Review Roundup: Broadway-Bound Stephen Sondheim's OLD FRIENDS Opens in Los Angeles

What did the critics think of Cameron Mackintosh's production of Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends, starring two-time Tony Award winner Bernadette Peters and Tony Award winner Lea Salonga at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles?

Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends will open April 8, 2025 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street). Previews begin Tuesday, March 25, 2025. Tickets are on sale at Telecharge.com and at the Samuel J. Friedman box office.

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. The gala won Best Theatre Event at the 2023 WhatsOnStage Awards and was subsequently broadcast on TV by the BBC.

The cast of Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends also stars Jacob Dickey, Kevin Earley, Jasmine Forsberg, Kate Jennings Grant, Bonnie Langford, Tony Award winner Beth Leavel, two-time Tony Award nominee Gavin Lee, multiple Olivier Award nominee Jason Pennycooke, two-time Olivier Award winner Joanna Riding, Jeremy Secomb, Kyle Selig, Maria Wirries, and Daniel Yearwood. The company will also include Paige Faure, Alexa Lopez, Greg Mills and Peter Neureuther.

Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times: There are glimpses of Sondheim onscreen, but this isn’t another biographical show. It’s an overstuffed yet always stylish homage. While no substitute for the musicals themselves, the production will be cherished by those fans who need to worship regularly at the altar of their Broadway god.

Maureen Lee Lenker, Entertainment Weekly: While Peters and Salonga are top billed, there are also plenty of remarkable performances from the rest of the singular cast. Beth Leavel drops the mic and the martini glass with her interpretation of Company’s “The Ladies Who Lunch,” while Gavin Lee gives us a bitingly savage gender-bent take on Follies’ “Could I Leave You?” Bonnie Langford, a star of British stage and screen, also gets a Follies feature with her rousing, extremely personal rendition of “I’m Still Here.”

Asha Mody, Daily Trojan: While the show may be daunting to those unfamiliar with Sondheim, it is not all inside baseball. Every element of the show feels cohesive; it is not a plot-driven show but a true celebration of the late musical theater legend’s body of work. Even if one walks in knowing nothing about the show, over the course of the evening, every audience member will learn the breadth and depth of his work and the lasting legacy he created.

Evan Henerson, BroadwayWorld: 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.

Average Rating: 90.0%