Super-producer on reviving Les Misérables and Phantom of the Opera, Broadway Sondheim show
The great theatre composer Stephen Sondheim loved puzzles, and when he died in 2021, he left one for his good friend, British super-producer Cameron Mackintosh. He left him an unfinished show.
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The two men conceived of a revue of Sondheim's songs during the pandemic and began listing tunes they wanted. But with the death of his friend, it was up to Mackintosh to make the show real.
'I did say to him, 'I really want to concentrate on the music',' recalls Mackintosh. 'I want it to be personal, but we never really got that far with the construction of it.'
Sondheim died in November 2021. Soon afterwards, Mackintosh created the skeleton of what would be Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends, which has landed on Broadway and stars Tony award-winners Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga.
The final rundown has some of Sondheim's most memorable songs, including 'The Ladies Who Lunch', 'I'm Still Here', 'Send in the Clowns', 'Losing My Mind', 'Everything's Coming Up Roses' and 'Children Will Listen'.
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