re: was anyone else hoping it would be a cast with Sondheim history?
Last Edit: WaymanWong 08:23 pm EDT 10/23/24
Posted by: WaymanWong 08:11 pm EDT 10/23/24
In reply to: was anyone else hoping it would be a cast with Sondheim history? - Chazwaza 04:34 pm EDT 10/23/24

I was secretly hoping that ''Old Friends'' might come to Broadway with Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga, but with a wholly new American ensemble, each with Sondheim credits. My wishlist of performers would've include a number of the ones you mentioned, and I'd add Jim Walton (''Merrily''), Claybourne Elder (''Road Show''), Paolo Montalban (''Pacific Overtures''), Ben Fankhauser (''Saturday Night''), to name but a few. I imagine the bigger stars you mentioned, like Donna, Audra, Nathan, Patti, etc., are far too busy to be committed to a run, but how about a weekly slot as a special guest star?

That said, the London production of ''Old Friends'' opened with lots of London musical-theater stars, young and old, and it was not a hit. A London Sondheim fan & friend told me he went several times and says the show never caught fire with audiences. As much as we love Sondheim, maybe there's just a limited mainstream audience for his work. Even on Broadway. The celebrated recent ''Into the Woods'' ran 179 performances. The latest ''Company'' closed the month after it won 5 Tony Awards, including Best Musical Revival. And I can't remember the last Sondheim revue on Broadway, ''Sondheim on Sondheim,'' starring Barbara Cook and Vanessa Williams in 2010, setting any box office records. The Sondheim revival that's a big commercial hit, like ''Merrily,'' starring Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe, or ''Sweeney Todd,'' starring Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford, seems more the exception than the rule.
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