Niche/offbeat but high quality Sondheim performances - what are your fav?

[binau]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 8:43am

I'm making my way around secondary/tertiary what I call 'off-beat' Sondheim to appreciate high quality work that might be forgotten or lost. So off-broadway, broadway understudies, replacements, outside Broadway etc... 

Any examples to add to the list so I can help continue researching, or if you have any thoughts on any of these performances would be keen to hear them. Most won't have cast recordings, which is kind of the point. 

Examples to discuss or add to 

• Anyone Can Whistle Encores! (Stunning performances from Donna and Raul. I like some of Sutton's work too)
• Elena Roger Passion (excellent acting and haunting vocals)
• A Bed and a Chair Encores (Interesting jazz orchestrations and Norm, Bernadette, Jeremy Jordan never disappoint me)
• 2017 Off-Broadway Sweeney Todd (Norm Lewis & Carolee) 
• Nicholas Christopher in Sweeney Todd most recent revival 
• Jeremy Jordan in the 2010 West Side Story revival (he was the Sunday alternate) 
• Maybe some of the Ravania concerts (e.g. Audra in Sunday)
• Mary Beth in Sunday (2008 Broadway)
• Much of the 2021 Company revival - still might be fresh in people's minds so doesn't feel lost yet but without a cast recording people will soon forget Katrina, Jennifer S etc.
• Donna Murphy in Into the Woods 2012
• Victoria Clark and Donna Murphy in Follies (encores circa 2007) 
  
  
  
   

 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 8:51am

I saw COMPANY at Barrington Stage with Aaron Tveit as Bobby, Ellen Harvey as Joanne, and a hilarious Lauren Marcus as Amy.

The supporting cast was better than the lead actor…

Updated On: 11/10/25 at 08:51 AM

[The8re phan]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 9:23am

-- Mark Kudisch doing the splits while wearing leather pants in the 2023 MasterVoice's THE FROGS

-- LuPone belting I'm Still Here to the gods on fx's POSE

-- Rachel Bay Jones in every damn scene of HERE WE ARE at the Shed (but most particularly during the 'snow' scene.......) 

 

 

[Art Isn’t Easy]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 9:43am

Love this thread! Some of my favorites:

Donna Lynne Champlain's muggy Pirelli in the 2005 Sweeney revival

Erin Davie as Yvonne in the 2017 Sunday revival, a minor role but the "too flat. too angular" moment always gets me and her's was no exception

Aaron Lazar's pitch perfect "In Praise of Women" from the 2009 Little Night Music

Also want to shoutout some of the incredible performances in Sondheim show's I've seen at Signature Theatre in Virginia including Natascia Diaz as Anita and Fosca, Austin Colby as Tony, Brynn O'Malley as Dot, Josh Lamon in Road Show, Erin Weaver as Pseudolus, and Bobby Smith and Holly Twyford as the leads in a transcendent production of A Little Night Music

 

Updated On: 11/10/25 at 09:43 AM

[binau]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 10:23am

Thanks these are perfect, exactly what I was looking for. I forgot about Aaron Tveit's Bobby! 

Another: Caroline O'Connor as Mrs Lovett in the Paris 2011 Sweeney. With a big claim from Caroline's website.

Stepping into 2011 Paris production of Sweeney Todd with less than a month's rehearsal, Stephen Sondheim declared Caroline the best 'Mrs. Lovett' he had ever heard…

[Kad]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 10:34am

I honestly don't think much in the way of any kind of recording exists for it considering it was a very small production that ran about a month, but I happened to see the revival of Anyone Can Whistle at the Jermyn Street Studio Theatre while on a college trip to London in 2010 and I loved it. It was staged in a very Brechtian style that suited the material extremely well. The cast wasn't made up of big names, though an at-the-time ascendant Rosalie Craig was Fay!

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 10:39am

Anthony Warlow and a transcendence Gina Riley in Sweeney Todd, Melbourne and Sydney 2019. Riley’s Ms Lovett was a masterclass in deception, she was sweet, but an under current of evil. It was thrilling to watch! 

