On the heels of a crowd-pleasing revival of “Into the Woods,” Sondheim’s 1979 musical thriller, “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of
Fleet Street,” slashes its way back to Broadway. Thomas Kail’s production, beginning previews on Feb. 26, at the LuntFontanne, features Josh Groban as the murderous barber, the incandescent Annaleigh Ashford as his pie-making accomplice, and a twenty-six-piece orchestra. Downtown, New York Theatre Workshop revives “Merrily We Roll Along” (starting Nov. 21), Sondheim’s beloved problem child from 1981, which follows the disintegration of a three-way friendship in reverse chronology, from jaded middle age back to hopeful youth. Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez star in Maria Friedman’s production.
Sondheim, oddly enough, shared a birthday with his aesthetic antipode, Andrew Lloyd Webber, whose juggernaut “The Phantom of the Opera” ends its decades-spanning run on Feb. 18. But Broadway won’t be left Webberless: on Feb. 17, at the Imperial, previews begin for his new musical, “Bad Cinderella,” a contemporary take on the fairy tale, with lyrics by David Zippel and a book by Emerald Fennell (the writer-director of “Promising Young Woman”); Linedy Genao plays Cinderella—but she’s bad!
This story is from the November 14, 2022 edition of The New Yorker.
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This story is from the November 14, 2022 edition of The New Yorker.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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