Starring
The London production of Old Friends featured
& THE SONDHEIM ORCHESTRA
CONDUCTED BY ALFONSO CASADO TRIGO
Creative Team
CAMERON MACKINTOSH
CAMERON MACKINTOSH
Cameron Mackintosh has been producing shows since 1967 and remains the world’s most prolific producer of musicals in theatre history. As well as producing three of the world’s longest running musicals – Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera and Cats – his legendary productions include Miss Saigon, Oliver!, Mary Poppins (co-produced with Disney), Side By Side By Sondheim, Little Shop of Horrors, Song and Dance, Tomfoolery, Martin Guerre, The Witches of Eastwick and Five Guys Named Moe. His acclaimed productions of My Fair Lady, Oklahoma! and Carousel have all been international successes, as have his reinvented new productions of Les Misérables, Miss Saigon and The Phantom of the Opera. Cameron is also co-producer with Jeffrey Seller of Hamilton.
In 2013, alongside Working Title Films and Universal, Cameron produced the hugely successful Oscar®, Golden Globe and BAFTA award-winning film adaptation of Les Misérables, which is one of the most successful movies ever of an original stage musical. The concert version of Les Misérables, which was first staged in 1989 at Domain Park in Sydney, has proved to be just as successful as the staged musical around the world. It has been filmed three times – at the Royal Albert Hall, the O2 Arena and the Gielgud Theatre – and is continually rescreened on TV and in cinemas throughout the world and, alongside his spectacular Royal Albert Hall production of The Phantom of the Opera, regularly breaks attendance records for live recording performances of musical theatre. Cameron owns and operates eight historic London theatres, which have all been spectacularly rebuilt and refurbished for the 21st century. They house many of London’s most successful hits. The Sondheim, formerly known as the Queen’s, now has a glorious auditorium and backstage and has been renamed in honour of Cameron’s great friend, theatrical legend Stephen Sondheim, who recently died. The last show he and Cameron were working on, Old Friends, premiered onstage and then TV as a sensational all-star gala last year and is now opening at the Gielgud this September for a limited season with a terrific cast including many of those from the gala, headed by Broadway legends Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga.
In 1990, Cameron inaugurated the Chair of Contemporary Theatre at St Catherine’s College in Oxford University, with Stephen Sondheim as his visiting professor. Music Theatre International, the world’s largest owner of secondary rights of many of the greatest musicals ever written, is now one of Cameron’s companies.
Cameron was knighted in the 1996 New Year’s Honours for his services to British theatre and in June 2023, was awarded the Freedom of the City of London. He is the first British producer ever to be elected to Broadway’s Theater Hall of Fame.
STEPHEN SONDHEIM
STEPHEN SONDHEIM
Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for Saturday Night (1954), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Anyone Can Whistle (1964), Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), The Frogs (1974), Pacific Overtures (1976), Sweeney Todd (1979), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Into the Woods (1987), Assassins (1991), Passion (1994), and Road Show (2008), as well as the lyrics for West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965), and additional lyrics for Candide (1973). Side by Side by Sondheim (1976), Marry Me a Little (1981), You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow (1983), Putting It Together (1993/99), Moving On (2001), and Sondheim on Sondheim (2010) are anthologies of his work as a composer and lyricist.
For films, he composed the scores of “Stavisky” (1974), co-composed the score for “Reds” (1981), and wrote songs for “Dick Tracy” (1990). He wrote songs for the television production “Evening Primrose” (1966), co-authored the film “The Last of Sheila” (1973), and the play Getting Away with Murder (1996) and provided incidental music for the plays The Girls of Summer (1956), Invitation to a March (1961), Twigs (1971), and The Enclave (1973).
He won the Tony Award for Best Score for Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, and Passion, all of which won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, as did Pacific Overtures and Sunday in the Park with George, the latter also receiving the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1985).
Stephen Sondheim was born in 1930 and raised in New York City. He graduated from Williams College, winning the Hutchinson Prize for Music Composition, after which he studied theory and composition with Milton Babbitt.
