Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends concert to run in West End with all star line up

Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends concert will return to the West End this autumn for a limited season.

Following a one-off gala show last May in aid of the Sondheim Foundation, the life and work of Stephen Sondheim will continue to be celebrated by an all star cast.

Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends will run at the Gielgud Theatre from 21 September.

Stars set to appear across the 16-week run include Bernadette Peters, Christine Allado, Janie Dee, Bonnie Langford, Jeremy Secomb, Lea Salonga, Beatrice Penny-Touré, Joanna Riding and Jac Yarrow.

The concert is devised and produced by Cameron Mackintosh who announced today at the WhatsOnStage awards: “Old Friends began its journey to the West End in a conversation I had with Steve during our enforced pandemic isolation – ‘It’s time we did a third show’ said Steve, and complete the trilogy that started with Side-by-Side by Sondheim in the 1970s, followed by Putting It Together in the ‘90s.

“We commenced work on it but as theatres and shows started to reopen post Covid, we got distracted and then suddenly on Thanksgiving just over a year ago Steve sadly left us, leaving his extraordinary legacy of work to live on forever.

“Over Christmas ‘21 I put together all our thoughts, and inspired by the shows I had worked on with him and Julia McKenzie, and the desire to showcase his greatest music as well as his great lyrics, the material of Old Friends miraculously fell onto the page pretty much as it is.”

For further information and tickets, visit sondheimoldfriends.com

Meanwhile, the original concert is currently available to watch online via BBC iPlayer.