Old Friends: Bernadette Peters – Photo: Matthew Murphy
Do we never tire of Stephen Sondheim’s music? Not if it is performed with flawless finesse by a troupe of performers who breathe fresh interpretations into the songs that musical theater lovers have heard umpteen times.
Lucky for us, this is the case with the new Broadway revue, Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, a two-and-a-half-hour soiree that showcases the late composer.
Director Matthew Bourne was tasked with a near-quixotic challenge to whittle down Sondheim’s body of work into one show. Some will leave the theater not having heard their favorites.
Still, there is more than enough to satisfy even the most ardent acolyte. Even the three shows for which Sondheim contributed only the lyrics: West Side Story, Gypsy, and The Mad Show are represented.
After successful runs on the West End and the West Coast, Tony winners Lea Salonga, Bernadette Peters, and Beth Leavel headline a large cast that knows exactly how to deliver the goods.
Dressed in gowns and tuxedos by Jill Parker, the ensemble brings class and chic to an already elegant affair, accompanied by Annbritt duChateau’s magnificent orchestra, which is prominently on display throughout the production.
Youth is a common and much-desired commodity in entertainment, but there’s something special about seeing a cast of older performers who have a wealth of life experience and numerous credits to their name. It brings an added level of poignancy when Peters sings, “Send in the Clowns.” We actually believe that she’s had her heart broken.
Old Friends: Beth Leavel – Photo: Matthew Murphy
We get the same level of realism with Bonnie Langford’s show-stopping “I’m Still Here.” Leavel, who always has just the right comic timing, puts it to use in both the solo “The Ladies Who Lunch” and in the duet “The Little Things You Do Together,” with Gavin Lee.
Salonga also brings steely grit to “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” proving that she would be a marvelous Mama Rose in Gypsy. (Producers take note!)
It may have been useful to include some background information on the shows and their scores, but honestly, this is a show by and primarily for theater geeks and Sondheim lovers. For newcomers, it introduces an incomparable, once-in-a-generation maestro.
Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends (★★★★☆) is playing on Broadway through June 15 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th St. in New York City. Tickets are $94 to $422. Visit www.manhattantheatreclub.com.
Brent Askari's Andy Warhol in Iran could shift some theatergoers' perspectives on a variety of complicated topics, from the junction of art and commerce, to Western interference in the affairs of modern Iran.
Making its D.C. premiere at Mosaic in a crisply-mounted production directed by Serge Seiden, the tidy two-hander takes on a world of troublesome issues without ever leaving a luxury hotel room in Tehran.
That's where the artist Andy Warhol (Alex Mills) is holed up, having been invited by the wife of the Shah, Empress Farah, to create pop-art portraits of her and the royal family.
Much like the recent Akira Kurosawa Explains His Movies and Yogurt (with Live & Active Cultures!) at Woolly Mammoth, Emily Burns' Frankenstein, now at The Shakespeare Theatre, clings to the bumper of a more established artist's life and work.
Whereas Akira wrapped itself around one of film's finest auteurs, Burns uses Mary Shelley's gothic classic along with context from Shelley's life to make points, various and sundry. Although there is more substance here than in Akira, hitching a ride with Frankenstein feels equally unnecessary. Because, shed the gothic set and references to a monster, and this play is basically a portrait of a modern marriage.
Dark comedy done well can be so delicious. It takes a certain alchemy to lace tales of death and desperation with unabashed humor, but the Coen Brothers hit the target dead-center with Fargo, and then off to the side with Burn After Reading.
Danny DeVito, when he was directing movies, nailed the tone of black comedy with the homicidal shenanigans in Throw Momma from the Train, then again by pushing a divorcing couple off a proverbial cliff in The War of the Roses. In that bitter anti-romance, the jokes, both achingly sad and viciously funny, cut deeper the bleaker the Roses' battle becomes.
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