He served on the Council of the Dramatists Guild, the national association of playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and served as its president from 1973 to 1981. In 1983, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 1990, he was appointed the first Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Oxford University. He was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors in 1993, the National Medal of Arts in 1996, the MacDowell Medal in 2013, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. His collected lyrics with attendant essays have been published in two volumes: “Finishing the Hat” (2010) and “Look, I Made a Hat” (2011). In 2010, the Broadway theater formerly known as Henry Miller’s Theatre was renamed in his honor, and in 2019, he became the first living artist to have a theater named in his honor on Shaftesbury Avenue when the refurbished Queen’s Theatre in London’s West End was renamed the Sondheim Theatre to commemorate his 90th birthday, by Sir Cameron Mackintosh.
MATTHEW BOURNE
Musical Staging & Direction by
MATTHEW BOURNE
Matthew Bourne is firmly established as the UK’s most popular and successful choreographer and director. He is the creator of the world’s longest-running ballet production, a record-breaking nine-time Olivier Award winner, and the only British director to have won the Tony Award for both Best Choreographer and Best Director of a Musical. He is the Artistic Director of New Adventures, the UK’s busiest and most popular dance company and the major exporter of British dance internationally. As Artistic Director of his first company, Adventures in Motion Pictures, from 1987 until 2001, Matthew created many award-winning works (including Nutcracker!, Highland Fling, Swan Lake, Cinderella and The Car Man. Further hit productions were created when New Adventures was launched in 2002 (including Play Without Words, Edward Scissorhands, Dorian Gray, Sleeping Beauty, The Red Shoes and Romeo and Juliet). Matthew is also a West End and Broadway choreographer; a 30- year relationship with producer Cameron Mackintosh has resulted in the globally successful musicals Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady and Oliver!
In 2015, he became the first dance figure to be given the Stage Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre. He received the OBE in 2001 and was knighted in the Queen’s New Year Honours in 2016; in the same year he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award in recognition of his outstanding services to dance. His latest work for New Adventures, The Midnight Bell, which premiered in 2021, went on to win the National Dance Award for Best Modern Choreography. His productions of Romeo and Juliet and Edward Scissorhands are currently on tour.
JULIA McKENZIE
Side by side with
JULIA McKENZIE
On screen Julia McKenzie is perhaps best known for playing Miss Marple in Agatha Christie’s Marple. More recently Julia starred in The Queen & I, BBC’s adaptation of J.K Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy, Gold Digger, ITV’s The Town BBC’s Cranford and the hugely popular British sitcoms Fresh Fields and French Fields. Julia is also recognised for her work on stage having starred in many productions in the West End and on Broadway, including Promises Promises and On The 20th Century. Julia is well known for her work with Stephen Sondheim, Company, Side By Side By Sondheim, Follies, Into The Woods, and Julia went on to win the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical in Sweeney Todd. Julia also won the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for Guys And Dolls at the National Theatre, and the Evening Standard Award for Best Actress for Woman In Mind by Alan Ayckbourn.
Film work includes: Allelujah, Notes On A Scandal, Bright Young Things and Shirley Valentine. In 2018, Julia was awarded an CBE for her services to Drama.
STEPHEN MEAR
Choreographed by
STEPHEN MEAR
Stephen has won the Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer three times, twice for Mary Poppins (London, Broadway & UK tours; Co-Choreographer with Sir Matthew Bourne – they also received an LA Drama Critics Circle Award, a Helpmann Award in Australia, and a Tony and Drama Desk Award nomination) and the third for Hello, Dolly! at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. Olivier Award Nominations include: Gypsy (Chichester Festival Theatre/Savoy), Kiss Me, Kate (Chichester Festival Theatre/Old Vic), Crazy for You (Regent’s Park/Novello), Sweet Charity (Menier Chocolate Factory/Theatre Royal), Sinatra (Palladium/UK tour), Singin’ in the Rain (West Yorkshire Playhouse/ National; received the WhatsOnStage Award in 2001 for Best Choreography) and Soul Train (West Yorkshire Playhouse/ Victoria Palace).
