An A-to-Z of stars — or, to be more precise, a B-to-W (Michael Ball to Hannah Waddingham) — are to honour musical legend Stephen Sondheim.
Impresario Cameron Mackintosh, a friend of the composer for half a century, told me exclusively that he has had confirmed commitments from an array of top names from stage and television.
Linked together like a musical daisy chain, they include Ball, Petula Clark, Judi Dench, Daniel Evans, Bonnie Langford, Adrian Lester, Damien Lewis Julia McKenzie, Elaine Paige, Bernadette Peters, Clive Rowe, Imelda Staunton, Ms Waddingham; plus others, to be announced later.
They will take part in a special gala show — headlined Old Friends Celebrate SONDHEIM At The Sondheim — in London on May 3. (‘Old Friends’ is a nod to a number from his show Merrily We Roll Along.)
Mackintosh sighed, noting that his Sondheim Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue has capacity for 1,000 — but ‘with this line-up, I could do it at the Royal Albert Hall’. However, he added quickly, it’s right that it should be at the great man’s namesake theatre.
Hannah Waddingham, who played Desiree in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music at the Menier Chocolate Factory, is among 13 stars who will honour Sondheim at a special gala concert in May
Another of the famous 13, Adrian Lester played the lead role of Bobby in a celebrated version of Company that Sam Mendes directed at the Donmar Warehouse
He explained that ‘Steve’ had been due to attend an official naming ceremony for the venue, but sadly died last November, at the age of 91, before that could happen.
Mackintosh is presenting the show to aid the launch of The Sondheim Foundation, established under the terms of the composer’s will.
Over lunch in Central London, Mackintosh revealed that the Foundation will receive millions of pounds from Sondheim’s ‘copyright and intellectual property’, with proceeds destined principally for the support of up-and-coming playwrights, composers and lyricists.
The revenue will be generated from stage and film productions of Sondheim’s shows — which include West Side Story, Gypsy, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday In The Park With George and Into The Woods — as well as income from his individual songs, played every day on radio and TV.
‘So this is what he was planning before he died,’ Mackintosh told me, clearly moved. ‘The most influential composer of the last century has left the greatest gift that any single writer has given. It’s extraordinary. He’s left everything for the future . . . he’s left his incredible legacy to the writers of the future.’
Broadway leading light Bernadette Peters was in a production of Gypsy when she was 13. Decades later, she originated the leading roles in Into The Woods and Sunday In The Park With George
Judi Dench played grizzled actress Desiree in A Little Night Music revival at the National Theatre in 1995 (and yes, the great dame will sing Send In The Clowns in May’s celebration)
Theatre stalwarts Imelda Staunton and Clive Rowe are also set to make an appearance
SONDHEIM At The Sondheim will boast a 26-piece orchestra under the baton of conductor Alfonso Casado Trigo.
Ballet superstar Matthew Bourne, director and actor Maria Friedman, and choreographer Stephen Mear are putting the whole thing together, with a company of more than 30 artists.
Friedman is a foremost interpreter of Sondheim’s work. She was in his musical Passion, alongside Michael Ball.
He was in a production of Sweeney Todd with Imelda Staunton as his pie-making accomplice Mrs Lovett — the role another of the tribute’s stars, Julia McKenzie, played at the National Theatre 30 years ago.
Adrian Lester played the lead, Bobby, in a celebrated version of Company that Sam Mendes directed at the Donmar. Clive Rowe was in that, too.
Damian Lewis appeared in the 1998 London revival of Into the Woods, one of Stephen Sondheim’s greatest musicals
Musical theatre legends Michael Ball and Elaine Paige will also appear in Old Friends Celebrate SONDHEIM At The Sondheim — in London on May 3
Judi Dench played grizzled actress Desiree in A Little Night Music revival at the National Theatre in 1995 (and yes, the great dame will sing Send In The Clowns in May’s celebration).
And Hannah Waddingham, now famous for comedy hit Ted Lasso on AppleTV+, played the same part at the Menier Chocolate Factory, and in the West End.
The Sondheim permutations are numerous, and fun to figure out.
Petula Clark, for instance, recorded Sondheim numbers as far back as 1959.
Broadway leading light Bernadette Peters was in a production of Gypsy when she was 13. Decades later, she originated the leading roles in Into The Woods and Sunday In The Park With George .
Peters also went on to star as Rose in Gypsy – as did Imelda Staunton. They’ve both been in Follies. So has Elaine Paige. Daniel Evans has Sondheim in his DNA, too.
Oh, and Bonnie Langford made her Broadway debut more than four decades ago as Baby June, in a Gypsy production that starred Angela Lansbury.
Tickets go on sale March 15. Please visit sondheimoldfriends.com for details and updates. Mackintosh said he also hopes to film the show.
What out for…
Elton John’s musical about the life of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker is set to open at the Almeida Theatre in early autumn
Elton John’s musical on televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker, which will open — as I can now reveal — at the Almeida Theatre early this autumn.
The rock star has been working on the project with playwright James Graham and Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears for several years. It will be directed by the Almeida’s artistic chief Rupert Goold, who shaped the production — along with producers David Furnish and Joseph Smith — after holding two workshops.
Casting is not set yet. At the height of their fame (or infamy), the Bakkers were watched by millions on their Praise The Lord (PTL) ministry channel.
Tammy Faye was often seen as a figure of fun — her fake eyelashes were so big they had their own room!
But the tragic televangelist had, in the words of Elton, ‘a willingness to preach acceptance, amid a world so quick to pass judgment’ — something which can also be seen in Jessica Chastain’s Oscar-nominated film The Eyes Of Tammy Faye.
Chastain stars in the picture with Andrew Garfield, who plays Tammy’s cheating husband, Jim. Garfield’s enjoying a sensational moment, with his roles as Bakker as well as in Tick, Tick . . . Boom! (for which he’s Oscar-nominated) and as Peter Parker in blockbuster Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Elton also told me, a couple of years back, that he’d been fascinated by ‘the point where TV evangelism and entertainment meet … the ability of television in America to deliver religion, right into the homes of the nation’.
