Stephen Sondheim Old Friends - Sondheim / TV / Gielgud

The prices were high last time as it was a one off charity concert but as this is a proper run they will, no doubt, be more realistic.

She worded it very carefully at the WOSAwards last night (via video), she said she hadn't sung on a West End stage in 27 years.

Oh and can they bring back AJ Casey too.

One would assume it'll be Jeremy Secombe and Lea Salonga personally, as she's played Lovett before.

Would LOVE to see Jo do Lovett though

"Tickets will go on sale on 22 February at 11am to priority bookers and DMT Plus members, with a general on-sale on 27 February at 11am", via the WoS link up there. I'm really excited but hesitant about booking very early if the additional performers will be on a rotating basis - I have preferences!

I reported earlier about seeing Jac Yarrow perform a number from Sweeney in a concert. Well apologies but just realised it was Sam Tutty not Jac.
I'm sure Jac will be great though.

That would be quite a rendition of You Gotta Get a Gimmick.

More surprised it wasn’t arranged around Crazy for You to fit Charlie Stemp in TBH.

Am I missing something with this? The excitement for the one-off concert, I could understand. It was huge, it was unmissable. All those individual performers coming together to celebrate Sondheim and his work for one night. And it absolutely delivered, both on a performance, emotional and celebratory level.

But this upcoming run leaves me cold. What is it a run of exactly? "Old Friends" - the revue as we saw it last year - was largely curated for the performers available. So, for example, Imelda Staunton's solo was there because she was Imelda Staunton and that's what she chose to sing. There were a few wonderful new arrangements of group numbers, granted, but outside of that it was a concert of largely unconnected Sondheim songs. There wasn't a through line, there wasn't a real theme, because realistically many of the songs were there because those performers have previously performed them in the past. I'm not complaining or finding fault - that concert did absolutely what it needed to do, and did it brilliantly.

But they're selling this run as the same thing. Is it even the same show? Are we expecting Salonga (or Biggins on the nights she's not available...) to wheel out Judi Dench's chair for a sat rendition of Send in the Clowns? Are Jac Yarrow and Janie Dee popping on Ball and Friedman's Sweeney Todd outfits for that elongated segment?

Don't get me wrong, I am totally here for a concert featuring Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga. But what actually makes this 'Sondheim's Old Friends' and not just a different concert of Sondheim songs? Because surely it's going to be a different show. It may well be a brilliant show. But - arguably - it might therefore have done better sold as such.

You actually make some valid points and something I was thinking about also. I think this version will have to be slightly different as many of the songs were put in for that particular performer.i.e Judi Dench. So maybe some different material rather than a carbon copy.
However I'll still be there loving it as I'll go to the opening of a paper bag if it's got Sondheims name on it.

Oh, I totally appreciate that. But that makes the point I'm trying to raise really. If there are loads of other songs included, it's inherently not the same show. I just find it... annoying I guess that they're selling it as "the same" concert? If anything, they're doing both versions a disservice and somewhat diluting the aim of that original one-off. "Bernadette and guests celebrate Sondheim" (by a better name) could have - and should have (IMO) - been something new.