By Lucy Komisar
“Sondheim’s Old Friends” is producer Cameron Mackintosh’s love letter to Stephen Sondheim’s greatest shows. Which he had produced. Better than a memorial service. For the rest of us, it’s also a chance to see Lea Salonga, a brilliant actor as well as singer.
The great opening is “Comedy Tonight,” from “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” by Salonga and her star billing partner Bernadette Peters, setting us up for a joyous evening of musical comedy. You see it in “Company,” with the satirical “It’s the Little things you do together,” very funny, featuring Kate Jennings Grant and Gavin Lee. When it’s Sondheim, even one song becomes a play skit.
Such as the terrific, magical, “You can drive a person crazy” from “Company.” (Bonnie Langford, Grant and Joanna Riding, in glittery jewels.) This is why his songs work so well in cabaret, where the best singers also act. More comedy on his favorite subject, marriage and relationships, “I’m not getting married today,” also “Company.” (Riding, Kevin Earley, Maria Wirries). The groom is yoked to the bride.
She: “I telephoned my analyst about it, and he said to see him Monday. But by Monday I’ll be floating in the Hudson with the other garbage. I’m not well, so I’m not getting married.”
This is why Sondheim’s songs are not just place-holders between the actions of the play, the lyrics are intrinsic to the play. It’s why he follows in the tradition of the greats, Oscar Hammerstein, Fred Ebb, Alan Jay Lerner.
A favorite Salonga is “(Careful the things you say) Children will listen” from “Into the Woods.”
Peters’ best is “Send in the Clowns” from “A Little Night Music.”
Director Matthew Bourne is brilliant in his staging of the production numbers, such as “Into the Woods” to grandmother’s, showing actors holding lanterns. Bernadette Peters in a red cape is threatened by a bare-chested leather-clad wolf. A good turn, though generally Peters disappoints.
Also from “Into the Woods,” “Agony more painful than yours” is a comic take on the Rapunzel fairy tale, with the locked-away maiden’s blonde hair falling from a high window.
A Mackintosh favorite must be “Sweeny Todd,” giving Salonga a big role as she pushes pussies into pies and Jeremy Secomb, with a horrific threatening face, sings to his razor, “my friend and true.”
That followed is by “Pretty Women” from the same show, and then rather curious,“Here’s to the ladies who lunch” that fits with Joanna Riding, cool, cynical, about “the girls who play wife,” both from “Company.”
Through the songs, the women are terrifically hammy, there’s lots of vaudeville, misogyny is satirized, and the poor guys are “Waiting around for the girls upstairs” from “Follies.”
But the tough life is recognized in, also from “Follies,” Bonnie Langford in a smashing number, “I’m still here.” “Been called a commie, pinko too.” (Plus ça change.)
I liked “The boy from…,” an Ipanema girl joke. It was from the 1966 Off-Broadway revue “The Mad Show,” and I’m including the lyrics because you probably never heard them. Kate Jennings Grant is terrific.
Tall and tender, like an Apollo,
He goes walking by, and I have to follow him,
The boy from Tacarembo la Tumbe del Fuego Santa Malipas Zatatecas la Junta del Sol y Cruz.
When we meet, I feel I’m on fire
And I’m breathless every time I enquire,
“How are things in Tacarembo la Tumbe del Fuego Santa Malipas
Zatatecas la Junta del Sol y Cruz?”
Why, when I speak, does he vanish?
Oo-oo-oo-
Why is he acting so clannish?
Oo-oo-oo
I wish I understood Spanish.
When I tell him I think he’s the end,
He giggles a lot with his friend. ….”
It goes on!
Salonga’s star turn is Gypsy’s “I had a dream, a dream about you…Everything’s coming up roses.”
The show reminds everyone of the genius that has been lost.
“Sondheim’s Old Friends.” Music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, devised by Cameron Mackintosh, directed by Matthew Bourne. Manhattan Theatre Club at Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th St, NYC. Runtime 2 ½ hours. Opened April 8, 2025, closes June 29, 2025.