Here We Are review — Sondheim's last musical is utterly absorbing
Let me be absolutely honest and say that this star rating should come with a health warning. Why? Because the valedictory offering from the late Stephen Sondheim is such a curate's egg. The musical fantasy that unfolds on the National's Lyttelton stage is, for long stretches, utterly absorbing. Yet it's undeniably flawed, too.
Let's start with the many positives in a show which opened in New York in 2023. The first part of the evening is quite simply extraordinary, the typically angular melodies delivered with panache by a first-rate ensemble in which Jane Krakowski is always the centre of attention. Her character, Marianne, forever floating around in a negligee, is a maddeningly shallow socialite — a younger version of one of the ladies who lunch
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