Picture: Jenya Steanson

The Barn Theatre’s acclaimed recording of its ambitious live stream concert performance of song cycle Now or Never will receive a one-night-only anniversary stream next month to raise money for The Suzie Mackie Fellowship.

Originally performed at the Barn Theatre in 2021, the digital song cycle which marked Matthew Harvey’s first collaboration with the Barn since the composer, lyricist and performer took up the post of associate artist at the popular Cirencester venue, the live ‘one-shot’ digital concert will be streamed on 3 April 2022 at 8pm.

The innovative digital production directed by The Barn’s Ryan Carter presents the work as a non-stop, one-shot song cycle with one camera navigating the entire building covering seven characters moving between seven spaces.

All monies raised from the stream will go to The Suzie Mackie Fellowship to fund a PhD student to research triple negative breast cancer. The donations will be match-funded by Dr Tim Crook, the oncologist of Harvey’s close friend Suzie Mackie who passed away just before Now Or Never’s premiere.

Remembering his friend, Harvey said: “Suzie’s defiant optimism in the face of her diagnosis was one of the things that inspired me to write Now Or Never. She loved music, possibly more than anyone I’ve ever met, so to be able to use my music to support her cause feels, right.”

Originally performed and recorded at the Barn Theatre, the cast of Now or Never comprises Lucy St Louis (Phantom of the Opera, Man of La Mancha), Courtney Stapleton (Beauty and the Beast, Dear Evan Hansen), Eloise Davies (Bonnie & Clyde, Be More Chill)  Ahmed Hamad (The Addams Family, Stay Awake Jake), Irvine Iqbal (Broken Wings, Aladdin), Matthew Harvey (Les Misérables, Jesus Christ Superstar) and Katie Shearman (Evita, The Sound of Music) with a special guest appearance by Olivier Award winner Janie Dee (Follies, Carousel).

Angela Thomas

Picture: Roy Tan

Tickets for a live screening at the Prince Edward Theatre of the sold-out Sondheim’s Old Friends Gala are to be released today, 30 March 2022. Priority will be given to the thousands of people who signed up in the hope of securing tickets but couldn’t be accommodated for the performance at the Sondheim Theatre. Booking opens at 12 noon for those on the Priority sign up list and Delfont Mackintosh Theatre+ members and 2pm for the general public.

Cameron Mackintosh has invited many of Stephen Sondheim’s old friends to join him in celebrating the composer’s extraordinary talents and legacy at the Sondheim Theatre which was recently gloriously rebuilt in Sondheim’s honour and thanks the cast and company and everyone involved for agreeing to this special screening which will now allow over 2,500 people to see the performance.

The all-star cast for Old Friends so far includes Michael Ball, Rob Brydon, Anna-Jane Casey, Rosalie Craig, Petula Clark, Janie Dee, Judi Dench, Daniel Evans, Rob Houchen, Bonnie Langford, Damian Lewis, Julia Mckenzie, Julian Ovenden, Bernadette Peters, Elaine Paige, Clive Rowe, Imelda Staunton, Hannah Waddingham and Gary Wilmot.

The evening, which takes place for one night only on 3 May 2022 at 8pm, sold out within a couple of hours when tickets went on sale leaving thousands of disappointed fans unable to get tickets. As the Sondheim Theatre only holds 1,100 seats, Mackintosh wanted to extend this experience to a wider audience and will transform the Prince Edward Theatre into a unique theatrical event powered by The Luna Cinema and transmitted live from the Sondheim Theatre. The event will start from 7pm with a live broadcast from the Sondheim Theatre leading up to the Gala commencing at 8pm.

The Gala will be staged by Matthew Bourne and Maria Friedman with choreography by Stephen Mear and a 25-piece orchestra conducted by Alfonso Casado Trigo. Musical supervision is by Stephen Brooker, musical arrangements are by Stephen Metcalfe, set design by Matt Kinley, projection designs by George Reeve, lighting by Warren Letton and sound by Mick Potter.

All profits from the evening at both the Sondheim and Prince Edward Theatres will go to the Stephen Sondheim Foundation, which the legendary composer and lyricist established under his Will to receive future income from his copyrights and intellectual property, with the proceeds to be used principally for the support of playwrights, composers and lyricists in the early stages of their careers to assist in the development and advancement of their work, as well as for sustaining other aspects of the musical theatre craft and arts education.

Until the Stephen Sondheim Foundation has completed the process of its formation, the proceeds derived from this event will be held in trust by The Mackintosh Foundation on its behalf.

www.sondheimoldfriends.com

Broadway Babies Rosalie Craig, Maria Friedman, Bonnie Langford, Helena Bonham Carter and Bernadette Peters in Old Friends at the Sondheim Theatre. Pictures: Danny Kaan

Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends at the Sondheim Theatre, London (and live-streamed at the Prince Edward Theatre).

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

It must be a record! The fastest time to stop a show after curtain-up came at the Sondheim Theatre when Julia McKenzie stepped on to the stage and softly sung the words “Side by Side…” A millisecond later, the audience exploded with an interminably long roar – a heartfelt (and ear-splitting) outburst of happiness, surprise, appreciation, sadness. And this was just the first in a long string of magical show-stopping moments that had the capacity crowd at the theatre on their feet for ovation after ovation.

