I was hugely excited about this prom. The BBC Proms run every year in the Royal Albert Hall, and tend to be concerts of classical music and opera. There is occasionally a touch of musical theatre, but it would seem that that the Proms only feature a certain type of music.
Yet this year, David Charles Abell (who is the Musical Director of Love Never Dies, and apparently also conducted the tenth anniversary concert of Les Miserables) joined forces with the BBC and Stephen Sondheim (who claims to have little involvement in the concert) to celebrate Sondheim's 80th birthday.
Like the The Night of 1000 Voices, the programme featured segments for Sondheim's best-known works, including the best opening number ever-'Instruction & Inovcation to the Audience' from his 1974 work The Frogs. Performed with good humour by Simon Russell Beale and Daniel Evans .
Follies was the first musical represented. It is the story of a group of old people having a reunion, which brings back memories of their younger years. I don't really enjoy it on record (*hides from Sondheim obsessives*). That being said 'Too Many Mornings' performed by Julian Ovenden (*swoons*) and Maria Friedman was beautiful, even if the age gap between the two was a little jarring. Caroline O'Connor (who featured in Moulin Rouge!) belted out 'Broadway Baby' in one of the most Kander & Ebb-esque/Fosse-esque performances of a Sondheim song, which is not surpising considering she has spent the past few years playing Velma Kelly in Chicago.
We were then transported to the 2005 revival of Sunday in the Park with George, with Daniel Evans and Jenna Russell reprising their roles as Georges/George and Dot/Marie, performing the title song and 'Move On', which is a beautiful song. Russell (who will be playing The Baker's Wife in the revival of Into the Woods this summer) was perfectly in character.
Ovenden and Evans then performed 'Agony' from Into the Woods, in the show this is sung by Cinderella's Prince and Rapunzel's Prince as they discuss how hard it is to get hold of their respective princesses. Personally, my favourite version is the Reprise from Act 2, which ends with the line 'Oh well, back to my wife'. Friedman than sang a revised version of 'Children Will Listen', a far more out-of-show lyric. It was a moving performance, and it really suprises me that Friedman (who has performed in several Sondheim shows) has not yet played The Witch in Into the Woods.
It was then on to the most talked about section of the evening, the A Little Night Music part. Which featured Dame Judi Dench singing 'Send in the Clowns'. Dench played Desiree Armfeldt, who sings the song in the show, at the National in the 1990s. Whilst I love Catherine Zeta-Jones' performance on the most-recent Broadway cast album, this song is especially poignant when performed by a woman of Dench's age. She made me well-up from the very beginning-whilst she doesn't have a flawless voice, her acting carried the song perfectly. Yet, I particuarly enjoyed the soloist performance of 'A Weekend in the Country', featuring O'Connor as Petra, Russell as Anne Egerman (who manages to make her voice sound really young), Russell Beale as Fredrik Egerman, Maria Friedman as Countess Charlotte, Julian Ovenden as Carl-Magnus (again playing opposite Friedman) and Daniel Evans as Henrik Egerman. I adored it-it was a brilliant closer on Act One.
Act Two opens with a Sweeney Todd segment, featuring opera singer Bryn Terfel. Who was terrifying in 'Soliloquy'. Maria Friedman joined him as Mrs Lovett for 'A Little Priest' which was hilarious, and showed off Sondheim's clever humour.
Ovenden then knocked the ball out of the park with 'Being Alive' from Company. Although I still believe that Raul Esparza owns this song, Ovenden's much more operatic version was powerful, and carried wonderfully over the full BBC Orchestra.
Then came my favourite moment of the concert 'Everybody Ought to have a Maid', performed by Russell Beale, Evans, Ovenden and Terfel. The song is already amusing through its word play, but with these four men (one being a classical actor, and another being an opera singer) singing it, complete with dance moves, it was a highlight of the evening.
The show came to a close with 'Our Time', which is one of my favourite songs from Merrily We Roll Along, performed by students from the Children in Need Performing Arts Fund. It wasn't the *best* performance, but then, if I wear in my early twenties and performing at the Albert Hall in front of Stephen Sondheim, I'd be scared stiff.
Finally, came a choral 'Sunday' from Sunday in the Park... and finally a roof-raising rendition of 'Side by Side' from Company.
There will be numbers of people complaining that certain songs were left out (such as 'I'm Losing My Mind from Follies) yet I believe it was a wonderful tribute to Sondheim, for whom this was his first ever time at the Albert Hall. He is a true musical theatre legend and deserved this wonderful tribute.
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