Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends | |
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Music | Stephen Sondheim |
Lyrics | Stephen Sondheim |
Premiere | 3 May 2022: Sondheim Theatre, London |
Productions |
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Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends is a tribute revue honoring musical theatre composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim devised and produced by Cameron Mackintosh.
Originally designed as a one-night performance, the revue premiered at the Sondheim Theatre in London on 3 May 2022. Over a year later, Mackintosh began producing a limited West End run. This run began previews on 21 September 2023 and opened on 3 October at the Gielgud Theatre.
The idea for the concert came about during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown where Sondheim suggested to Mackintosh a follow-up of their revue productions Side by Side by Sondheim and Putting It Together . During the development of the concert, Sondheim died in November 2021. [1]
The concert was announced to be performed for one night only on 3 May 2022 at the Sondheim Theatre in London's West End. It was staged by Matthew Bourne and Maria Friedman with a 26-piece orchestra conducted by Alfonso Casado Trigo. The line-up included Michael Ball, Petula Clark, Judi Dench, Daniel Evans, Bonnie Langford, Damian Lewis, Julia McKenzie, Bernadette Peters, Clive Rowe and Imelda Staunton. [2] The concert sold out immediately and was simultaneously live screened at the Prince Edward Theatre and later broadcast on BBC Two on 31 December 2022. On 12 February 2023, the concert won the WhatsOnStage Award for Best Theatre Event.
At the 2023 WhatsOnStage Awards, Mackintosh announced that the revue would return for a 16-week run at the Gielgud Theatre from 16 September 2023 until 6 January 2024, starring Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga. In addition to Peters, Janie Dee, Bonnie Langford, and Jeremy Secomb returned and were joined by Salonga, Joanna Riding, Jac Yarrow, Gavin Lee, and Christine Allado. [3] On September 7, 2023, it was announced that the show's first preview had been postponed due to the withdrawal of Haydn Gwynne, who later passed away in October. On 12 September 2023, it was announced that Clare Burt had joined the production as Gwynne's replacement. [4] The production, staged and directed by Matthew Bourne and Julia McKenzie, choreographed by Stephen Mear, conducted by Alfonso Casado Trigo, musical supervision by Stephen Brooker, musical arrangements by Stephen Metcalfe, set design by Matt Kinley, projection design by George Reeve, lighting design by Warren Letton, and sound design by Mick Potter, began previews on 21 September and officially opened on 3 October. [5] [6]
The show is scheduled to have its North American premiere in Los Angeles for a limited run. The show is expected to begin performances on February 8, 2025 at the Ahmanson Theatre and is scheduled to run through March 9. Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga are expected to reprise their performances from London. Further casting is still to be announced. [7]
Following the run in Los Angeles, the show is scheduled to transfer to Broadway in 2025 with Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga expected to reprise their performances. The show is scheduled to begin performances on March 29, 2025 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Further casting is still to be announced. [8]
London Gala Performance [9] | West End [10] |
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2022 | 2023 |
Bernadette Peters | |
Maria Friedman | Lea Salonga |
Michael Ball | Christine Allado |
Helena Bonham Carter | Clare Burt |
Janie Dee | |
Rob Brydon | Damian Humbley |
Petula Clark | Bradley Jaden |
Bonnie Langford | |
Anna-Jane Casey | Gavin Lee |
Judi Dench | Jason Pennycooke |
Hadyn Gwynne | Joanna Riding |
Rosalie Craig | Jeremy Secomb |
Damian Lewis | Jac Yarrow |
Julia McKenzie | Marley Fenton |
Julian Ovenden | Beatrice Penny-Touré |
Daniel Evans | Harry Apps |
Siân Phillips | Bella Brown |
Jon Robyns | Richard Dempsy |
Clive Rowe | Monique Young |
Jenna Russell | — |
Imelda Staunton | — |
Charlie Stemp | — |
Gary Wilmot | — |
Michael D. Xavier | — |
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Stephen Joshua Sondheim was an American composer and lyricist. Regarded as one of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theater, he is credited with reinventing the American musical. With his frequent collaborations with Harold Prince and James Lapine, Sondheim's Broadway musicals tackled unexpected themes that ranged beyond the genre's traditional subjects, while addressing darker elements of the human experience. His music and lyrics were tinged with complexity, sophistication, and ambivalence about various aspects of life.
Bernadette Peters is an American actress, singer, and children's book author. Over a career spanning more than six decades, she has starred in musical theatre, television and film, performed in solo concerts and released recordings. She is a critically acclaimed Broadway performer, having received seven nominations for Tony Awards, winning two, and nine Drama Desk Award nominations, winning three. Four of the Broadway cast albums on which she has starred have won Grammy Awards.
Les Misérables, colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz, is a sung-through musical with music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, lyrics by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, and a book by Schönberg and Boublil, based on the 1862 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. The original French musical premiered in Paris in 1980 with direction by Robert Hossein. Its English-language adaptation, with lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer, produced by Cameron Mackintosh, has been running in London since October 1985, making it the longest-running musical in the West End and the second longest-running musical in the world after the original Off-Broadway run of The Fantasticks. A film adaptation was released in 2012.