With the passing of Stephen Sondheim last November at the age of 91, it was inevitable that his London fans would soon find a way to pay tribute and to celebrate his phenomenal output. “London was Steve’s second home,” said Cameron Mackintosh as he introduced the evening he lovingly curated with the help of co-directors Maria Friedman and Matthew Bourne, musical director Alfonso Casado Trigo and choreographer Stephen Mear. And where better to lionise this god of the theatre than in the house that now bears his name?

Blessedly, after Mackintosh’s brief introduction, there was no other chat. Do Sondheim songs need much of an introduction? Not as far as this diehard crowd was concerned. What followed was sheer bliss for us Sondheimites – a breathtaking excess of songs – a glut, an embarrassment, a multitude of Sondheims – served up by a who’s-who of West End luminaries. And of course, all the way from Broadway, the high-priestess herself, Bernadette Peters.

This glorious celebration allowed all those performers whose careers and lives had been enriched and transformed by Sondheim and his songs to give praise and thanks, crossing the generations from Julia McKenzie to the ensemble of student performers from the Royal Academy of Music and Mountview that also filled the barely disguised Les Mis set. (Indeed, the set came in handy, doubling variously for Victorian London, New York’s Upper West Side and the Brothers Grimm’s fairytale Europe. Nice touch!)

Showstopper Julia McKenzie

Friedman and Bourne did not let up one iota, cattle-prodding their cast through song after song – 23 numbers in the first half, and 17 in the second – and ensuring a delicious mix of favourites plus a couple of lesser-known treats. Clive Rowe soft-shoed on for a velvety rich ‘Live Alone and Like It’ from the Dick Tracy movie, for example, and the classy Janie Dee treated us to ‘The Boy From…’, a comic number from The Mad Show, the 1966 Off-Broadway musical that Sondheim worked on with Mary Rodgers, inspired by MAD magazine.

But every Sondheim classic was here, each performed by a star name: ‘Comedy Tonight’ (Rob Brydon, Clive Rowe, Gary Wilmot), ‘Getting Married Today’ (Jon Robyns, Holly-Anne Hull and Anna-Jane Casey at breakneck pace), ‘Agony’ (Julian Ovenden, Michael D. Xavier), ‘Children Will Listen’ (Bernadette Peters), ‘A Weekend in the Country’ (Desmonda Cathabel, Rob Houchen, Holly-Anne Hull, plus Ovenden and Xavier), ‘The Worst Pies in London’ (Michael Ball, Maria Friedman), ‘The Ladies Who Lunch’ (a stunning Haydn Gwynne), ‘Sunday’ (Daniel Evans, Peters) and, of course, ‘Send in the Clowns’ (Judi Dench). And this was just a selection from the first half! Just imagine it: you’ve had Dench’s ‘Clowns’ (Sondheim’s favourite performance) and ‘Sunday’ – the closest thing to religious ecstasy for us musical theatre heathens – and you’re only half way through the show.

After a quick ice-cream to cool down, we were back for more classics: the ‘Tonight Quintet’ from West Side Story (Shan Ako, Christine Allado, Louis Gaunt and Houchen, joined by the RAM and Mountview students); the most outrageously camp ‘Broadway Baby’ surely ever realised on stage (performed by a elbowing, attention-seeking rabble of Friedman, Gwynne, Peters, McKenzie and – deep-breath – Helena Bonham Carter, Rosalie Craig, Josefina Gabrielle, Amy Griffiths, Bonnie Langford and Jenna Russell); a perhaps even more camp ‘Everybody Ought to Have a Maid’ (Brydon, Ovenden and – again, be still my beating heart – Damian Lewis and Siân Phillips).

What next!? ‘You Gotta Get a Gimmick’ from Gypsy, that’s what, with a trumpeting Bernadette as Mazeppa – amazingly, at 74, bending double and blowing a bugle between her legs! – with Casey and Langford as Electra and Tessie Tura. Langford wowed the audience with a jump-split then wowed us even more by getting back up again and walking off!

‘Everybody Ought To Have a Maid’: Rob Brydon, Julian Ovenden, Damian Lewis and Siân Phillips

The boys were up next for a couple of Follies numbers, with Ashley Campbell, Houchen, Bradley Jaden and Charlie Stemp serving up ‘Waiting for the Girls Upstairs’, and Michael Ball delighting us with a gender-flipped ‘Could I Leave You?’

Petula Clark graced us with a most touching – and utterly inhabited – ‘I’m Still Here’. And, prefaced with a roof-lifting roar as she walked into the spotlight, Imelda Staunton stopped the show (for the umpteenth time) with a reprise of her unmatched ‘Everything’s Coming Up Roses’ from Gypsy.

No Sondheim celebration would be complete without ‘Being Alive’, and an ensemble arrangement more than did the song justice. To close the night, we were treated to a triple header of ‘Old Friends’, ‘Side by Side’ and, most movingly, with ever more students pouring into the stalls, ‘Our Time’.

Supporting this glittering line-up was a fabulous 25-piece on-stage orchestra conducted by the unflappable Alfonso Casado Trigo. Given the ‘kick bollock and scramble’ nature of the event (in the words of one the stars before curtain up!), Trigo deserves a medal for his ability to keep it all ticking along, and with such a reserved grace and ease – no showboating here.

It looked and sounded gorgeous too, thanks to Warren Letton’s lighting and Mick Potter’s sound design. All too often, these galas can have a lot of understandably rough edges and suffer from iffy sound, but not so this evening – slick and polished.

