The dozen Stephen Sondheim musicals I've seen - and how my opinion has shifted

[bear88]

Posted: 6/14/25 at 5:00am

I realized the other day that I am running out of musicals with music and/or lyrics by Stephen Sondheim that I haven't seen in person at least once. (I am not counting the films.) The ones I haven't seen are Saturday Night, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the  Forum, Anyone Can Whistle, Do I Hear a Waltz?, The Frogs, Passion (though I've seen the Great Performances pro-shot), and Wise Guys/Bounce/Road Show. I'm also not counting most of the Sondheim revue shows, though I did see Old Friends on Broadway in April. 

But I've now seen the rest, either in New York, in touring productions, or local productions in the San Francisco Bay Area. With the exception of Sweeney Todd, which I saw locally and in the recent Broadway revival; Follies, which I saw three times at the San Francisco Playhouse; and Pacific Overtures, which I saw twice during a San Francisco run this month, I have only seen them once. The quality of the productions have varied, of course, but seeing these musicals - as opposed to listening to the cast recordings, reading Sondheim's collections of lyrics, or watching video captures of older productions - is a different experience.

There are three that stand out, mostly because I was impressed with the quality of the productions and they made me reconsider them:

-- Merrily We Roll Along (Broadway, 2023): This is pretty much the gold standard. It's the best revival I've ever seen. Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez and Daniel Radcliffe are fantastic in their roles. Groff, in particular, was perfectly cast, as his natural likeability softened the less-than-wonderful character of Frank. I don't know where I would place it on my list of Sondheim shows, but director Maria Friedman's production made a great case that's it's more than just a collection of great songs with a salvageable book.

-- Follies (San Francisco Playhouse, 2022): This was a terrific local production that featured the ringer casting of Natascia Diaz as Sally Durant Plummer. Diaz may not seem like the obvious choice for Sally, but I found her perfect in the role, with her expressive eyes and ability to act and sing some of Sondheim's most heartbreaking songs. Other performers, including Bay Area theater veterans, were terrific as well. I guess you either love this musical, complain that it will never live up to the original, or you don't really like it at all. I kept going back.

-- Into the Woods (Curran, 2023): This was the national tour that followed the Broadway run of the revival that included many members of that cast - including a hilarious Gavin Creel - as well as stars like Stephanie J. Block, who made a wonderful Baker's Wife. Seeing this show live made me reconsider my previous ambivalence about the musical. The second act shift somehow worked better close to the stage than it did watching the original version on PBS.

As for everything else...

-- Here We Are (The Shed, 2023): I'm not sure where to put this show. It was quite an event seeing it, though. But since I'm writing this, I will say again that Rachel Bay Jones - as the ditzy, spoiled wife who is kinder than we originally expect - gave one of my favorite performances by an actress. And David Hyde Pierce, as the doubting priest, just steals the show whenever he was permitted to do so. There are flaws in the semi-musical, and some critiques that its satirical barbs are gentler on the super-rich are fair. It's not Sondheim's greatest score but the hybrid musical/play is much better than it had any right to be.

-- Sweeney Todd (Broadway, 2023): Director Thomas Kail didn't trust the material. I'm with the consensus there. That said, Josh Groban is wonderful on the cast recording and there were other good performances in the cast. I'm not sure it was better, big orchestra and star quality notwithstanding, than a 2019 version I saw at the Hillbarn Theatre in Foster City, California. I think I would prefer a darker version of the show.

-- Assassins (Hillbarn Theatre, 2023): This was a very good local production and unsettling in a way that lingered. I know there are flaws in the book, but the musical revue has a dark, consistent theme and pretty much sticks to it. Sondheim's score alternates between darkly hilarious and just plain dark. It's his most American musical.

-- A Little Night Music (42nd Street Moon, 2021): It was nice to get out after the pandemic after I had become a bit obsessed with Sondheim during it. This is a show that probably needs a larger scale than was permitted at the small theater. It's light and silly and clever, and the actress who plays Charlotte always gets to run off with the musical, at least until "Send in the Clowns."

-- Pacific Overtures (Brava Theater Center, 2025): I just reviewed this show on another thread. It's not as dissonant and difficult as some critics argue. John Weidman's book doesn't always flow as well as it could, so it's not top-tier Sondheim, but a good production - as is happening through Sunday in San Francisco - is definitely worth catching.

-- Company (Orpheum, 2024): This was the touring production of the gender-swapped Broadway revival, and it didn't work for me, by and large. Maybe the Broadway production was better. 

-- Sunday in the Park With George (San Francisco Playhouse, 2018]: This was longer ago than I thought. I really enjoyed this production, even though my wife - with the exception of "Sunday" - didn't. But she will  probably indulge me when it makes another appearance in Berkeley this fall, if I play my cards right.

