Theater: “Old Friends” with Bernadette Peters

Isn’t it rich, I thought to myself? Someone creating a musical featuring the best of Stephen Sondheim—clocking in at no longer than two hours? Wouldn’t it just be easier to launch Katy Perry into space?

Well, apparently Cameron Mackintosh’s

idea and Perry’s space ride were more than pipe dreams. “Old Friends,” an all-Sondheim extravaganza, has arrived on Broadway from the West End where it played in late 2023. Some diehard fans probably wonder why it took so long to get here.

Broadway lovers, take heed: there is no book to tie the numbers together. But what it does have as a unifying force is Bernadette Peters, a Sondheim muse. At 77, she still looks great in gowns, and can still put over a song just as attractively. Among her showstoppers: her lusty rendition of “Broadway Baby” (Follies) and her teary-eyed delivery of “Send in the Clowns” (from A Little Night Music).

Co-host Lea Salonga was indisposed last night (she was replaced by Beth Leavel) but the others on stage were in fine form. That’s welcome news because the cast had more costume changes than Ginger on “Gilligan’s Island.” Of the numbers I heard, I particularly enjoyed Bonnie Langford and Jeremy Secomb’s duet on “Have a Little Priest” (from Sweeney Todd) as well as “Agony” (Into the Woods) sung by Jason Dickey, Kyle Selig, and Maria Wirries.

Included were numbers from West Side Story (“Tonight” and “Somewhere”) and Gypsy (“You Gotta Have a Gimmick” and “Everything’s Coming up Roses”)—musicals where Sondheim was the lyricist but not the composer.

In short, there’s something appealing and nothing appalling (A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum) about this musical revue. Indeed, “Old Friends” is the kind of night out where you’ll be humming a tune as you exit the theater. With 41 songs in total, the only question will be which one. At the Samuel J. Friedman Theater/MTC.

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