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

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)
  
  
  
  

-- 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.......)

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…

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!

- 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)

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Cynthia erivo in that philharmonic concert of a little night music

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.