No separate entries on Gypsy, which I saw on Broadway in April with Audra McDonald, or West Side Story, which we saw locally. 

In the recent flurry of Sondheim revivals (and one new show), has anyone changed their views on the musicals for which he wrote the score? 

Updated On: 6/16/25 at 05:00 AM

[binau]

Posted: 6/14/25 at 5:23am

The 'Merrily' revival completed changed my perspective on the show, but having seen the filmed version of the very production when it was in London I think it's the cast that made all the difference. Especially Jonathan Groff and the chemistry between the trio. 

After the 'Merrily' revival and the 'Sunset' revival I now have challenged one of my core beliefs that a show can never be saved by direction/cast/tweaks. It has opened my mind a lot. 

 

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 6/14/25 at 7:42am

The recent Sweeney was stunning but I did see the two understudies after the main cast left. I’ve been lucky to see Anthony Warlow with the brilliant Gina Riley in Australia  in a production that should have had a longer life. 

[TheOtherOne2]

Posted: 6/14/25 at 8:04am

I might like some productions (nearly always the originals, which I was fortunate to see from Company on) more than others, but my opinion of only one of the shows has changed over the years.  The sketch comedy book of Company is of its time and has posed a challenge to everyone who has taken the show on since.  The scenes were probably built around the talents of the original cast and they did indeed make them work (by the time I saw it Alice Cannon and Larry Kert had replaced Merle Louise and Dean Jones), but these days it plays like a threadbare book tied together by brilliant songs. Doyle fought against this by making the whole thing more serious, Elliott reimagined Bobby as Bobbi and put a feminine spin on the comedy.  I liked her reinterpretation more, but Company is the ultimate example of the groundbreaking show that no longer seems as impressive once the ground has been broken.

Its score, though, is heaven.  More than enough reason for people to keep trying to make the show work.

[Dreamboy3]

Posted: 6/14/25 at 9:06am

The revival of Into the Woods at City Center definitely changed my view of it for the better. Act II in particular was better than in any production I’ve seen and after the worst of COVID I saw the entire show in a new light. 
 

I didn’t see the original Follies but of the many productions I’ve seen the show just doesn’t work so my view on that has not changed. But I think it’s Sondheim’s best score and I listen to it often. 
 

Sweeney Todd is his masterpiece and I’ve loved even bad revivals. 

[Melissa25]

Posted: 6/14/25 at 11:09am

I guess an intimate venue always seems to work better for me when experiencing Sondheim.  I appreciated the last revival of Sweeney and saw it twice (Groban/Ashford & Tveit/Foster) but my favorite production is the Tooting Arts Club’s immersive production that played at the Barrow Street theater in 2017. Norm Lewis literally scared the bejabbers out of me and Carolee was a superb Lovett.  The pie shop set up was the perfect cozy atmosphere to experience the terror, wit and beauty of this masterpiece.

I handed over part of my heart at the Classic Stage Company after Judy Kuhn’s Fosca left me in a pool of emotions that I had never felt before.  I think that this was the beginning of my true love for Sondheim.  I had only seen the Lincoln Center 2005 concert production of Passion with Audra, Patti and Michael Cerveris prior which felt remote at the 900 seat Rose theater.  I am glad that I gave it another go and cannot wait for a Passion revival. 

I really did not care for the Buntrock Sunday in the Park at Studio 54 back in 2008. Maybe it was because I attended after work and I was tired but I just remember feeling exhausted and wanting to leave.  Luckily I attended the Axelrod Arts production of Sunday with Graham Phillips directed by Eamon Foley in 2024 and was enchanted with the artistry of the piece as well as the production.

[inception]

Posted: 6/14/25 at 11:20am

I've never seen live productions of Whistle, Follies, Sunday  or Passion.

Seen a couple Sweeney's.  I don't need to se it again.  Just too grim for me.

I love Company & have seen a few takes.  A production that leaned into the 70's with retro costumes helped forgive parts of the book.  But I think the gender swapped version worked even better because in our time, in at least Caucasian culture, it does feel like straight women still face more pressure to marry than straight men do. (I do meet the occasional person at work who is completely clueless & is surprised when I tell them I'm over 50 & never married.  While wearing a Madonna concert t-shirt.)

Seen a few Woods.  I love it.  But I love it more with a big luscious set.  I've said it so many times, but Javier Muñoz was the best Baker I've ever seen in 2014 at OSF.  They're remounting that production this year.  It has a live performer take on the role of the cow & is a fabulous idea.  Would be nice to see again, but I have other plans this summer.

Within the last two years I saw a semi-staged production of Do I Hear a Waltz. Sondheim did lyrics only.  It is sort of like Light in the Piazza, as it is based on a film from the 50's.  So it feels older than its time. Unlike Piazza, it doesn't transcend the film it was based upon, and actually sort of drags.  There's good reason it flopped & isn't really done.