It was a privilege – albeit an expensive one, at £250 for a stalls seat – to spend this evening in the company of those who adored Sondheim, celebrating his contribution to the world. But how lovely that so much was raised for the Sondheim Foundation too. As Chair of The Stephen Sondheim Society, I make no apologies for the gushing. This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime, unforgettable extravaganza that was worth every penny, and one that will send me to my grave with a smile on my face.

“It was like a fever dream,” said Mountview student Joe Boyle afterwards. And he was right. Who among the 1,200-strong crowd at the Sondheim didn’t enter an almost Stendhalian fugue state… breathless, dizzy and overcome by the power of the artist? Judging by the roars and orgiastic screams that swelled throughout the night, I wager that we all did.

So thank you, Cameron et al, for the best possible tribute. There were a lot of tears, of both sadness and joy. It felt like the end of an era, but also the start of an exciting new one, as the old friends passed the musical baton to the stars of the future. Musical theatre is in safe hands, and whatever happens, we know we’ll have Steve’s music to see us through. What a wonderful legacy. Goodbye for now, old friend…

Craig Glenday

Award-winning theatre company Metta Theatre is offering theatre-lovers a first look and listen to the company’s newest environmental musical The Minotaur.

Reuniting the creators of Metta’s climate crisis-themed musical Housefire, the new eco rock musical has a book and lyrics by Metta’s award-winning artistic director P Burton-Morgan and music by Felix Hagan.

The all-star voice cast on the EP is headed by Janie Dee as Pasiphae and Arthur Darvill as Theseus. They are joined by Zweyla Mitchell dos Santos as Ariadne, Neil McDermott as Daedalus and Robin Simoes da Silva as Icarus.

Alongside the EP, Metta has released a music video of the track ‘Singing Our Song’ featuring Sue Appleby as Pasiphae (with vocals by Zweyla Mitchell dos Santos) and Natasha Julien as Ariadne (with vocals by Janie Dee). The film is choreographed by Mark Smith, with Andy Staples as director of photography, edited by William Reynolds, and with BSL translation by Deepa Shastri.

Commissioned by digital support agency The Space and Metta Theatre, the EP and music video have been created to raise awareness of climate justice and to serve as a ‘digital calling card’ to venues and producers in the hope of attracting support as the work is developed into a large-scale musical. The full production will feature five professional performers and a community cast of 100.

Commenting on the project, artistic director and resident designer, William Reynolds said: “After a year of extremes, climate breakdown is no longer an idea for the future, but a visceral reality across the world – and Putin’s weaponisation of energy starkly highlights the danger of our addiction to the fossil fuels causing all the damage. It’s never been more pressing for theatre to engage with the Climate & Ecological Crises, and after pioneering environmental sustainable production for over a decade I’m so excited to be developing this urgent and optimistic show which engages so deftly with such huge, vital issues of climate justice and the power of community.”

Burton-Morgan added: “This year has shown even those on the fence that we can no longer ignore the threat of the climate crisis. This new musical unpacks some of the climate crisis complexities but most of all engages on an emotional level with a subject that sometimes feels too big to connect to. And as always there’s a seed of hope.”

Established in 2005 by writer and director Burton Morgan and designer Reynolds with a strong commitment to developing new British musical theatre and an emphasis on environmental issues, Metta is firmly established as one of the UK’s leading mid-scale touring companies.

In 2020, artistic director William Reynolds launched Metta Green – a climate change and sustainability consultancy offering tailor-made practical advice for organisations and institutions across the arts, creative and education sectors. In 2022, Metta also launched MettaMorphosis, a programme of free artist mentoring and support.

Angela Thomas

George Stiles, Anthony Drewe and Mercury Musical Developments (MMD) have unveiled the first group of West End favourites lined up to perform the songs in the running for this year’s Stiles + Drewe Best New Song Prize later this month.

Hosted by Olivier Award-winner Janie Dee (Follies, Hello Dolly!), the one-night only concert will feature stars including: Christopher Chung (Heathers, Romeo & Juliet); Chelsea Halfpenny (Waitress, Emmerdale); Kaisa Hammarlund (Fun Home, The Boleyns); Teleri Hughes (Heathers, Les Misérables); Emilie Louise Israel (Hamilton, The Lion King); Craig Mather (Sweeney Todd, The Wind in the Willows); Sharan Phull (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Bend It Like Beckham); Caroline Sheen (Mary Poppins, Into The Woods); Emily Tierney (Identical, Wicked); and Rebecca Trehearn (City of Angels, Ghost). Further casting will be announced at a later date.

Awarded on an annual basis to a member of MMD, the UK’s largest membership organisation dedicated to developing new musical theatre writing, the winner of this year’s award will be revealed at the end of the special concert performance at The Other Palace in London on 21 November 2022.

