STEPHEN SONDHEIM’S OLD FRIENDS announces Broadway casting
Manhattan Theatre Club has announced the Broadway cast who will join Tony Award winners Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga in Cameron Mackintosh’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, which begins performances on 25 March 2025 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.
Joining Broadway legends Peters and Salonga will be Jasmine Forsberg (SIX), Kate Jennings Grant (Noises Off), David Harris (Moulin Rouge), Bonnie Langford (Les Miserables), Tony Award winner Beth Leavel (The Drowsy Chaperone), two-time Tony Award nominee Gavin Lee (Les Miserables), Ryan McCartan (Frozen), multiple Olivier Award nominee Jason Pennycooke (Hamilton), two-time Olivier Award winner Joanna Riding (Carousel), Jeremy Secomb (Les Miserables), Maria Wirries (Dear Evan Hansen), and Daniel Yearwood (Sweeney Todd). The company will also include Kevin Earley, Paige Faure, Alexa Lopez, and Peter Neureuther. The final co-star will be announced soon.
Cameron Mackintosh said: “It was Steve’s idea to do a third revue of his work but sadly he died before we had pieced it all together. I always wanted this one to be driven by his greatest melodies. To celebrate his great life and legacy I wanted to put on an all-star gala in London but first I had to finish the hat. Miraculously, in only a few days all the shows, songs, and fun we had enjoyed together fell onto the page in sequence (undoubtedly nudged from above by Steve) and the running order has hardly changed since. The gala was wonderful but more importantly, proved that the material wasn’t just a concert, but the great big Broadway show Steve wanted it to be. For our West End season, Matthew Bourne and I put together an all-star ensemble of old friends, led by Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga, around whom we wove the material as if in a play. I am thrilled that nearly half of our rapturously received London old friends are able to join our brilliant new American friends to bring this show to Broadway. It's an added delight that I am reunited with Lynne Meadow and MTC, with whom Steve and I did our second revue, Putting it Together, starring the incomparable Julie Andrews. For all of us working on this show it is our love letter and thank you to Steve – a musical genius but also an old friend whose brilliant work and memory will last forever.”
Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles will present the North American premiere of Old Friends at the Ahmanson Theatre from 8 February - 9 March 2025 in advance of the Broadway premiere.
Cameron Mackintosh’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends is directed by Matthew Bourne, side by side with Julia McKenzie, with choreography by Stephen Mear, musical supervision by Alfonso Casado Trigo and Stephen Brooker, musical arrangements by Stephen Metcalfe, set design by Matt Kinley, projection design by George Reeve, costumes by Jill Parker, lighting by Warren Letton, sound by Mick Potter, and casting by Tara Rubin Casting.
For more info on Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends on Broadway, please click here.