I wish I could see as many versions of A Little Night Music as I've seen of Woods or Company.  It has been a long time.

I remember the book for Assasins reminded me of the book for Company - almost like little skits between songs.  It has been too long since I saw it last.

What I always think about Forum is that it doesn't feel like it has enough songs.

Saw the Merrily revival. I don't like the show.  I don't think the book works. I do not care for green eggs & ham.

I wrote something about Gypsy but then I deleted it.  The wounds inflicted by Ms McDonald are still too fresh.  Besides, I think Funny Girl might actually be the better Jule Styne showbiz musical.

[TheOtherOne2]

Posted: 6/14/25 at 7:46pm

"What I always think about Forum is that it doesn't feel like it has enough songs."

Forum just might be the funniest musical of all time. I think it has enough songs, but it's the rare Sondheim musical in which its book and not its score is the stronger asset. This is also true of Here We Are -- interestingly, his first and last solo scores.  

Updated On: 6/17/25 at 07:46 PM

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 6/16/25 at 1:29am

I had known Company and seen the filmed concert version and found it an interesting musing on relationships, but the gender-swapped revival absolutely electrified me.  It suddenly felt all to relevant to my own personal life and allowed me to see deeper layers in the show in its "classic" version too.

Anyone Can Whistle had been a curiosity piece for me ever since I listened to it--great songs and a messy but really interesting book.  Seeing the recent Carnegie Hall concert didn't do much for me but reaffirm that it had great songs, but Southwark Playhouse's production (in London) really made me reconsider that the show DID actually work as is and just needed a different approach to it that embraced the zaniness and ridiculousness of it (it helps that Alex Young pulled off everything that Cora needed to be, even while suffering a foot injury and acting with a crutch).

[Jonathan Cohen]

Posted: 6/16/25 at 3:59am

Sweeney Todd is probably the Sondheim show, my opinion has changed the most on. I've always loved it but how I want to see it performed has changed over time. The three time I've seen it performed in person was Piper Theatre Productions performing it outdoors for free in Washington Park, Brooklyn in 2015; the immersive Barrow Street Theatre production that turned the space into an actual pie shop, and the Broadway revival led by Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford. 

I enjoyed the Broadway revival the least. There's the huge caveat that I saw it with Nicholas Christopher as Todd because Groban was sick, but that's not my main issue. It was big, glossy, a little self serious, and trying too hard to be impressive. 

Sweeney Todd as character originated from a penny dreadful, which is cheap, lurid, low culture entertainment. In that vein, the musical is the most fun when it's produced with limited resources, and you have to find a creative gimmick, like staging it outside, in a pie shop, or having the actors play their own instruments to win over the audience.  

[Jarethan]

Posted: 6/16/25 at 11:24pm

Interestingly, there have been very few Sondheim shows that I have even liked the first time.  Follies , Sweeney Todd and A Funny Thing are pretty much it.  In the case of Follies and Sweeney Todd, I thought the music was easier to appreciate on first listening and the productions they were given warrant the term 'legendary'; in the case of A Funny Thing, the first production I saw (with Phil Silvers) was so damned funny that the familiarity with the (not particularly great) score was not essential.  Interestingly, I enjoyed Here We Are from beginning to end, even though I would consider it to be 'minor' Sondheim.

I actually pretty much hated ALNM, Sunday, and Into the Woods the first time I saw them; on first hearing, I just could not appreciate the scores and just didn't connect with the characters.  Once I became familiar with the scores, I ended up loving the shows.  Same thing is true, though to a lesser extent, with Company and Pacific Overtures (interestingly, I came to love the PO score, but still not like the show).  Familiarity with the music definitely increased my enjoyment, however.

I have always loved 2/3 of the score for Anyone Can Whistle, although I have always felt that a couple of the songs were insufferably long.  The cookie song is just too twee for me and right this minute I can't remember the other song, but it went on forever and was again a little too twee.

At this point, I would say that Sweeney, Follies, ALNM and Sunday sit firmly in my list of top 15 musicals.  The book for Company and its episodic nature will never result in it being an all-time favorite, but I really do love Sondheim's score.

I have never come to appreciate Passion or Assassins, and I have never heard the scores for The Frogs or Road Show.

[Kad]

Posted: 6/17/25 at 1:50pm

I hadn't realized my Sondheim card was nearly complete- I have only not seen productions of Passion, The Frogs, and Do I Hear a Waltz. 

Passion is really the sticking point for me, out of all Sondheim's scores. I have never been able to get into the cast album nor the filming. Perhaps seeing a first class live production would change my mind.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 6/17/25 at 1:56pm

Kad said: "I hadn't realized my Sondheim card was nearly complete- I have only not seen productions of Passion, The Frogs, and Do I Hear a Waltz.

