kill “Losing My Mind” and shatter an audience’s heart with “Send in the Clowns.”  

That this is Peters’ Center Theatre Group debut is remarkable. How very splendid it is that she has brought so many skilled friends.  

SONDHEIM’S OLD FRIENDS plays through March 9 at 135 N. Grand Ave.

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