[carolinaguy]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 10:54am

Country/pop queen Faith Hill did an achingly wistful rendition of "Send in the Clowns" at the 2011 MusiCares Person of the Year concert honoring Barbra Streisand. This was one of her final live performances before stepping out of the public eye to raise her children. The clip is available online.

[quizking101]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 11:05am

- Nicholas Christopher & Jeanna de Waal in Sweeney (with special deference to Paul-Jordan Jansen). If they were both bigger stars, they could’ve EASILY carried that show to the finish line with absolute relish. I don’t think I’ll see a better pairing for a long time.

- Jennifer Simard’s stint as Joanne in COMPANY. What a time to be alive. People ditched because Patti was out, but those of us who knew got the treat of a lifetime.

- Denis O’Hare’s sublime comic timing as the put-upon waiter of Cafe Everything in HERE WE ARE,

- Cameron Loyal as Miles Gloriosus in FORUM at Signature. (Whew…whatta man, whatta man, whatta man, whatta mighty fine man)

 

[imeldasturn]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 11:08am

Maureen Moore's Rose in Gypsy, Joanna Riding's Charlotte in A Little Night Music, Jenna Russell's Cinderella in Into the Woods, Mary Millar's Sally in Follies, David Carroll's Robert in Company, Philip Quast and Phylicia Rashad in Sunday in the Park with George, Marin Mazzie's Beth in Merrily We Roll Along.

In her show at the Carlyle, Elaine Stritch used to sing a wonderful "The Best Thing That Ever Has Happened to Me" and Barbara Walsh recorded a pretty stellar "Losing My Mind".

[Hey, Zelda!]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 11:45am

Megan Mullally (with her Supreme Music Program bandmates) cover "Johanna":

I'm not entirely sure what the pianist is doing, but I'm certainly intrigued. 

Updated On: 11/10/25 at 11:45 AM

[NOWaWarning]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:02pm

Passion at the Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester starring Ruthie Henshall. She and the rest of the cast were searing. That show lends itself to an intimate venue so well.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:10pm

Kelly Price and (then unknown) exquisite Jessie Buckley as Charlotte and Anne doing "Every Day a Little Death" in the 2008 Menier Chocolate Factory production. Just found it on YouTube, hunting down more Buckley vocals. I'd love to her her "Soon" from the same staging. 

Updated On: 11/10/25 at 12:10 PM

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:35pm

I saw Patti LuPone play Joanne five times in three different theatres and I’ve heard her sing “The Ladies Who Lunch” countless times besides. But her performance at Lincoln Center, the one where she’d throw the martini into the audience on the final sting of the number…

Just wow. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. She made my heart beat out of my chest when I saw her do it at Lincoln Center all those years ago. I loved the gender swapped revival, which I saw in London and on Broadway, but the intensity of her Joanne didn’t reach the level it did in the Neil Patrick Harris concert production.

[mrgd55]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:39pm

Agree with all the one's I've seen posted so far and I've seen many. 

Would like to add

Brent Barrett's smug (I would say definitive) Ben from the Chicago Shakespeare Follies 

Mary Gordan Murray's intense Gussie from Arena's Merrily

Lea Salonga's gorgeous rendition of Loving You from Old Friends

[CJRochester]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 2:10pm

A Little Night Music at Barrington Stage in 2022, starring Emily Skinner as Desiree and Jason Danieley as Fredrick. They had wonderful chemistry. 

[darquegk]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 2:31pm

Tim Curry's "Losing My Mind" in one of the Sondheim tributes plays it relatively straight until halfway through, when it goes into huge, scenery chewing big band that lets Curry do his roaring, growling best.

Synthpop band Colour Theory did a very fine, haunting synth ballad version of Johanna. 

