Cameron Mackintosh’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, starring two-time Tony Award winner Bernadette Peters and Tony Award winner Lea Salonga has opened at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles.
Manhattan Theatre Club – Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director and Chris Jennings, Executive Director – presents Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends in association with CMI and Daryl Roth. Old Friends will open April 8, 2025 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street). Previews begin Tuesday, March 25, 2025. Tickets are on sale at Telecharge.com and at the Samuel J. Friedman box office.
Old Friends is a great big Broadway show born out of Cameron Mackintosh and Stephen Sondheim’s lifetime of friendship and collaboration. The two of them came up with the idea during the pandemic, drawing on the many shows that they had done together in collaboration with their good friend Julia McKenzie. Once theatres reopened in London and New York in the fall of 2021, Mackintosh was able to visit Sondheim again and this new show remained something they continued to discuss; but, sadly, shortly after, Sondheim passed away in November 2021. It fell to Mackintosh to pick up where he and Sondheim left off, collating their notes, and structuring the show that would initially become a spectacular star-studded gala at the Sondheim Theatre in London’s West End in May 2022 to celebrate Sondheim’s life and work, and also raise funds for the newly formed Stephen Sondheim Foundation. The gala won Best Theatre Event at the 2023 WhatsOnStage Awards and was subsequently broadcast on TV by the BBC.
Mackintosh, who both produced and devised the evening, directed by his long-time collaborator Matthew Bourne, was encouraged by how brilliantly the material held together. They decided to rework the show for a run at the Gielgud Theatre from September 2023 with an all-star ensemble cast headed by legendary Broadway stars Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga, alongside a dazzling array of West End co-stars drawn from many of Mackintosh’s old friends who had been featured in his productions. The Old Friends company performed some of the greatest songs ever written for musical theatre by one of theatre’s greatest geniuses. Old Friends at the Gielgud became an instant legend and an unforgettable evening that earned a bevy of five-star raves and was hailed by The Times as “unmissable musical theatre.”
The cast of Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends also stars Jacob Dickey, Kevin Earley, Jasmine Forsberg, Kate Jennings Grant, Bonnie Langford, Tony Award winner Beth Leavel, two-time Tony Award nominee Gavin Lee, multiple Olivier Award nominee Jason Pennycooke, two-time Olivier Award winner Joanna Riding, Jeremy Secomb, Kyle Selig, Maria Wirries, and Daniel Yearwood. The company will also include Paige Faure, Alexa Lopez, Greg Mills and Peter Neureuther.
Manhattan Theatre Club, in association with CMI and Daryl Roth, presents Cameron Mackintosh’s Production of Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends. Directed by Matthew Bourne, side by side with Julia McKenzie, with choreography by Stephen Mear. Musical supervision is by Alfonso Casado Trigo and Stephen Brooker, musical arrangements by Stephen Metcalfe, and conducted by Annbritt duChateau. Set design by Matt Kinley, projection design by George Reeve, costume design by Jill Parker, lighting design by Warren Letton and sound design by Mick Potter. Casting is by Tara Rubin Casting. Production Stage Manager is David Lober.
Image credit: Matthew Murphy