Passion is really the sticking point for me, out of all Sondheim's scores. I have never been able to get into the cast album nor the filming. Perhaps seeing a first class live production would change my mind."

 

You've actually seen Saturday Night?!

[Kad]

Posted: 6/17/25 at 1:58pm

TotallyEffed said: "Kad said: "I hadn't realized my Sondheim card was nearly complete- I have only not seen productions of Passion, The Frogs, and Do I Hear a Waltz.

Passion is really the sticking point for me, out of all Sondheim's scores. I have never been able to get into the cast album nor the filming. Perhaps seeing a first class live production would change my mind."



You've actuallyseen Saturday Night?!"

Yes! At the York, I think in 2014? Truth be told, I can remember nothing about it other than the fact I saw it. 

 

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 6/17/25 at 2:18pm

Jealous! I only need that show and Forum to complete my collection.

[kdogg36]

Posted: 6/17/25 at 5:49pm

Kad said: "Passion is really the sticking point for me, out of all Sondheim's scores. I have never been able to get into the cast album nor the filming. Perhaps seeing a first class live production would change my mind."

It's funny that you say that, because the Passion cast album is probably the one I listen to the most. Passion is the only Sondheim show for which I saw the original production (well, until Here We Are), and I didn't much like it at the Plymouth, but I quickly became hooked when the album came out the following summer. I find the score ravishing (for lack of a less-hackneyed word), and I still absolutely love it as a piece of gorgeous music.

As for my scorecard, I'm still waiting to see Saturday Night and Anyone Can Whistle.

[joevitus]

Posted: 6/17/25 at 7:30pm

TheOtherOne2 said: "I might like some productions (nearly always the originals, which I was fortunate to see from Company on)more than others"

Jelly

[joevitus]

Posted: 6/17/25 at 7:31pm

I don't know what happened, but starting with Assassins, Sondheim's newer work just doesn't, um, work for me. The one I'm really frustrated about not appreciating is Passion.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 6/17/25 at 7:54pm

I listened to Passion many times before falling in love with it.

 

I haven’t cracked Pacific Overtures yet.

[Jarethan]

Posted: 6/17/25 at 10:37pm

Kad said: "I hadn't realized my Sondheim card was nearly complete- I have only not seen productions of Passion, The Frogs, and Do I Hear a Waltz.

Passion is really the sticking point for me, out of all Sondheim's scores. I have never been able to get into the cast album nor the filming. Perhaps seeing a first class live production would change my mind."

I saw a first class production, tried to listen to cast recording countless times, and watched it on PBS several times.  I still think it is painful to get through.  While Donna Murphy was great, and deservedly won the Tony, I always wondered how she could get through the performances, because to me it is a lifeless nore.

[Kad]

Posted: 6/17/25 at 10:45pm

I saw Anyone Can Whistle in a very small, very limited run in London in 2010 with Rosalie Craig as Fay (coincidentally, I missed the Encores presentation because it was at the same time at that trip). It was staged in a Brechtian style and the production worked incredibly well, from what I recall. I think of the "problem" Sondheim shows, it's probably the best positioned for a reexamination and major production. 

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 6/17/25 at 11:04pm

Kad said: "I saw Anyone Can Whistle in a very small, very limited run in London in 2010 with Rosalie Craig as Fay (coincidentally, I missed the Encores presentation because it was at the same time at that trip). It was staged in a Brechtian style and the production worked incredibly well, from what I recall. I think of the "problem" Sondheim shows, it's probably the best positioned for a reexamination and major production."

Oh wow I would've loved to have seen that!  I was just thinking earlier this year how despite people referring to Sweeney as Brechtian, Whistle might be the one that works the most with a more Brechtian take (I joked that Jamie Lloyd should take it on with the same sort of quasi-Brecht he applied to Sunset).

Re: Passion, I enjoy it because I think it's interesting to explore the different kinds of love and the different phases that people go through over their lives as they develop a deeper understanding of love and passion.  And I've actually started thinking of Fosca in relation to the portrayal of Mary Todd Lincoln in Oh Mary, two women who have no say in their life and have to "act out" to demand what they want.

[Musicals Fan]

Posted: 6/18/25 at 12:19am

Your  post made me feel very fortunate. I've seen the original Broadway production of every Sondheim show beginning with Company.  They are all still a source of great joy. I saw the original Merrily a second time in previews because I thought it would be tough to get a ticket after it became a big hit. Most of the shows I've seen several times in different productions. Though Sweeney is the most interesting musically, Merrily seemed so poignant when I saw it originally, and the Encores revival was extraordinary. The Papermill production of Follies was in since ways more accessible than the original.  Nothing has come close to matching the original Pacific Overtures, which can be seen on YouTube.

I can brag about seeing Saturday Night, Follies in Berlin in 1991, and Getting Away With Murder, which was clever but forgettable.