Bernadette Peters & Lea Salonga To Headline New Sondheim Broadway Revue ‘Old Friends’; Pre-Broadway Staging Set For L.A.

Greg Evans
·4 min read

The Broadway premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends starring Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga will begin previews March 25, 2025, in a Manhattan Theatre Club production at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.

Devised by Cameron Mackintosh, with musical staging and choreography Matthew Bourne and Julia McKenzie, the revue – the third devoted to the work of Sondheim – will make its North American premiere at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in advance of the Broadway premiere.

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Choreography will be by Stephen Mear, with additional casting, creative team, and other details for Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends to be announced at a later date.

The news was included in the Manhattan Theatre Club’s 2024-25 season announcement today. Also on the MTC’s roster is the Broadway premiere of Eureka Day, written by Jonathan Spector and directed by Anna D. Shapiro and the world premiere Off Broadway production of Vladimir, written by Erika Sheffer and directed by Daniel Sullivan.

The Sondheim revue was devised by Mackintosh in consultation with the composer during the Covid shutdown.

“Old Friends,” Mackintosh said in a statement, “was Steve’s idea, born during lockdown, when he suggested it was time (and we had plenty of it!) we put together a third [revue] of his work, to follow from the worldwide hit Side by Side By Sondheim in 1976 (my first!) and Putting It Together (which Julia McKenzie directed at the Manhattan Theatre Club starring Julie Andrews in 1993).

“Though we had started work,” he continued, “very sadly on Thanksgiving 2021 Steve moved on. So, a few weeks later over the Christmas holidays I collated all our notes and, drawing on material from all the other shows Steve, Julia and I had worked on over the years, completed ‘our farewell show’.

“In May 2022, we staged a star-studded Gala in London’s West End at the Sondheim Theatre (which I had rebuilt and renamed after him) to celebrate Steve’s work and raise funds for his new Foundation. It was a sensational success that sold out within hours, screened simultaneously at the nearby Prince Edward Theatre, and was subsequently broadcast on TV on the BBC. The material held together so brilliantly that I decided to press ahead and give Old Friends the full stage life Steve and I had always planned. The show opened in September 2023 at London’s Gielgud Theatre, directed by Matthew Bourne, side by side with Julia McKenzie, and choreographed by Stephen Mear. Starring Bernadette Peters (making her West End debut at long last!) and Lea Salonga, it received rave reviews and nightly standing ovations during its 16-week run.

“It is a tremendous joy to now be bringing Old Friends to the Ahmanson in Los Angeles and to be back side by side with Lynne Meadow at the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York thanks to Daryl Roth’s support, with a terrific company headed again by my old friends Bernadette and Lea with many other stars to be announced shortly. Audiences are in for a joyous and unforgettable evening featuring some of the greatest songs ever written for the musical theatre in ‘a great big Broadway show’ – just as Steve wanted.”

Also announced today by MTC was the Broadway premiere of Jonathan Spector’s Eureka Day, to be directed by Anna D. Shapiro with previews beginning November 25, 2024. Described by MTC as “wildly relevant and bitingly funny,” Spector’s play comes to MTC in an all-new production following an acclaimed London run.

The synopsis: Eureka Day is a private California elementary school with a Board of Directors that values inclusion above all else – that is, until an outbreak of the mumps forces everyone in the community to reconsider the school’s liberal vaccine policy. As cases rise, the board realizes with horror that they’ve got to do what they swore they never would: make a choice that won’t please absolutely everybody.

Eureka Day is produced by special arrangement with Sonia Friedman Productions, Wagner Johnson Productions, and Seaview. Casting, creative team, and other information for will be announced at a later date.

Off-Broadway, MTC will stage, at New York City Center – Stage I, the world premiere of Vladimir, written by Sheffer (Russian Transport) and directed by Sullivan (Summer, 1976). Previews begin September 24, 2024.

Synopsis: This haunting world premiere unfolds in Moscow, where an independent journalist covering Putin’s first term struggles to maintain sanity and hope in increasingly hostile circumstances. She finds herself on the brink of an explosive story – but as danger mounts for her and her sources, she questions whether her bravery will make any difference at all.

Casting, creative team, and other information for Vladimir will be announced at a later date.

Additional productions for MTC’s 2024-2025 season will be announced soon. The Samuel J. Friedman Theatre will be closed from July 2024 to October 2024 to facilitate regular updates to lighting, HVAC, fire, and security systems and to install new technology to make the theatre more accessible for all patrons.

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