OLD FRIENDS
- By KEN WERTHER
Slick, sexy, and sophisticated. Sound good? Beginning February 8 (and running through March 9), Center Theatre Group will present the North American premiere of Old Friends (also known as Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends) at the Ahmanson Theatre prior to its Broadway premiere in late March. The show celebrates the life and work of the great Sondheim, with a company headlined by Tony Award-winners Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga. It arrives at the Ahmanson from London’s West End, where it earned rave reviews and was hailed by The Times as, “unmissable musical theatre.”
Beloved director-choreographer Matthew Bourne (Swan Lake, The Car Man, The Red Shoes, Romeo and Juliet) returns to the Ahmanson with this new production devised by producer Cameron Mackintosh and featuring the return of Salonga (last seen at the Mark Taper Forum 25 years ago in Flower Drum Song), and Peters making her long-awaited CTG debut. Also in the cast are Gavin Lee (Mary Poppins) andCTG favorite Beth Leavel (The Drowsy Chaperone, Minsky’s), as part of a company of 19 ridiculously talented singers and dancers. Bourne handles musical staging along with the direction and Stephen Mear is the choreographer.
Stephen Sondheim’s legendary body of work has been celebrated in other shows —Side by Side by Sondheim (1977), Putting it Together (1999), Barbara Cook’s Mostly Sondheim, and Mandy Patinkin’s Celebrating Sondheim (both in 2002). Now it’s time for Old Friends … don’t miss it!
For tickets and show times, click here.