OLD FRIENDS
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West Forty-Seventh St. between Broadway & Eighth Ave.
Tuesday – Sunday through June 15, $110-$422
www.manhattantheatreclub.com

During intermission of Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, I thought about how much the surprisingly underwhelming MTC production felt more like a gala fundraiser than a fully fledged musical — especially one that bills itself as “a great big Broadway show.”

When I got home, I discovered that was precisely the case: It started out as a one-night-only concert presented on May 3, 2022, in London’s West End, a collaboration between Stephen Sondheim and producer Cameron Mackintosh to celebrate their long friendship. Sondheim had died on November 26, 2021, but the show went on, and the concert turned into a tribute to the eight-time Tony winner and New York City native. It was then adapted for a run at the Gielgud Theatre in London on its way to the Great White Way.

Old Friends is two and a half hours (with intermission) of Sondheim songs, performed by an ensemble of nineteen actors, highlighted by two-time Tony winner and four-time Emmy and Grammy nominee Bernadette Peters, who has appeared in five Sondheim shows, and Tony winner and two-time Grammy nominee Lea Salonga, whose only previous Sondheim credit is a 2019 Manila production of Sweeney Todd in which she played Mrs. Lovett. Peters and Salonga introduce the show to uproarious applause but neither is the standout, as a few others steal the spotlight.

The show consists of forty-two songs from fourteen musicals, mostly staged in front of a glittery raised bandstand where the fourteen-piece orchestra performs. The singers and dancers come out for each number in different costumes by Jill Parker, often inspired by the original production, and range from classy to silly. Matt Kinley’s set also features two sliding towers on either side; George Reeve adds projections of the New York City skyline, a forest, and other locations on the back brick wall and on small screens that descend from the ceiling.

Director Matthew Bourne and choreographer Stephen Mear are never able to achieve any kind of flow in the proceedings, primarily because the members of the cast all have distinct styles, vocal ranges, and physical abilities. In addition, the numbers just don’t stand up on their own; Peters tries to bring heft to “Children Will Listen” (Into the Woods), “Send in the Clowns” (A Little Night Music), and “Losing My Mind” (Follies) and Salonga belts out “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” (Gypsy), but it feels more like a cabaret revue with syrupy arrangements.

Faring much better are understudy Paige Faure, who is hilarious as the disgruntled bride-to-be in “Getting Married Today” from Company, Bonnie Langford, who nails “I’m Still Here” as Carlotta Campion from Follies, and Tony winner Beth Leavel, who knocks it out of the park as Joanne in “The Ladies Who Lunch” from Company.

The men, led by Gavin Lee (“Live Alone and Like It” from Dick Tracy), Jason Pennycooke (“Buddy’s Blues” from Follies), Jeremy Secomb (“My Friends” from Sweeney Todd), and Kyle Selig (“Everybody Ought to Have a Maid” from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Lee and Secomb), all overplay their hand, trying too hard.

Songs from West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, and Sunday in the Park with George receive more detailed stagings but get lost in the shuffle. There are also tunes from Anyone Can Whistle, Passion, Merrily We Roll Along, Bounce, and The Mad Show with such other performers as Jacob Dickey, Kevin Earley, Jasmine Forsberg, Kate Jennings Grant, Bonnie Langford, Joanna Riding, Maria Wirries, and Daniel Yearwood.

There’s an adorable clip of Sondheim at the piano with Andrew Lloyd Webber from the two-day June 1998 concert Hey, Mr. Producer!, which lauded Mackintosh’s career, but it also reinforces how bumpy and uneven the evening is and how much better it could have been. There’s a reason why Old Friends received no Tony nominations and only one Drama Desk nod, for Mick Potter’s sound design; I can confirm that the show sounds terrific.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]