“Whether you are an old friend of Sondheim or a new one, you will leave the theatre moved, thoroughly entertained and surely breathless for a revival or three.”
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"This celebration of the late Stephen Sondheim assembles three generations of big guns from musical theatre – including Broadway legend Bernadette Peters, making her West End debut – to fire a selection of greatest hits at a receptive audience. Devised by Cameron Mackintosh, and focusing on works he has produced, it’s a partial, loving, starry spin through a dazzling back catalogue. Sondheim’s versatility and wit shine through."
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“If you want to see a large number of Stephen Sondheim songs performed by talented people in an ultimately cosy and conservative revue, see ‘Old Friends’. If you want to understand why Sondheim was regarded as so brilliant that his nickname was literally God, see one of his musicals.”
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"If you care about musical theatre, you cannot miss this show."
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“Each song has its brilliance but the overall impact of the show – beautifully played by the orchestra, under conductor Alfonso Casado Trigo – springs from the way it knits together a lot of moments into a satisfying whole. It is both a tribute to Sondheim and an exploration of the qualities of curiosity, intelligence, humour and high seriousness that made him a giant of the theatre.”
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“There’s never a doubt that the creatives are gathered to honour the man of the title, whose life is pictorially documented on the way to a giddy rendition of the ‘Old Friends’ that the cast and their audience by then have become.”
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“ ‘Old Friends’ isn’t just a virtuosic display... it’s both celebration and requiem. Peters notes in her introduction that Sondheim wanted as many people as possible to see his work, and I can’t think of a better platform. This ‘great big Broadway show’ deserves to be a great big West End hit.”
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“Some numbers translate better than others to a format in which their context is necessarily abbreviated; equally, while some renditions penetrate, others teeter on the brink of splashy self-indulgence...There’s much, more more, in an evening that offers up its riches like a lavish chocolate box of hard and soft centres. Sondheim fans will savour every mouthful.”
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