Chosen from 175 submissions, the final songs are:

‘Getting Away With Murder’ from La Vida Loca Latin Dance Musical by Chris Brindle and Rob Jones

‘I Don’t Feel Like Me Anymore’ from Snowflake by Lewis Cornay

‘Joyce’s Song’ from Falling Skies by Sophie Boyce and Fred Feeney

‘Keep Me From Going Under’ from Keep Me From Going Under by Michelle Payne and Emy Parsons

‘Lullaby’ from Soul of the Ballad by Chris Poon and Daniel York Loh

‘On My Way’ from Hynt (Passage) by Freya Catrin Smith and Jack Williams

‘One Last Request’ from The Most Beautiful Suicide by Flora Leo

‘Parallel Life’ from The Fan by Karen Bishko and Max Luck

‘A Portrait Of Me’ from Dead Reckoning by Lezlie Wade and Scott Christian

‘The Inventor’s Daughter’ from The Night Our Parents Disappeared by Andy Room and Oli George Rew

‘This Isn’t Magic’ from Galileo: An A Cappella Musical by Dan Mawson and Leo Mercer

‘Wheatfield With Crows’ from The Rise and Fall of Vinnie & Paul by Neil Bastian

The 2022 Best New Song will be chosen by the panel of industry experts including Stiles and Drewe, Jenna Russell, Ameena Hamid and Matthew Xia. The winning writer or writers will receive £1,000 towards the development of their work. An additional price of £250 for Voice, Vision & Potential will also be awarded, sponsored by writers of Six, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss.

The concert will also commemorate 30 years of Mercury Musical Developments (MMD), the UK’s membership organisation for writers of musical theatre. Established in 1992, MMD is dedicated to developing the talents and careers of its members and ensuring a future for British musicals.

The evening will celebrate the achievements of MMD’s members past and present, including songs from Identical by Stiles + Drewe and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by Darren Clark and Jethro Compton, among others.

Angela Thomas

The Stiles and Drewe Best New Song Prize went to Flora Leo for ‘One Last Request’

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of Mercury Musical Developments (MMD). The kernel of what would become the UK’s largest and most important advocate of new musicals was formed after a group of eight writers studied with Stephen Sondheim at Oxford University. What started off as an informal salon of composers and lyricists – originally known as Mercury Workshop – has blossomed into an international members’ organisation, thanks to support from the Musical Theatre Network and the Arts Council England.

Among those originally involved with Sondheim at Oxford were George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, the writing team behind 11 shows such as Soho Cinders, Betty Blue Eyes, Wind in the Willows, Honk! and, most recently, Identical. In support of nascent talent, the duo have lent their name to the Stiles and Drewe Best New Song Prize, which, since 2008, has attracted some of the best in new writing for the stage.

This year, 12 finalists – all members of MMD – were whittled down from 175 entries and showcased on the main stage at The Other Palace in London. Each song was introduced by the writers, and performed by an acclaimed West End performer backed by a five-piece band led by MD Mark Aspinall. The result was a glorious celebration of original musical theatre writing that revealed just how strong the artform is, particularly here in the UK.

Our host for the night was Janie Dee, who was among the handful of performers who took part in the MMD inauguration 30 years ago. Before Dee welcomed the first three singers to perform, however, George and Anthony took to the stage to introduce proceedings

“You’re going to be whisked away on a magic carpet between places you couldn’t possibly have dreamed,” explained Stiles. “You’re going to wake up screaming with Vincent van Gogh after a terrible nightmare in a house he shared with Paul Gaugin; you’re going to touch down in Amelia Earhart’s living room as she’s having a portrait painted of herself; and, via an a cappella group, you’re going to wind up in Venice as Galileo unveils his newest invention to the Venetian Doge. And if that doesn’t set you up for a night, you’re going to get country, you’re going to get folk, you’re even going to get reggaeton and rap!”

What followed, then, was indeed a fantastically diverse selection of writing from across the spectra of genre and topics, all of it performed by a glittering cast.

