(left to right) Martin Milnes, Michael Peavoy, Tim Flavin, Anita Harris, Nicholas Parsons, Rula Lenska, Robert Meadmore and Dominic Ferris, just some of the cast of Hey, Old Friends! An 85th Birthday Tribute to Stephen Sondheim. Pictures: Darren Bell
Some of the performers of Hey, Old Friends! An 85th Birthday Tribute to Stephen Sondheim have posed for photos (pictures by Darren Bell) and revealed their own personal Sondheim anecdotes and the dream roles they would love to play in one of his musicals.
Tim Flavin, Anita Harris, Rula Lenska, Robert Meadmore, Nicholas Parsons and former Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year Award winner Michael Peavoy were photographed in the stunning Theatre Royal Drury Lane, where the concert will be staged on Sunday 25 October.
Hey, Old Friends! An 85th Birthday Tribute to Stephen Sondheim boasts a star-studded West End cast of over 50 principals, a 40-piece orchestra led by Gareth Valentine and an ensemble of more than 50, including a chorus from ArtsEd Musical Theatre. This charity gala will raise funds for The Silver Line and The Stephen Sondheim Society.
Joining them will be a veritable Who’s Who of Musical Theatre, many of them veterans of landmark UK Sondheim productions.They include Millicent Martin, star of the original Side By Side By Sondheim in London and New York (where she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical) and Los Angeles, who is flying in from her home in LA to appear. Julia McKenzie won the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the 1993 revival of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. She also starred in the original London productions of Follies (1987) and Into the Woods (1990) and received a 1977 Tony Award nomination for her work in the Broadway production of Side By Side By Sondheim.
Others appearing (in alphabetical order) include: Rosemary Ashe, Marianne Benedict, Tracie Bennett, Kim Criswell, Anton Du Beke, Lorna Dallas, Daniel Evans, Dominic Ferris, Tim Flavin, Anna Francolini, Tiffany Graves, Simon Green, Haydn Gwynne, Anita Harris, Kit Hesketh-Harvey, Marilyn Hill Smith, Alison Jiear, Bonnie Langford, Rula Lenska, Jason Manford, James McConnel, Grant McConvey, Alistair McGowan, Julia McKenzie, Robert Meadmore, Martin Milnes, Charlotte Page, Nicholas Parsons, Michael Peavoy, Laura Pitt-Pulford, Joseph Shovelton, Sally Ann Triplett, Michael Xavier and Arts Ed Musical Theatre. *All artists are subject to availability.
The creative team includes director and choreographer Bill Deamer and musical director Gareth Valentine. The show is devised and produced by Richard Morris and Doug Pinchin.
Nicholas Parsons
Nicholas Parsons was the narrator in the UK premiere of Into the Woods, which opened in 1990 at the Phoenix Theatre.
“The narrator was a great role for a non-singer like myself! I speak-sing and I just about got away with it, surrounded by an amazing cast of stunning singers, including Imelda Staunton as the Baker’s Wife and Julia McKenzie as the Witch.
“Unfortunately, the Gulf War started and American tourists disappeared from London. Lots of shows suffered, but our producer decided to cut his losses and announced the show’s closure. Then the war ended just as suddenly, but it was too late to continue as another production was booked in to the theatre. It was a real shame.
“I believe that Stephen Sondheim is a genius, in the sensitivity of his writing and his understanding of human nature. My favourite Sondheim song has to be ‘Children Will Listen’ from Into the Woods.”
Anita Harris
Anita Harris sang in the recent Follies gala concert at the Royal Albert Hall earlier this year.
“I sang the duet ‘Rain On the Roof’ with Roy Hudd, and had an absolute ball!
“If I could play any Sondheim role it would be Joanne in Company, just because she gets to sing the amazing ‘The Ladies Who Lunch’, but nobody could possibly top Elaine Stritch’s amazing version of the song – it’s a classic.
“There is a real frisson you get with all Sondheim’s works. When you sing a Sondheim song you really need to study it to bring out all the joy of his sophisticated lyrics. That is quite a challenge – but we love a challenge, don’t we?”
Michael Peavoy
While still training at RADA, Michael Peavoy received the Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year Award. Last year he played Anthony in Sweeney Todd at West Yorkshire Playhouse and the Royal Exchange, Manchester.
“Playing the Wolf in Into the Woods at sixth form college led me to drop Business Studies and become an actor. So I literally owe my career to Stephen Sondheim!
“I haven’t met him but he did come to see Hamlet – in which I made my professional debut – at the National Theatre and he wrote to the director, Nick Hytner, and said the production was one of the top three theatre experiences of his life. We have since been in regular email contact, which is pretty amazing as I produce musical theatre myself and I now have Stephen Sondheim’s ear for advice.
“The one Sondheim role I’d really love to play is George in Sunday in the Park With George – or Mrs Lovett (but that’s never going to happen!)”
Robert Meadmore
Robert Meadmore appeared in Side By Side By Sondheim in the West End with David Kernan, Liz Robertson and Angela Richards. He also performed in Moving On at the Bridewell in 2000.
“Stephen Sondheim attended rehearsals and I was totaly intimidated by him. He’d watch and then just say ‘Don’t sing! Just be and don’t think about the meaning of the lyrics or the song like an actor’.
“I wish I had been in a full musical as well as all the Sondheim revues I’ve done. I’d kill to play Giorgio in Passion or Sweeney in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”
Tim Flavin
Tim Flavin has appeared in many Sondheim musicals.
He was Bobby in Company at Oldham Coliseum in 1990, starred in the 1980 production of Side By Side with Diane Langton at the (old) Donmar Warehouse, and also played Buddy in Follies.
“I worked first hand with Stephen Sondheim when I staged the world premiere of his musical Saturday Night at the Bridewell Theatre in 1997. He had written it as a 23-year-old and it was due to open in the 1954 Broadway season. Then the New York producer died and the show collapsed.
“He came to London to oversee the premiere and didn’t like my staging at all! He wanted all the actors to sit still – so he restaged every single number. It was a lovely little show.”
Rula Lenska
Rula Lenska played Desiree in a production of A Little Night Music at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth.
“I was very excited because the big cherry on the cake was that Glynis Johns was going to play Madame Armfeldt, Desiree’s mother. But at the last minute she sadly wasn’t able to do the show.
“I think that Stephen is a genius. I just adore his work. I’m the right age now to play Madame Armfeldt but I’d love to play Joanne in Company, just to be able to sing ‘The Ladies Who Lunch’!”
Pictures: Darren Bell
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