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.
Returning to the scene of an uproarious crime, Everyman Theatre revives Charles Ludlam's cross-dressing farce The Mystery of Irma Vep: A Penny Dreadful, with several key players from the company's hit 2009 production back in all their glory.
First, Ludlam's spoof of Victorian manor mysteries and melodramas absolutely holds up as a well-built laugh machine powered by an indomitable cast of two. Created in the midst of the AIDS crisis expressly to provide levity at a time of despair and uncertainty, The Mystery of Irma Vep is as apt as ever in providing an outlet for processing the absurdity all around us.
Life is a cabaret at the titular bolero bar in GALA Hispanic Theatre's Botiquín de Boleros de Columbia Heights. Of course, for this lively, immersive staging, directed and choreographed by Valeria Cossu, we, the audience, are the patrons at the Columbia Heights Bolero Bar.
Seated at cabaret tables onstage, at stage level, or in regular seats throughout the house, audience members may find themselves in the midst of the action for Rubén Léon's heartfelt backstage musical revue, adapted by GALA artistic director Gustavo Ott.
Formerly a mainstay of D.C.'s diverse Columbia Heights neighborhood, the fictional boîte was "one of the hottest cabarets" in town, we're told. But due to the pandemic, it has sat dormant for years, until now -- now being November 2024, just ahead of a presidential election that will prove particularly pivotal for immigrants like some of the performers who call the club home.
As Julia Izumi jokes early on in Akira Kurosawa Explains His Movies and Yogurt (With Live and Active Cultures), there can be something a little awkward about a playwright appearing in their own autobiographical play. And she's right: the squirm factor threatens to be dangerously high when a writer stands there within spitting distance, baring their talents, story, and soul.
The truth is, it's the theatrical equivalent of a hostage situation, and the play's got to be oh-so-very-good if it's going to set anyone free.
Unfortunately, the hour and 45 minutes (sans intermission) of Akira comes without any such reprieve. In fact, Izumi's entire approach -- from that first joke onward -- is to basically keep reminding us in one way or another that this is her play, her journey, and that our role is to sit back and admire how cute and meaningful it all is. For her. Asking for the occasional show of hands to check if anyone in the audience feels the way she does (an identity-conflicted perfectionist), in no way changes the fact that this is "The Izumi Show."
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