[SteveSanders]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 3:48pm

mrgd55 said: "Would like to add

Brent Barrett's smug (I would say definitive) Ben from the Chicago Shakespeare Follies"

I loved that entire production, especially Caroline O'Connor as Phyllis and Holly Resnick as Carlotta.  One weekend I had the good fortune to be back and forth between Chicago and DC and was able to see Follies in both locations as the production with Bernadette was running in DC.

 

[bear882]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 10:55pm

A few years ago, Follies at the San Francisco Playhouse. Natascia Diaz might not be your first guess for Sally Durant Plummer, but she was heartbreaking. It was a fine cast overall.

[somecheapfrenchthing]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 11:10pm

I agree with the poster who noted the Signature Theatre productions. Passion and Sunday I found especially moving. 
 

Also for me - Jason Danieley and Carmen Cusack in Sunday at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. 

[halfhourcheckwithmerman]

Posted: 11/11/25 at 12:55am

Some of these may be too niche --- some not niche enough --- but ---

My all time favorite Sondheim interpretation is Joanna Riding's "Losing My Mind." 

Then --- Raul Esparza doing the "Flag Song."

Bebe Neuwirth doing "I Never Do Anything Twice" (to me, Sondheim's funniest song ever. He always talked about the difference between funny songs and clever songs --- this is miraculously both, mostly because the cleverness is so ****ing filthy!). 

Christine Ebersole Mrs. Lovett. ("Is that just disgusting" --- OMG!). 

Marin doing Steps of the Palace --- are you kidding me? 

There's Always A Woman --- Carol Burnett / Ruthie Henshall. 

Also from PUTTING IT TOGETHER --- Carol / George Hearn "Country House". 

And is there anything better than Julia McKenzie doing "The Miller's Son"? 

How about Melissa Errico doing this gorgeous cut song from FOLLIES, It Wasn't Meant to Happen... a three-act play in song if ever there was one. 

I am a Donna Murphy superfan, so this is a little horrific to say --- but to me the Classic Stage PASSION recording is definitive, for Judy Kuhn, Rebecca Luker (who was not even in that production), Ryan Silverman, and the MARVEL that is Rob Berman conducting Tunick's reduced orchestrations --- another crazy take, but those reduced orchestrations are definitive to me and present the score much better, more clearly, and more grippingly than the original ones. 

[Skip23]

Posted: 11/11/25 at 1:18am

Meryl Streep in THE FROGS.  And Larry Blyden.

George Chakiris and Jane Russell in first national tour of COMPANY.

George Reinholt and Christina Pickles (and Jerry Zaks! and Nikki Flaks!) in Cecilwood Summer Theatre's COMPANY

Sierra Boggess' delectable Charlotte in Barrington's NIGHT MUSIC.

Diane J. Findlay's knockout Stella Deems in Barrington's FOLLIES.  (Why didn't she do Hattie?)

Patti's subpar Rose at Ravinia.  She gradually got better and better.

Not niche but shout out to the brilliant Phil Silvers in FORUM.  In fact, that whole CAST!

Julie Andrews showing her Music Hall roots for "Back In Business" from PUTTING IT TOGETHER.

Misty Cotton and Ruth Williamson in LA's ANYONE CAN WHISTLE.

 

Updated On: 11/11/25 at 01:18 AM

[quizqueen101]

Posted: 11/15/25 at 2:29pm

Cynthia erivo in that philharmonic concert of a little night music 

[Ke3]

Posted: 11/16/25 at 3:08pm

Sunday at Ravina for me. Obviously would've defeated the purpose of what they were doing but so unfortunate we couldn't have a recording.

[SKOC211]

Posted: 11/16/25 at 4:57pm

Judi Dench's "Send in the Clowns" is definitive for me.

Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett's "A Boy Like That/I Have a Love" at Carnegie Hall starts as sort of a comedy bit and then transforms into a stunningly sung performance.

Judy Kuhn's "I Wish I Could Forget You." Forever mad that I completely missed that revival and didn't find out about it until after it closed.