Like Putting it Together, I'd go see it for the cast. But I think that Times review is just creepy. Yes, I think Sondheim is a genius when he is at the top of his form and was highly influential in the art of musical theatre. I feel that way about others as well. But this worshiping of a human deity nonsense freaks me out. And like other Broadway composers, I think Sondheim has had some great works, some fair material, and a few stinkers.
The OTT cult gushing of anyone makes me really uncomfortable. I think I started feeling this way when I got slapped by a drunk cast member of When Pigs Fly in a gay bar because I said I wasn't a big Judy Garland fan. He didn't do it in jest. It was a full-on open-hand slap across the face. Then he started slur-babbling about how I should apologize and give Judy respect for her artistry, pain and suffering and I could see the same crazy look in his eye I see whenever that Phelps woman is being interviewed on television. That's when I had my first confrontation with celebrity-obsessed batsh*t insanity and I wince every time I see it again.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian