Donna McKechnie: Take Me To The World – The Songs of Stephen Sondheim – Crazy Coqs 

Donna McKechnie: Take Me To The World – The Songs of Stephen Sondheim at the Crazy Coqs, London.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

For three evenings packed with celebrities, Broadway legend Donna McKechnie was back at the Crazy Coqs, almost a decade after her last visit, with Same Place: Another Time, a show she subsequently recorded in London. This time, just like the great Liz Callaway a couple of weeks ago, she paid tribute to the late Stephen Sondheim, giving us her personal memories and appreciations of the master.

From the original cast of Company in 1970 (Broadway) and in 1972 (West End) and the very first Sondheim tribute she choreographed and appeared in at the Shubert Theatre in 1973 to her starring as Sally, a part she was born to play, in the Paper Mill Playhouse revival of Follies in 1998, plus numerous national tours of Forum and A Little Night Music, one could call it a tribute to a career-long collaboration.

Perfectly accompanied by a trio this time – Phil Mulford on the bass, James Powell on the drums, both from London, and her regular pianist and musical director, Ian Herman from New York – McKechnie was in top form vocally, looking smashing as if the years have unaffected her.

At one moment in the evening, she even looked like Shirley McClaine in Sweet Charity, a part McKechnie herself played on tour for Bob Fosse, when she performed a selection from the legendary Sondheim flop Anyone Can Whistle, with a spirited ‘I’ve Got You to Lean On’, followed by Sondheim’s favourite from the show, the title number, and ‘There Won’t Be Trumpets’. Up next was ‘Lovely’ from A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum.

A selection from Company followed, with ‘You Could Drive a Person Crazy’, which she originated on both sides of the pond, and an emotional ‘Being Alive’. She moved on to an extensive selection from Follies, with the cut song ‘Pleasant Little Kingdom’ and ‘Too Many Mornings’, ‘The Road You Didn’t Take’ and a spectacular ‘Losing My Mind’.

A personal rendition of ‘Send in the Clowns’, from A Little Night Music, was also highly touching. Finishing with the title song of the evening, ‘Take Me to the World’, from Sondheim’s TV musical Evening Primrose, she held the starry audience in the palm of her hand and shared her immense joy over being back performing in London, where her last appearance in a musical was in The Wild Party at The Other Palace before the pandemic.

McKechnie’s Sondheim anecdotes were many, but she summed it up best, with this quote:

His music and lyrics could be called a guide for living. Yes, lyrics to live by! Through his artistry, Sondheim found the most beautiful and poetic expression of every experience in the human condition, I think.

Another well-deserved tribute by one of Sondheim’s favourite, most faithful performers.

Patrick Honoré