Maria Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga-Chien, is a Filipina singer and actress. Primarily known for her work in theatre, she has starred in musicals on West End and Broadway. Her accolades include a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award, in addition to nominations for two Grammy Awards. She was conferred with the Presidential Medal of Merit in 1990 and the Order of Lakandula in 2007, and was honored as a Disney Legend in 2011.
The Gielgud Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue, at the corner of Rupert Street, in the City of Westminster, London. The house currently has 994 seats on three levels.
The Sondheim Theatre is a West End theatre located in Shaftesbury Avenue on the corner of Wardour Street in the City of Westminster, London. It opened as the Queen's Theatre on 8 October 1907, as a twin to the neighbouring Hicks Theatre which had opened ten months earlier. Both theatres were designed by W. G. R. Sprague. The theatre was Grade II listed by English Heritage in June 1972.
Hey, Mr. Producer! was a concert honoring theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh, performed in June 1998 as a benefit for the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) and the Combined Theatrical Charities.
Putting it Together is a musical revue showcasing the songs of Stephen Sondheim. Drawing its title from a song in Sunday in the Park with George, it was devised by Sondheim and Julia McKenzie. The revue has received several productions, beginning with its premiere in England in 1992, Broadway in 1999 and the West End in 2014.
Haydn Gwynne was an English actress. She was nominated for the 1992 BAFTA TV Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance for the comedy series Drop the Dead Donkey (1990–1991), and won the 2009 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for her role in the Broadway production of Billy Elliot the Musical. She was also a five-time Olivier Award nominee, winning her first posthumously in 2024. Her other television roles included Peak Practice (1999–2000), Merseybeat (2001–2002), and playing Camilla in The Windsors from 2016 until her death in 2023.
Gavin Lee is an English actor who has appeared on the stage in musical theatre, notably as Bert in the musical Mary Poppins, in both the West End and on Broadway, and as Squidward Tentacles in the original Broadway cast of SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical.
Merrily We Roll Along is a 1981 American musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by George Furth. It is based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.
Richard Jay-Alexander is an American Broadway producer and director. He served as Executive Director of the New York City office of producer Cameron Mackintosh for twelve years, known for productions including Les Misérables, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera,Miss Saigon, Five Guys Named Moe, Oliver! and Putting It Together.
David Harris is an Australian actor and singer. In Australia, he is best known for his performances as Chris in Miss Saigon, Fiyero in Wicked and Emmett in Legally Blonde having received Helpmann Award nominations for all three leading roles. Harris also starred as the Baker in Victorian Opera's production of Into the Woods and, in America, as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables opposite Terrence Mann in 2015. He has released two solo albums. Since early 2023, he has played the role of The Duke of Monroth in the Broadway theater production of Moulin Rouge! The Musical.
Charlie Stemp is an English actor. Stemp came to prominence for his leading role as Arthur Kipps in the West End musical Half a Sixpence, which earned him a WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actor in a Musical and nomination for a 2017 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical.
Christine Marie Allado is a Filipina-British actress and singer. She is best known for her performance in the role of Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds in the multi Tony and Olivier award-winning West End Production of Hamilton: An American Musical and for starring as Vanessa in the multi Olivier award-winning West End production of In The Heights, both by Lin Manuel Miranda. Her television credits include starring in the BBC's 60th anniversary production of West Side Story as the lead role of Maria and Jasmine in Hallmark Channel's TV film Royal Hearts, as Agent Beverly Walker for The Accidental Spy. She is currently starring in “The Prince of Egypt” musical at the Dominion Theatre in the West End.
Les Misérables: The Staged Concert is a 2019 British live stage recording of the 1980 musical Les Misérables, itself an adaptation of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel, filmed at the Gielgud Theatre in London's West End on 2 December 2019, and broadcast live to UK and Irish cinemas. Starring Michael Ball, Alfie Boe, Carrie Hope Fletcher and Matt Lucas, it was the final performance of the stage production Les Misérables: The All-Star Staged Concert, which ran for four months from 10 August. The album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.
Bernadette Peters is an American actress, singer, and children's book author.
Eureka Day is a dramatic stage play written by American playwright Jonathan Spector.
Filipina singer and actress Lea Salonga has appeared in international theatre productions, television shows, films, and video games. She made her professional debut on stage in the 1978 Repertory Philippines production of The King and I. She went on to appear and star in productions such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1978), Fiddler on the Roof (1978), Annie (1980), The Sound of Music (1980), The Rose Tattoo (1980), and The Bad Seed (1981) in Manila. In 1981, Salonga made her film debut as Lisa in the Filipino comedy Tropang Bulilit. Salonga continued performing in theatre productions in Manila, including The Goodbye Girl (1982), The Paper Moon (1983), a revival of Annie (1984), and The Fantasticks (1988). From 1983 to 1985, Salonga hosted her own television variety show entitled Love, Lea. In 1986, she also appeared as a Thursday group member on the television series That's Entertainment. Throughout the 1980s, she also appeared in the Filipino films Like Father, Like Son (1985), Ninja Kids (1986), Captain Barbell (1986), Pik Pak Boom (1988), and Dear Diary (1989).
Bradley Jaden is an English actor. His West End credits include the leading roles of Javert and Enjolras in Les Misérables, Fiyero in Wicked, and Lancelot in Camelot.