The last time I saw “Sweeney Todd,” it was as a barebones production of 10 performers, including Patty Lupone and Michael Cerveris. Each performer even played an instrument, and the show was wonderful. The most recent revival, featuring a 26 piece or …Read more
photo by Joan Marcus It’s hard to imagine a show by Stephen Sondheim that wasn’t an immediate hit; yet “Merrily We Roll Along,” first produced in 1981, left the critics and audiences unimpressed. It was not the success that previous collaborations by …Read more
Note: This album review is a guest post by Nicole McCray. Reinventing musical theater in a new and exciting genre: Eleri Ward released her second album, Keep a Tender Distance, of folk versions of the late Stephen Sondheim’s songs on September 16. It …Read more
photo by Matt Murphy Sometimes those of us not easily impressed can be impressed. So it is with Into The Woods, now at the St. James Theater. The revival marks a return to the original, following a previous sanitized revival and a fluffy film. This i …Read more
Only Stephen Sondheim could have taken a motley group of would-be murderers and made them sympathetic and funny. At one time, a musical about killing presidents would have been controversial or startling. Certainly that was the case 30 years ago when …Read more
By now, everyone associated with musical theater has written a tribute to legend Stephen Sondheim who died Nov. 26, 2021 at age 91. Productive until the end, Sondheim died while working on another musical. Every season, even truncated ones like 2021, …Read more
When Lady Sandra Abbott’s (Imelda Staunton) marriage of forty years falls apart, she finds new hope when her sister (Celia Imrie) takes her to a community dance class where she finds new friends, and even the potential for a new romance. Richard Lonc …Read more
Even though French actor Lambert Wilson is known for his indelible performances in films by Alain Resnais, Raul Ruiz and The Wachowskis among others, his career as an accomplished stage performer and singer is less known outside of France. Not only h …Read more
As part of their 90th Anniversary season, the St. Bart’s Players presents Sondheim’s A Little Night Music. New York’s longest running community theater group infuses new energy into this classic musical centered around the complexity of human relatio …Read more
Maria Friedman calls me from a landline in Saks Fifth Avenue in Boston (where she is directing Merrily We Roll Along), where a saleswoman (thank you, Paige!) has kindly let her use the phone so we can talk about her upcoming shows at Feinstein’s/54 B …Read more
