MORE LIAISONS. A decade ago pianist Anthony De Mare thrilled Sondheim fans with recordings of Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano, a three-disk set of adaptations he commissioned from an array of composers using Sondheim’s songs. The numbers, performed by De Mare, were fascinating, and Sondheim himself was intrigued. “They’re fantasias responding to the melodic lines and harmonies, and occasionally the accompaniments,” he wrote. “But all the pieces in the collection surprise me. They take approaches that would never have occurred to me. As you might expect, each approach is startlingly different from the others, and it’s fun for me to hear which of the song elements each composer latches onto, and how far they spin from them.” Now De Mare has done it again with Liaisons II: All Things Bright and Beautiful – Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano, a single disk released in mid-March to coincide with the 95th anniversary of Sondheim’s birth. Volume II offers a diverse range of 14 tracks by contemporary composers from the worlds of classical, jazz, film, indie, pop and musical theatre, including Jon Batiste, Stephen Hough, Meredith Monk, Max Richter and Conrad Tao — as well as the soloist himself, who crafted his own arrangement for the title track, based on “All Things Bright and Beautiful” from Follies. Here’s a link to listen to a few tracks (and buy them, if you’re so inclined)
LOOK IT UP. Serious fans of Sondheim are celebrating the news that Alex Asp has assembled The Sondheim Database. In correspondence earlier this month Alex said he has loved Sondheim’s works since he was in high school. “I became obsessed when a cabaret celebrating his 90th birthday showed me how much was out there that I didn’t know,” he confessed. “The Covid lockdown that immediately followed gave me plenty of time to dive deep down the rabbit hole, and then in 2023 I started compiling a comprehensive list of his works and productions because many available resources were incomplete. It quickly grew in scope, to a point that it seemed silly to keep the information to myself since I’m not the only Sondheim fanatic. Thus, The Sondheim Database was born!” Alex has compiled information about each of Sondheim’s major shows, as well as the various other projects to which he contributed music, lyrics, writing or performance — including those he abandoned. Each major show has a comprehensive list of songs, cast albums, books, video recordings, productions and major awards. Asp is eager for feedback. “The database is only accurate and comprehensive to the extent of what is publicly accessible on the internet,” he says, so he invites anyone with knowledge of errors or omissions to email him at admin@sondheimdatabase.com. He’s eager to make the site even better!
ONE MORE FOR YOUR SONDHEIM BOOKSHELF. Al Hirschfeld’s stylized black-and-white pen-and-ink caricatures of Sondheim and the casts of his shows have taken on iconic status. The artist, who died in 2003 at age 99, was recognized with a pair of special Lifetime Achievement Tony Awards and the NEA’s 2002 Medal of Arts. In 2003 the former Martin Beck Theatre was renamed the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. Sondheim collected many of Hirschfeld’s original drawings. Now a set of those images is being assembled in Hirschfeld’s Sondheim: A Poster Book, to be released in September. It features 25 oversized, removable posters reproducing sketches drawn in conjunction with the opening nights of each Sondheim production starting with West Side Story in 1957. The book features an introduction by Bernadette Peters, an essay by Ben Brantley and text by David Leopold, Hirschfeld’s archivist and creative director of the nonprofit Al Hirschfeld Foundation, the publisher of the collection. Copies signed by Leopold can be pre-ordered for $39, including shipping, from the foundation: ONE MORE FOR YOUR SONDHEIM BOOKSHELF. Al Hirschfeld’s stylized black-and-white pen-and-ink caricatures of Sondheim and the casts of his shows have taken on iconic status. The artist, who died in 2003 at age 99, was recognized with a pair of special Lifetime Achievement Tony Awards and the NEA’s 2002 Medal of Arts. In 2003 the former Martin Beck Theatre was renamed the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. Sondheim collected many of Hirschfeld’s original drawings. Now a set of those images is being assembled in Hirschfeld’s Sondheim: A Poster Book, to be released in September. It features 25 oversized, removable posters reproducing sketches drawn in conjunction with the opening nights of each Sondheim production starting with West Side Story in 1957. The book features an introduction by Bernadette Peters, an essay by Ben Brantley and text by David Leopold, Hirschfeld’s archivist and creative director of the nonprofit Al Hirschfeld Foundation, the publisher of the collection. Copies signed by Leopold can be pre-ordered for $39, including shipping, from the foundation.
MORE “OLD FRIENDS.” Cameron Mackintosh’s tribute revue, which began in London with a single performance in 2022 and an extended West End run in 2023, is headed for a Broadway opening on April 23 for a six-week run (which is likely to be extended). But it’s already received rave reviews for its pre-Broadway run at Los Angeles’s Ahmanson Theatre. Bernadette Peters is one of two headliners, but it’s Lea Salonga (above) who’s been getting praise for her performance in Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends. Citing examples from Passion, Sweeney Todd, West Side Story and Gypsy, L.A. Times reviewer Charles McNulty in February praised Salonga for allowing “us to momentarily inhabit the space of each show, intuitively conveying what I can only describe as the spiritual architecture of these musical landmarks.” He concluded his review this way: “There are glimpses of Sondheim onscreen, but this isn’t another biographical show. It’s an overstuffed yet always stylish homage. While no substitute for the musicals themselves, the production will be cherished by those fans who need to worship regularly at the altar of their Broadway God.”
“HERE WE ARE” AGAIN. London theatergoers will soon be seeing Sondheim’s final show, Here We Are in a production at the National Theatre’s Lyttleton Theatre. It opens on April 23 and runs through June 25. Casting includes Tracie Bennett and Denis O’Hare reprising roles they originated in 2023 at The Shed in New York City. Joe Mantello will again direct. Here’s a link for tickets: https://www.westendtheatre.com/248892/shows/here-we-are-tickets/ … For anyone wanting a bit more insight into this unusual show, especially about Luis Buñuel’s avantgarde 1972 film, Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, the inspiration for Here We Are’s first act. (This was posted on March 2 on “The Sondheim Hub” on Substack https://thesondheimhub.substack.com/, a regular provider of background essays and interviews with performers, directors and others.)
PAUL FORD, R.I.P. Talented pianist Paul Ford died on February 19 at the age of 71, following a three-decade career working on an array of Broadway musicals. With conductor Paul Gemignani, he was a participant in the development of some of Sondheim’s most influential scores, including Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Follies, Assassins, Passion and Pacific Overtures. Working with Mandy Patinkin, Ford served as arranger, music director and accompanist for several of the singer’s Broadway concerts, especially Celebrating Sondheim and An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin. They also collaborated on several albums, including Oscar and Steve and Children and Art. His 2022 acid-tongued memoir, Lord Knows, At Least I Was There: Working with Stephen Sondheim, with numerous personal revelations and unusual observations from the piano rehearsal bench.
ATTENDEZ “COMPANY.” Sondheim’s 1970 Tony winner Company has finally received its Parisian premiere at Opéra de Massy on March 8, 2025. It’s performed with a French libretto translated by Stéphane Laporte; the songs are sung in the original English. The production, directed by James Bonas, will continue at a dozen locations across in France through April 2027, including Nice Côte d’Azur Opera (November 2025), Grand Avignon Opera (December 2025) and a longer run at Paris’s Théatre du Châtelet in the spring of 2027. Gaétan Borg is playing Bobby, and Jasmine Roy (Joanne).
HER TIME, BREATHE IT IN. Annaleigh Ashford, who recently starred on Broadway as Mrs. Lovett (and played Dot in the 2017 revival of Sunday in the Park with George), graduated from Marymount Manhattan College in 2005, when she sang Sondheim’s “Old Friends” from Merrily We Roll Along at her commencement ceremony. Two decades later, on Friday, May 23, 2025, the Tony Award winner will be back to the East 71st Street campus to receive an honorary doctorate. A Denver, Colorado native, Ashford began performing in her hometown at age 9 and dreamed of studying in New York City. She enrolled at MMC at age 16 and graduated at 19. She says the school provided her with robust theatre training and a classic liberal arts education. She adds, “MMC also taught me how to be a New Yorker and how to be a citizen of this great city, how to be a citizen of this country, and to try to be a helpful person in the world. It taught me to ask myself, ‘What is my act of service? What can I offer back to the world with my art?’”
If you have news to share or suggestions about this blog, please email me: pender.rick@gmail.com