The magic of ‘Old Friends’

In the entire Broadway constellation she is irrefutably a star. In “Sondheim’s Old Friends,” Lea Salonga, once again, shone brightest among her fellow luminaries and friends.

The two-act performance pays tribute to the timeless compositions and virtuosity of Stephen Sondheim, who The New York Times describes as “the theater’s most revered and influential composer-lyricist of the last half of the 20th century.”

As I eagerly read my copy of the Playbill, I knew we were in for another outstanding Ms. Salonga starrer. Watching her always stirs up wistfulness and pride. And that night at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater – from opening act to curtain call – I confirmed what I had long admiringly suspected about her. Elsewhere in Ms. Salonga’s flair as an excellent actor is another splendid layer of her persona. But first, the musical.

Styled as “a great big Broadway show,” “Old Friends” relives and ruminates on the enduring arrangements of Mr. Sondheim, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 91. His name is synonymous with hit Broadway productions like “West Side Story,” “Gypsy,” “Into the Woods” and many more, some of which had earned him Tony and Emmy accolades and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama for “Sunday in the Park with George.” Devised by Cameron Mackintosh (renowned for being the most prolific producer of musicals), “Old Friends” top bills the 77-year-old acclaimed American performer Bernadette Peters, Ms. Salonga, alongside 15 other stars.

Ms. Peters and Ms. Salonga wonderfully opened the show with “Side by Side,” a duet celebrating friendship. Both dressed in radiant red while delightfully belting out lines like “year after year, older and older, sharing a tear, lending a shoulder… who’d bring me the flowers, when I have a flu?” the duo didn’t outshine each other. Rather, they were a perfect picture of stellar artists who visibly only had one goal in mind: to regale the audience and to honor the man who wrote the song.

What ensued was an amusingly comical chorus, “Comedy Tonight,” by the entire company, which I thought was the artists’ way of warning us that yes, we have a sentimental reason for staging this musical but we won’t mind your bursts of laughter and rounds of applause, while we perform the wits and pranks embedded in our songs.

I read from an in-depth interview with the NY Times days before he died and an obituary that soon followed that Mr. Sondheim (also a Presidential Medal of Freedom awardee presented by President Obama in 2015), was a master in the craft of lyric writing in ways unconventional. He created clever couplets and “unnecessary adjectives to fill out lines rhythmically,” paying less attention to the melody of a song.

These quirky rhymes brought the house down when Ms. Salonga reprised her rib-tickling role as Mrs. Lovett in “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” and performed “The Worst Pies in London.” When my daughter and I watched the Manila run of “Sweeney Todd” almost six years ago, we were spellbound by Ms. Salonga’s portrayal of Mrs. Lovett in her impeccable British accent. This wasn’t surprising, particularly, I read about the huge amount of time she spent rehearsing to perfect her role. With her make up, costume and accent, she was almost unrecognizable. But perhaps for those who had watched Ms. Salonga metamorphose to a versatile actor from her “Miss Saigon” days, the distinctively powerful Lea voice gave it away.

With lights dimmed and the auditorium feeling eerily silent, Ms. Peters, in raspy almost staccato cadence, sang “Send in the Clowns,” which I felt was one of the highlights of Act I.

In Act II, which the Sondheim Orchestra opened with an overture from “Merrily We Roll Along,” it was Ms. Salonga’s turn to captivate the audience anew with her poignant interpretation of “Somewhere.” The hall was wrapped in absolute stillness.

With a repertoire of close to 40 songs, performed by 17 seasoned and multi-talented artists, accompanied by a brilliant orchestra and set against dramatic backdrops, “Old Friends,” indeed gave justice to Mr. Sondheim’s legendary strokes of genius.

Yet there is something more extraordinarily special about the show and the stars. “Old Friends,” which is on a limited Broadway run (it has been staged at London’s West End and in Los Angeles), is produced and presented by the Manhattan Theater Club (MTC), a non-profit theater that gauges its success not in terms of awards but “by the output and talent of the myriad of writers and artists who have debuted at MTC and who continue to return for multiple productions.” I think the MTC is just being humble, though, because from what I read, their productions have already earned “seven Pulitzer Prizes, 30 Tony Awards, 51 Drama Desk Awards and 49 Obie Awards,” among others.

At curtain call after recognizing the audience’s applause, Ms. Peters and Ms. Salonga, on behalf of their co-artists, spoke about MTC’s advocacies. They encouraged everyone who had coins or a few dollars to spare to drop them off in the iconic MTC red buckets by the theater doors or approach the ushers who were more than happy to swipe or tap credit or debit cards of those who wished to donate to MTC.

As Ms. Salonga stood beside her, Ms. Peters mentioned that a portion of ticket sales and on the spot donations from “Old Friends” would go to soup kitchens, funds for aspiring artists and scholarships in the Philippines. At the mention of our country’s name, I darted my eyes to Ms. Salonga, who acknowledged her co-star’s inspiring spiels. Then in a shared banter, the two icons took off their earrings and bracelets and offered them for auction – all for a good cause. There were bidders and winners, for sure.

“Old Friends” made us laugh, made us sob and made me all the more admire artists like Ms. Salonga for their talent and their heart. Such is the magic of that great revue.