• ‘On My Way’ from Hynt (‘Passage’ in Welsh) by Freya Catrin Smith and Jack Williams. An upbeat start to the night, this number, introduced by composer-lyricist Smith, was a coming-of-age song about a child stealing her mother’s Volvo in order to meet a friend. It included some smattering of the Welsh language, beautifully sung by Heathers star Teleri Hughes, who happens to be from Conwy in North Wales.
• ‘Lullaby’ from Soul of the Ballad by Chris Poon and Daniel York Loh. Poon introduced his simple ballad as being inspired by a Facetime call with his father about his Hong Kong heritage. Sung by Christopher Chung, this tender lullaby – sung to the character’s sleeping newborn son – was elevated by a gorgeous cello accompaniment.
• ‘I Don’t Feel Like Me Anymore’ from Snowflake by Lewis Cornay. Cornay introduced his new musical Snowflake as ‘a show about the tricky complexities of sexual identities and finding your purpose in modern millennialhood’. Sharan Phull took on the role of Jess, who starts a relationship with gay friend Tom, and sang this number while ‘dooming-scrolling’ through Instagram. This proved to be an ambitious piece of storytelling and self-realisation, with plenty for Phull to sink her teeth into.
• ‘Joyce’s Song’ from Falling Skies by Sophie Boyce and Fred Feeney. A mother has to send her evacuee children away during the Second World War in this poignant number from Boyce and Feeney. The beautiful use of repetition – the ‘drip drip drip’ of a leaking ceiling, the ‘tick tick tick’ of a grandfather clock and the ‘beat, beat, beat of my tenor-drummer heart’ – gave this song a haunting melancholy. Performed to perfection by Rebecca Trehearn.
• ‘Getting Away with Murder’ from La Vida Loca Latin Dance Musical by Chris Brindle and Rob Jones. Writer Brindle gave a rather quirky introduction to his equally quirky song from his even quirkier-sounding ‘Latin-ballroom-pop-rock-musical-theatre-dance’ musical, La Vida Loca. Aidan Charles Waller performed as the show’s hitman breaking the fourth wall to boast to the audience about his ‘one-man crimewave’ in a pop-rock spectacle. Certainly a fun pace-changer…
• ‘The Inventor’s Daughter’ from The Night Our Parents Disappeared by Andy Room and Oli George Rew. Room bounded on stage to introduce this song from his dark-comedy musical ‘about babies taking over the world’. In what the composer described as a ‘rare moment of reflection’, guest performer Emily Louise Israel sang about the challenges of living with a famous father, hinting at the complexity of their relationship in a surprisingly serious number, given the show’s premise!
• ‘A Portrait of Me’ from Dead Reckoning by Lezlie Wade and Scott Christian. The songwriting duo introduced their docu-drama about the aviatrix Amelia Earhart, portrayed here by Caroline Sheen. The song revealed the impatient pilot’s inner thoughts as she’s painted by a portrait artist – the longest time she’s ever had to sit still. Some beautiful images painted in song.
• ‘Wheatfield with Crows’ from The Rise and Fall of Vinnie and Paul by Neil Bastian. Bastian’s introductory banter came with a trigger warning about the suicidal thoughts being voiced in his two-hander rock-pop musical about Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gaugin. Craig Mather performed as van Gogh, whose mental health is deteriorating and whose final completed painting, the titular field of crows, comes to symbolise his suicidal downfall. A powerful, impressive number that also showcased Mather’s superb vocal skills.
• ‘Parallel Life’ from The Fan by Karen Bishko and Max Luck. A zealous pop fan starts a relationship with the subject of her obsession in this somewhat psychotic country number sung by Kaisa Hammarlund. A real toe-tapper, Bishko and Luck’s fun monologue got a real boost from the band. A clap-along success!
• ‘This Isn’t Magic’ from Galileo: An A Cappella Musical by Dan Mawson and Leo Mercer. My personal favourite from the night was this characterful a cappella-pop-and-film-music inspired song performed by the wonderful Scott Hunter and an ensemble of six students from Trinity Laban. This intelligent, wordy and amusing sales pitch by Galileo to the Venetian Doge for his new telescope invention was not quite a cappella, thanks to a bit of support from the drummer and bassist. Was also by far the most unusual and intriguing piece of the night.
• ‘One Last Request’ from The Most Beautiful Suicide by Flora Leo. The title of this song refers to the infamous photograph taken of Evelyn Francis McHale, who, in 1947, killed herself by leaping from the 86th-floor observation deck of the Empire State Building, landing on the roof of a black Cadillac before being snapped by student Robert Wiles. Chelsea Halfpenny performed this beautiful, captivating and ultimately empowering song inspired by a moment of sexual harassment experienced by McHale as she takes the train to New York on her last day alive.
• ‘Keep Me From Going Under’ from Keep Me From Going Under by Michelle Payne and EMY.P (Emy Parsons). This title song is from what sounds like an important musical about young people dealing with mental health issues and finding solace and community in poetry, rap and songwriting. Levi Tyrell Johnson performed, contrasting some touching lyrical moments with assertive rapping.

At this point, the judges slipped off to deliberate. Joining Stiles and Drewe on the panel was Tony-nominated Jenna Russell (remotely), producer Ameena Hamid, director Matthew Xia and Toby Marlow, co-writer of Six.

As the judges cogitated, the audience was treated to a few more songs from the MMD membership: Janie Dee sang ‘Checkout Lil’ from The Mercury Workshop Review by Eric Angus and Kate McMahon; Scott Hunter and Aidan Charles Waller sang ‘Horse Whispers’ from Beyond the Gate by Tim Sutton; Rebecca Trehearn sang ‘Musical Theatre is an American Artform’, the song in which Susannah Pearse gives the finger to Leonard Bernstein after his ridiculous claim quoted in the title; Emily Tierney sang the title song from Stiles and Drewe’s Identical; and the quartet of Teleri Hughes, Christopher Chung, Sharan Phill and Levi Tyrell Johnson returned to the stage to sing the gorgeous ‘If I Run’ from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by Darren Clark and Jethro Compton.

After deliberation, the judges returned to the stage and Stiles and Drewe announced the verdict. The first prize went to a very deserving Flora Leo for ‘One Last Request’, adding to the composer-lyricist’s ‘Voice, Vision & Potential’ prize won at the same event last year.

This fantastic evening of song speaks volumes to the array of talent in the UK musical theatre scene. There is clearly an inspiring esprit de corp among this group of creatives, each supporting the other on their show-writing journeys, supported by Stiles and Drewe and the work of Mercury Musical Developments.

As this night attests, musical theatre does play a vital role in putting voice to our troubles times – the topics covered in just a handful of songs touched on important matters such as mental health and suicide. But there’s also joy to be had in celebrating the best of humanity, and this is something that musical theatre can do better than any other art form.

Bravo to all concerned, and thank you to MMD for continuing to support a tranche of the arts that seems to be facing ever more demanding challenges, be it from audience complacency to arts funding.

Craig Glenday

Broadway legend Bernadette Peters will be appearing in a West End run for the very first time when Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends returns to the West End to play a special limited season at the Gielgud Theatre.

A double Tony Award winner widely regarded as one of the most accomplished interpreters of the legendary composer’s work, Peters (Follies, Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park With George) will appear alongside Lea Salonga (Miss Saigon, Les Misérables) who will return to the London stage for the first time in 27 years.

