Where to begin with Here We Are? It’s the final show from Stephen Sondheim – an absolute titan of musical theatre, who wrote the lyrics, or lyrics and music, for West Side Story, Gypsy, Sweeney Todd and countless more – and it’s making its European premiere in London at the National Theatre, following a short off-Broadway run in 2023. This production has Tony-winning director Joe Mantello at the helm, and features a hugely impressive cast. Did we also mention that it’s absolutely, certifiably, completely ridiculous?
So, yes, where to begin reviewing a show like this? It probably goes without saying, but it’s worth noting, that Sondheim passed away while Here We Are was still being written, and the impact is quite palpable. Some of these songs feel as though they’re in draft form: moments of witty lyricism, which show flashes of Sondheim’s genius, are interspersed with disappointingly lazy rhymes (which may have been placeholders waiting to be revisited). There also aren’t many songs in act two: there comes a moment where the music simply runs out, and the show continues, but as a play.
What’s it all about? Examining the lives of the 1%, the show follows a group of wealthy Americans who want to go for brunch but find themselves in a series of increasingly absurd situations.
They rock up at Cafe Everything, which of course sells absolutely nothing; they move on to a French ‘decontructivist’ restaurant which has re-imagined itself as post-deconstructive cuisine – where, amusingly, everything on the menu is exactly as it should be – but they also can’t serve anything as they’re holding a funeral for their head chef. And so our characters continue along this path of surreal events until they find themselves trapped in a dinner party they can never leave, eventually questioning the meaning of life and what really matters.
We said the show is completely ridiculous and we weren’t joking – we suspect the material is likely to be quite polarising and not everyone will warm to it. However, the brilliant cast absolutely sells this for all it’s worth: we meet hedge fund investor Leo (Rory Kinnear) and his ditzy wife Marianne (Jane Krakowski) who forget they’ve offered to host brunch for their friends Paul (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), Claudia (Martha Plimpton) and Raffael (Paulo Szot). At various establishments they encounter waiters played brilliantly by Denis O’Hare and Tracie Bennett (the only cast members to join from the US production).
We also encounter Chumisa Dornford-May as spoiled Gen Z trustafarian Fritz, the unreasonably attractive Richard Fleeshman as a soldier (the audience audibly gasped when he revealed his arms), Cameron Johnson as the Colonel, and Harry Hadden-Paton as the Bishop. The cast operates as a tight unit – Here We Are contains some rhythmically tricky material, with expert timing required to drive proceedings forward and tease out the humour in this series of surreal situations, and these actors do so admirably.
We expect Here We Are will divide audiences – it’s far from Sondheim’s finest work (but then, of course, it was incomplete when he passed away), and the musical has already angered some who disagree with the show being completed without him. However, these actors do a fantastic job with the material they have, and it all looks wonderfully stylish, too. For Sondheim fans it’s a real thrill to hear new songs, and for more casual theatregoers it will certainly make for a memorable evening.
GAY TIMES gives Here We Are – 4/5
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