Sondheim & Ives’ HERE WE ARE headed to London’s National Theatre in 2025- Page 6

[SteveSanders]

Posted: 5/9/25 at 8:54pm

BorisTomashevsky said: "The funny bits were very funny, but if this had been written by anyone else it would have been runout of town."

I highly doubt this as it is better than a fair amount of what is on Broadway right now.

 

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 5/20/25 at 9:17am

 

[inception]

Posted: 5/20/25 at 9:47am

binau said: "
Are you suggesting they didn't get on????"

Many in that cast wil not have availability for any extended run in any Broadway show for some time.

For example, Rachel Bay Jones now plays a recurring character on CBS's highest rated new comedy of the recently ended 24/25 season: Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage - a spin off of a spin off from Big Bang Theory.  I sat through one episode - she does what she has to, and I hope she gets a a very nice cheque. It's done in Burbank, so she will likely be living in LA during filming.

Is there anyone today willing to do what Vivian Vance did during her seasons on the Lucy Show in the 60's?  Every week after Friday tapings she would fly home to the East Coast to be with her 4th husband John Dodds for the weekend, and then back to LA at the start of the next week for table reads. She really wanted to make that marriage work, and they did indeed stay together until her death.

 

[StylishCynic]

Posted: 6/24/25 at 11:46am

There's only 4 days left until this closes. I'm shocked that this wasn't shown as part of NT Live series.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/24/25 at 12:09pm

Same. Considering from the second it was announced, so many people “heard” it was absolutely going to happen. 

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 6/24/25 at 12:15pm

Is a Broadway transfer a pipe dream?

[theatergoer3]

Posted: 6/24/25 at 12:25pm

Hopefully it pops up on NT at Home but similarly surprised. Thought that was part of the calculus. 

[BJR]

Posted: 6/24/25 at 12:47pm

TotallyEffed said: "Is a Broadway transfer a pipe dream?"

I assumed this was part of the calculus. 

[bear88]

Posted: 6/26/25 at 2:03am

theatergoer3 said: "Hopefully it pops up on NT at Home but similarly surprised. Thought that waspart of the calculus."

Perhaps we all just talked ourselves into it because we wanted a taping to happen. And I did, even without Rachel Bay Jones and David Hyde Pierce.

[binau]

Posted: 6/26/25 at 2:16am

Of course we all want it to happen but I don't think it was unrealistic/a pipe dream to assume that the National Theatre, who frequently do show their productions including Sondheim's Follies, would take the opportunity to present Sondheim's final work especially when the cast has a couple of TV stars. 

[SteveSanders]

Posted: 6/29/25 at 8:29am

Link to a post from one of the UK board's more thoughtful contributors talking about last night's final performance and exploring how Ives addressed some of the themes from the movies in the second act. 

So glad to have seen this show four times in London where I found it even more compelling than at The Shed. The cast was uniformly sublime.

https://theatreboard.co.uk/post/591227/thread

Updated On: 6/29/25 at 08:29 AM

[inception]

Posted: 6/29/25 at 9:37am

Thank-you for directing us to that post which so clearly highlights the changes made, both to the plot & the meaning.  

[Play Esq.]

Posted: 6/30/25 at 12:07pm

I’ve gotta say, maybe it was jet lag (saw the Saturday matinee, landed at 8am), but this cast did not do it for me.  As much as I love Jane, who was absolutely hysterical and it was a delight to see her again in a musical, Rachel was the heart and soul of the New York run. Her absence was deeply felt, so too was the pathos she shared with David. 

Glad I got one more chance to see this show one more time and with a new cast(who knows if it’ll be produced anytime soon…), I just greatly treasure seeing this (albeit deeply flawed) musical with its original cast. 

[bear88]

Posted: 7/2/25 at 3:24am

SteveSanders said: "Link to a post from one of the UK board's more thoughtful contributors talking about last night's final performance and exploring how Ives addressed some of the themes from the movies in the second act.

So glad to have seen this show four times in London where I found it even more compelling than at The Shed. The cast was uniformly sublime.

https://theatreboard.co.uk/post/591227/thread"

I didn’t see the London production and so I don’t know what changes were made, especially in the second act. I agree with a lot of the analysis, though I doubt Inferno is some sort of supernatural being - which feels like a reach, especially given the way his conflict with Leo plays out. It’s one way of explaining his character’s comings and goings but I don’t think it makes sense. Why would Dennis O’Hare’s existence in the first act as other characters be a sign of something when Tracie Bennett’s first act characters not matter at all? The actors are just playing multiple characters. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

But the idea that all of the characters are viewed by Ives (with Sondheim’s assistance) as redeemable gets a fair amount of support in the play, as does its pivotal and unique treatment of Marianne (Rachel Bay Jones in New York, Jane Krakowski in London). She is the most open and innocent of the characters, despite her obscene wealth, and she is the one - aside from the priest - with the most surprising and satisfying arc in the second act. Marianne sees things that others do not, in part because she sees her plight as an opportunity to learn and grow. There was something touching and almost inspiring about that. Jones’ performance in New York, aided to a great extent by David Hyde Pierce, is what made the show work for me.

But Ives’ inclination to forgive his often loathsome characters, while comfortable for the wealthy audience at The Shed, also feels out of place at the moment. Some people just aren’t redeemable. These are dark times, and when the laughs come more at those challenging the system - even naively or misguidedly - it felt off. 

I can excuse the show’s flaws because the fact that the creatives were able to pull together a satisfying and thought-provoking musical after Sondheim’s death felt somewhat miraculous. The character of Marianne, certainly as played by Jones and probably by Krakowski as well, elevated it to unexpected heights.

Updated On: 7/3/25 at 03:24 AM