The winner of the 2023 WhatsOnStage award for the Best Theatre Event, the celebration of Sondheim’s timeless work which was devised and produced by Cameron Mackintosh, will play a 16-week season from 16 September 2023 until 6 January 2024.

Peters and Salonga will be joined by a number of stars who featured in the Gala company last year including Christine Allado, Janie Dee, Bonnie Langford and Jeremy Secomb. Joining them will be Beatrice Penny-Touré, Joanna Riding, and Jac Yarrow. Further star casting will be announced soon.

Commenting on the show, Mackintosh said: “Old Friends began its journey to the West End in a conversation I had with Steve during our enforced pandemic isolation – ‘It’s time we did a third show’ said Steve, ‘and complete the trilogy that started with Side By Side By Sondheim in the 1970s, followed by Putting It Together in the ’90s’.

“We commenced work on it but as theatres and shows started to reopen post Covid, we got distracted and then suddenly on Thanksgiving just over a year ago Steve sadly left us, leaving his extraordinary legacy of work to live on forever.

“Over Christmas ’21 I put together all our thoughts, and inspired by the shows I had worked on with him and Julia McKenzie, and the desire to showcase his greatest music as well as his great lyrics, the material of Old Friends miraculously fell onto the page pretty much as it is.

“Thanks to a phenomenal Gala cast, the show proved to be the great celebration we all wanted for our friend and inspiration – performed in the Sondheim Theatre, which I had rebuilt and renamed in his honour. The response to both the show and the subsequent television version recently screened by the BBC over the New Year has been quite overwhelming, so I am thrilled that Broadway legend, Bernadette Peters, one of my favourite old friends, is going to reprise her brilliant performance in what is astonishingly going to be her British stage debut – to be joined by Lea Salonga, who of course became my youngest old friend, when she created a sensation at the age of 17, starring in the original Miss Saigon – this will be her first West End run since Les Misérables 27 years ago.

“Bernadette and Lea head a stellar cast of co-stars, many of whom also appeared in last year’s unforgettable Gala. Steve was always a Broadway Baby at heart, so I’m delighted that I have been able to put together one last great hurrah for my old friend, containing many of the greatest songs ever written for the musical theatre, in one ‘great big Broadway show’ – just as he wanted.”

The original Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends at the Sondheim Theatre sold out within hours with a simultaneous screening at the Prince Edward quickly arranged in response to public demand.

Directed by Matthew Bourne, side by side with Julia McKenzie, the show features choreography by Stephen Mear. The creative team also includes conductor Alfonso Casado Trigo, musical supervisor Stephen Brooker, with 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.

Angela Thomas

The full cast has been unveiled for the highly anticipated West End return of Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends with a strictly limited season at the Gielgud Theatre later this year.

As previously announced Broadway legend Bernadette Peters (Follies, Into The Woods, Sunday in the Park With George) will make her British stage debut in the production alongside Lea Salonga (Miss Saigon, Les Misérables) who will return to the London stage for the first time in 27 years.

The production will also feature a number of stars who featured in the Gala company last year including Christine Allado (Hamilton, In The Heights), Janie Dee (Carousel, Follies), Bonnie Langford (9 to 5 The Musical, 42nd Street) and Jeremy Secomb (Sister Act, Sweeney Todd), along with Joanna Riding (My Fair Lady, Follies), Jac Yarrow (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Newsies), recent Arts Educational School graduate Marley Fenton (The Wizard of Oz) and Beatrice Penny-Touré (The Phantom of the Opera, Mary Poppins).

The cast is completed by another star of last year’s Gala company, quadruple Olivier nominee Haydn Gwynne (The Threepenny Opera, Women On the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown), Damian Humbley (The Great British Bake Off Musical, Local Hero), Bradley Jaden (Les Misérables, Wicked), Gavin Lee (Mary Poppins, Top Hat), Jason Pennycooke (Hamilton, La Cage Aux Folles), with Harry Apps, Bella Brown and Monique Young.

The winner of the 2023 WhatsOnStage award for the Best Theatre Event, the celebration of Sondheim’s timeless work which was devised and produced by Cameron Mackintosh will play a 16-week season from 16 September 2023 until 6 January 2024.

Commenting on the cast, Mackintosh said: “I’m delighted to be welcoming so many old friends from my past productions, most of whom have stopped the show as well as some brilliant new ones, to star in Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends at the Gielgud Theatre this autumn. To have gathered so many West End stars, as well as two legendary Broadway performers together for a new show such as this is rare outside a gala. Only the sublime talents of Sondheim could make this happen.

“Steve was always a Broadway Baby at heart, so I’m thrilled that this last show he and I started putting together during Covid is having a life beyond its triumphant gala. Featuring 39 of the greatest songs ever written for the musical theatre, performed by an incredible cast, staged by the incomparable Matthew Bourne, side-by-side with Julia McKenzie and choreographer Stephen Mear, audiences are in for a musical evening they will never forget in one great big Broadway show.”

The creative team also includes conductor Alfonso Casado Trigo, musical supervisor Stephen Brooker, with 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.

The original Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends at the Sondheim Theatre sold out within hours with a simultaneous screening at the Prince Edward quickly arranged in response to public demand.

Angela Thomas

Beautiful World: Janie Dee at The Pheasantry, London.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

An evening with that lovable national treasure Janie Dee always carries a frisson of excitement with it because you are never quite sure what she’s going to come up with next and, scatty as she is, there’s always the possibility she doesn’t know either.

The clue to her new show, unveiled in a two-night residency at the sparklingly redecorated Pheasantry on Chelsea’s fashionable King’s Road, was in the title, Beautiful World, and the PR blurb that accompanied it “a journey of man and nature through song with unusual and inspirational guests who are making a difference”.

Passionately green, right down to the gorgeous velvet outfit she wore for her second set, this incredibly versatile and much-in-demand actress-singer never lets up in causes close to her heart, whether it be climate change, community or giving a leg-up to young singers or people who care as much as she does about the environment.

So on top of the songs, many of them like ‘On a Clear Day’, ‘I Remember Sky’, ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ – complete with a nifty piece of tap dancing on the spiral staircase – and ‘Fragile’ (“On and on the rain will fall… and say how fragile we are”) reflecting the show’s theme, as did the rousing ‘What a Wonderful World’ at the end, we had a lengthy interlude when Dee brought pro footballer-turned-gardener Tayshan Hayden-Smith up to talk about how the Grenfell Tower disaster of 2017 changed his life and took him, greatly affected mentally as a member of the Grenfell community, on a mission to inspire, heal and educate through horticulture.

From helping minor-league Austrian football team Kitzbuhel gain promotion, he came back home, created the Grenfell Garden of Peace and set up the Grow2Know community group for young people to showcase the power of nature. Charming as Hayden-Smith was and a good speaker too, this probably wasn’t what a full-house audience had signed up for when they bought a ticket but that’s Dee for you, ever unpredictable.

Far more predictable was her first guest, an 18-year-old from Arts Educational, the college in Chiswick where Dee herself trained. This was Edith Gray making her Pheasantry debut with ‘When the World Was Mine’, a cracking number from The Count of Monte Cristo (Frank Wildhorn/Jack Murphy), a musical that, to say the least, has had a chequered history. A German language version premiered in Switzerland in 2009 and the first professional production in English turned up in Utah 12 years later but why no trace of it in the UK?

Dee was in hilarious form getting her teeth around ‘The Boy From …’, that delicious mouthful by Stephen Sondheim and Mary Rodgers wrote for the 1966 Off-Broadway revue The Mad Show as a wicked parody of ‘The Girl From Ipanema’. This is one of the numbers Dee will be singing in Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, initially put together as a one-off concert to celebrate the great man’s life and work, when it starts a 16-week run at the Gielgud Theatre on 16 September.

No Dee soirée would be complete without the title song from Cabaret which is always a showstopper. Switching accents from posh to ‘common’ – “She wasn’t what you’d call a blushing flower… As a matter of fact she rented by the hour” – it’s a song for an actress and she’s one of the best. That show means a lot to Dee as it was in Gillian Lynne’s revival of Cabaret in 1986 that she made her West End debut.

Her real name, Janie Lewis, had to be changed when she joined Equity long before that as they already had a Jane Lewis on their books, as she told us when sitting at the piano to play a sweet self-composed song about the crush she had on the much older David Jason as a 17 year old when they worked together in panto in Newcastle.

Admitting her own loneliness at times during the last five years, her version of ‘People’ (who need people, are the luckiest people in the world) was particularly moving. Nobody knows better how to work the room and, as usual, she went around patting a few bald heads (mine included), whispering sweet nothings into a few ears and name-checking as many old friends as she could find. Good cabaret is a gift and she knows all the tricks. As for performance, there’s the odd forgotten line but that’s par for the course with Dee. It wouldn’t be a Dee cabaret without them – it’s the charming way she wriggles out that’s pure class.

Accompanying her superbly on the Pheasantry’s Steinway was the ubiquitous Alex Parker – they first worked together on the Sondheim revue Putting It Together ten years ago and have done A Little Night Music three times since, the last one unforgettably in sheeting rain in Holland Park.

Both are big on community and Parker’s annual musical in his home town of Guildford is only a few weeks away. It’s Sunday in the Park With George this time, an amateur production but in name only. Having marvelled at what wonders Parker and his team achieved with The Bridges of Madison County two years ago, this latest community project should be a corker.

A ‘Beautiful World’ indeed… thank goodness there are caring people like Dee and Parker around to make it even more wonderful.

Jeremy Chapman

Picture: Danny Kaan

Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends continues at the Gielgud Theatre, London until 6 January 2024.
 
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

What a glorious evening of unalloyed brilliance at the Gielgud with a superb cast headed by Sondheim muse Bernadette Peters and fellow Broadway legend Lea Salonga feasting on the works of the greatest composer of our time in a glittering revue originally conceived as a one-off tribute by entrepreneur Cameron Mackintosh after he left us at 91 with so many rich and profound memories.

That gala concert at the theatre Mackintosh renamed to honour his friend sold out so quickly that it was live-streamed to another full house nearby, giving Mackintosh the idea it might have legs for a proper West End run. This is it, not at the Sondheim but at its Gielgud neighbour and not with the same cast.

No Judi Dench doing ‘Send in the Clowns’ this time or Michael Ball, Imelda Staunton, Petula Clark or Julia McKenzie to name but five – although the wonderful McKenzie, Sondheim’s UK muse most associated with the original revue Side by Side by Sondheim back in 1976, gets name-checked by Peters in her outrageous version of ‘Broadway Baby’ and programme-listed as “side by side with” director Matthew Bourne – but with the same songs, although some naturally tweaked a tiny bit.

