We take a look at what is being said about this production of Stephen Sondheim’s final musical.
WhatsOnStage: **** “Here We Are is not anywhere near peak Sondheim, but thanks to their efforts and to Jonathan Tunick’s orchestrations, performed by an excellent orchestra under conductor Nigel Lilley, there are constant glimmers of his wit, and his ability to grapple with the secrets of the human heart. It feels like a late-career bonus, a curiosity but one that gleams.”
The Guardian: *** “But as the show travels from movement to stasis, with emphatic repetition that is as existential as it is literal, it falters in momentum and brings longueurs, despite urgent warnings about the end of the world. Musically, the sound is unmistakably Sondheim’s but there is no one great song, not even one memorable song. There is heartiness and humour but little of Sondheim’s usually intimate or penetrating psychology. “
The Standard: ** “It’s not totally unenjoyable. Sam Pinkleton’s choreography gives the characters a precise physical language. Designer David Zinn neatly sketches in a series of pretentious dining rooms. Krakowski is terrific, albeit well within her comic comfort zone, as the endlessly amazed Marianne. Kinnear is brutishly good. The limelight is outrageously stolen by Bennett and O’Hare.”
The Telegraph: **** “First unveiled in New York in 2023, the musical-theatre titan’s last work is no masterpiece, but it still demands to be seen.”
Time Out: *** “But as final unfinished works go, it’s pretty bloody good. Here We Are is a really, really great example of half a musical. The luxury casting doesn’t simply flatter flimsy material: what Sondheim actually wrote was very good, and Ives’s second half is hardly a hack job.”
The Stage: ** “Stephen Sondheim’s posthumous final musical is an aimless disappointment.”
The Daily Mail: ** “Even with David Zinn’s stunning set transforming a white box into opulent tableaux, Here We Are remains an empty pageant. Sondheim may not be everyone’s dry martini, but he deserves to be remembered for something else.”
Musical Theatre Review: ***** “Musically, it’s instantly recognisable as Sondheim, and indeed it’s very Jonathan Tunick, who orchestrates with devilish glee, treating us to warm french horns, Steve Reich-like minimalism, and a peach of a part for one lucky/busy bassoonist (no doubling here!) – MD Nigel Lilley draws a huge sound from the 13-piece band and gives the performers plenty of room to luxuriate in Sondhiem’s lyrics, aided by a top-notch sound system that lets every word be heard.”
Broadway World: ** “Sondheim’s music is a character in itself, a poltergeist mischievously trapping and toying with the coterie; its jazz infused dazzle keeps the pace tight even if the narrative can’t keep up.”
The Arts Desk: ***** “Jonathan Tunick’s orchestrations lovingly make of the music available something complete in itself, Nigel Lilley’s orchestra playing us out after the bows. And Sam Pinkleton, represented on Broadway just now with the glorious Oh, Mary!, lends physical definition to the characters’ first-act quest for food (itself a journey of sorts into the woods), only towards the very end to send their increasingly desperate, anxious selves rushing towards the footlights. In search of what, exactly: Salvation? Oblivion? The show doesn’t say.”
City Am: **** “In the main, it’s just refreshing to see something this surrealist and bonkers getting a mainstream staging.”
All That Dazzles: **** “It’s not perfect by any stretch, and it is certainly going to be divisive. Your enjoyment of the show is going to be very much personal to you and some will be frustrated and perhaps even bored by some of the choices. For me, I personally found myself loving the weird and wonderful world created on stage. Though my enjoyment of each Act differed slightly, I found the pacing in the first much stronger when compared to the second, it still stayed above a certain quality. You can never accuse Stephen Sondheim of being boring in his lifetime, and Here We Are is a fitting addition to his legacy.”
British Theatre Guide: “Not at the top of the Sondheim oeuvre, Here We Are is enjoyable, fun, stylishly staged (and cleverly lit by Natasha Katz, all those mirrors must have posed quite α challenge), the band great and Tom Gibbons’s sound made every word crystal clear on the Lyttelton’s loop which I was trying out.”
Theatre Weekly: *** “But regardless of any flaws, and the somewhat niche subject matter, Here We Are will forever and always be the final work of Stephen Sondheim, and nothing should dissuade fans of musical theatre from missing this thought-provoking, if not wholly satisfying, farewell to a legend.”
The Reviews Hub: ** “Zinn’s set is a marvel; sleek, shining walls in the first half with restaurant tables lowered down from above; an elegant Edwardian drawing room in the second half. If this play is to win any awards in London, they will come from its design. There’s also a lovely breaking of the fourth wall when the characters realise they are actors in a play, looking over the stalls as the house lights come on.”
Here We Are continues to play until the 28th June.