No need for a script, just 42 bewitching numbers from ten of his musicals, one from detective movie Dick Tracy and one, a tongue-twister of a spoof on the hit song ‘The Girl From Ipanema’ reconfigured as ‘The Boy From…’ by Sondheim and co-composer Mary Rodgers for an Off-Broadway revue called The Mad Show. Everyone will have his or her favourite from such a dazzling array of unmatchable material but Janie Dee’s rib-ticklingly funny, superbly nuanced treatment of this gets my vote even though it’s only a few weeks since I saw her do it with equal panache in cabaret at The Pheasantry. Looking a million dollars in some sparkly creations, this lady can make even a QWERTY keyboard sound great and she can dance too as we saw earlier.

But there are so many highlights and a few surprises, Gavin Lee’s camp, bitchy ‘The Little Things You Do Together’ from Company, a bit of role reversal in duet with Clare Burt, a late but great replacement for Haydn Gwynne who sadly had to withdraw for personal reasons. Burt, a fine performer, has many moments, none more striking than her gloriously boozy ‘The Ladies Who Lunch’ from the same show.

Not often does a 75-year-old play Red Riding Hood but Peters is such a consummate actress she not only gets away with it but is funny and touching, particularly when Bradley Jaden’s Wolf with his priapic bushy tail comes howling along. What a pocket dynamo she is, and on her long-overdue West End stage debut – equally strong in comedy as a strumpet with trumpet in the ‘You Gotta Get a Gimmick’ routine from Gypsy with Burt and the ever-reliable Joanna Riding and in drama (a slow, pared-down ‘Losing My Mind’ and ‘Send in the Clowns’, the song that got me into Sondheim in the 1970s when folk singer Judy Collins took it into the pop charts).

The nostalgia ‘Clowns’ invoked brought out a hankie but I needed two after Salonga’s ‘Loving You’ from Passion. What a voice and clarity this lady possesses. I hesitate claiming there’s none better but in Brian Clough’s famous words: “I’m not saying I’m the best football manager in the business but I’m in the top one!” A musical theatre star best known over here for Miss Saigon, Salonga has worldwide renown too for Gypsy and Sweeney Todd. After watching her powerhouse ‘Everything’s Coming Up Roses’ and assured Cockney comic touch with ‘The Worst Pies in London’ when may we have her back in the West End? It’s a voice worth going a long way to hear.

Jeremy Secomb’s insane Sweeney Todd, memorably reprising the role he re-created in a Tooting pie shop, then took to London and New York, is frighteningly good. His word interplay with Salonga on ‘A Little Priest’ is a little gem.

Jason Pennycooke’s ‘Buddy’s Blues’ is a real crowd-pleaser and Jac Yarrow’s distinctive voice stands out, mainly as Rapunzel’s Prince in his wickedly funny ‘Agony’ duet with Damian Humbley, himself as dashing and on point as ever.

Sondheim, a great supporter and helper of young talent, would have been delighted to see Yarrow and the younger generation, Jaden, Christine Allado, Beatrice Penny-Toure, Harry Apps, Marley Fenton, Bella Brown and Monique Young, getting so many opportunities to shine, particularly in the West Side Story section where Stephen Mear’s choreo-creativity is seen to maximum effect. It’s only a few months since Brown was playing an eye-catching Cassie in Arts Educational’s A Chorus Line and here she is, learning from some of he greats of musical theatre in the West End.

If she does half as well as another Arts Ed alumnus Bonnie Langford she will have a long and happy career. Aged eight, Bonnie was playing Baby June in Gypsy in the West End, later on Broadway, and recently celebrated 50 years in showbiz, still high-kicking and doing the splits as elastically as ever as she heads towards 60. Her trademark flexibility is used to jaw-dropping effect in some stunning ensemble numbers like ‘Weekend in the Country’ but she more than holds her own in solo mode too, notably in that Follies homage to longevity, ‘I’m Still Here’.

The lengthy Into the Woods sequence brings Jill Parker’s costume design into sharp focus in a phenomenal team performance: Bourne’s razor-sharp direction and musical staging, Matt Kinley’s set, Stephen Metcalfe’s musical arrangements and, most of all, the splendid 14-piece orchestra conducted with elan by Alfonso Casado Trigo. Pure bliss from start to the ‘Side By Side’ finale.

Plaudits for everyone bar the guys who put the glossy but semi-useless programme together. To charge £12 for that and not tell the audience which show each song belongs to or who performs them reeks of “if you don’t know that, why are you here?” But when people, not always Sondheim regulars, are spending that sort of money surely they are entitled to all the information that could make their very expensive evening out as pleasurable as possible.

Rant over, do go and see Old Friends. It’s super-slick, easy on the eye and great fun. Maybe 42 songs will be Sondheim overload for some but committed Sondheimites would willingly stay on for more. I missed ‘Franklin Shepard, Inc.’, ‘Another Hundred People’ and ‘Our Time’ but there are so, so many to choose from.

It was good to see McKenzie, the ageless Petula Clark and Helena Bonham Carter who all appeared in the 2022 concert among the buzzy, star-studded press night audience.

But don’t try to relate Red Riding Hood to child abuse like some will – I’m sure that never crossed Sondheim’s mind when he wrote Into the Woods. For goodness’ sake, it’s ENTERTAINMENT. Written by God. Apart from the programme. Enjoy!

Jeremy Chapman