Theatre includes: as Director/ Choreographer: Guys and Dolls and Funny Girl (Théâtre Marigny, Paris), Guys and Dolls Live in Concert and The Best of the West End (Royal Albert Hall), 42nd Street (Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris), Top Hat and Thoroughly Modern Millie (Kilworth House Theatre), She Loves Me (Chichester Festival Theatre), Little Shop of Horrors (Storyhouse Theatre, Chester) and Shoes (Sadlers Wells/Peacock). As Choreographer: La Cage aux Folles (Regent’s Park), The Witches (National Theatre); Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends (Sondheim Theatre), Chess (ENO), Sunset Boulevard (ENO, Broadway), On the Town (ENO, Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris), Singin’ in the Rain (Grand Palais/Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris), City of Angels, The Vote and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Donmar Warehouse), White Christmas (Curve/Dominion), Scrooge: The Musical (Curve), Mack and Mabel (Chichester Festival Theatre/ UK tour), The Pajama Game (Shaftesbury), Amadeus, Music Man, Funny Girl, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Putting it Together and The Grapes of Wrath (Chichester Festival Theatre), Guys and Dolls, Dreamgirls and Ragtime (Milwaukee Rep), Die Fledermaus and The Little Mermaid (Broadway), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (West Yorkshire Playhouse/ UK tour), Gigi (Regent’s Park), Stephen Ward (Aldwych), Betty Blue Eyes (Novello), Me and My Girl (Sheffield Crucible), Anything Goes (National/Theatre Royal) and Acorn Antiques: The Musical (London/UK tour).
TV credits: Gypsy Live at the Savoy, The Tracey Ullman Show, Psychobitches, Acorn Antiques: The Musical, So You Think You Can Dance? and Victoria Wood’s Christmas Special.
Music Videos: Number 1 (Goldfrapp) and The Importance of Being Idle (Oasis).
ALFONSO CASADO TRIGO
Conducted by
ALFONSO CASADO TRIGO
Theatre credits: Musical Supervisor for Les Misérables (London, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Brazil); Miss Saigon (UK Tour, Japan, Austria); The Phantom of the Opera (UK Tour); MAMMA MIA! (Holland, Germany, China). Musical Director for Les Misérables (The Staged Concert version at the Gielgud Theatre); Les Misérables (Queen’s Theatre, London and Spain); The Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty’s Theatre); Miss Saigon (Prince Edward Theatre); My Fair Lady and Candide (The Grange Festival); MAMMA MIA! (Spain); High School Musical (Spain).
Concert credits: Royal Seville Symphony Orchestra; Hallé Orchestra; Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; Northern Sinfonia; Ulster Orchestra; London Concert Orchestra; BBC Concert Orchestra; Barcelona Symphony Orchestra; Liceu Opera Orchestra.
Recording credits: Miss Saigon (Revival cast); MAMMA MIA! (Spanish cast); Los Miserables (Spanish cast); Les Misérables – The Staged Concert; Spanish Music of the 21st Century (BBCCO) Phantom Songs (Alberto Iglesias).
Film conducting credits: Jurassic World: Dominion, Nightmare Alley, Jingle Jangle, The Croods 2, Thunder Force.
STEPHEN BROOKER
Musical Supervision by
STEPHEN BROOKER
Stephen Brooker is Executive Musical Supervisor for Cameron Mackintosh worldwide. He was Musical Director and conductor for Universal Pictures’ film of Les Misérables. Musical Supervision: Evita (2023), Les Misérables (US National Tour October 2022), Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends Gala (May 2022), Mary Poppins (Australia 2023), Sister Act (2023), The Show Must Go On (2021), Les Misérables (Worldwide), Miss Saigon (Worldwide), White Christmas, Mary Poppins (Worldwide), Les Misérables – The Staged Concert, Sunset Boulevard, The Woman in White, Half A Sixpence, Les Misérables O2 Concert, The Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary Performance, Betty Blue Eyes, Les Misérables 25th Anniversary Concert, Oliver!, My Fair Lady, Cats, Hair, Carmen Jones, The Phantom of the Opera, Grease, Fame, Saturday Night Fever, Barnum, Peter Pan and Chess.
Musical Direction: The Woman in White, Sunset Boulevard, My Fair Lady, Miss Saigon, Les Misérables, The Show Must Go On, Lautrec, Betty Blue Eyes, Cats, Shall We Dance, Hair, Fame, The Secret Garden, Chess, Carmen Jones, Saturday Night Fever and South Pacific. Stephen conducted the Classical Brit Awards and was composer and conductor for the original production of Burn the Floor. For the Imagination group, he has written, produced and conducted music for: Jaguar/Range Rover, Coca-Cola, Walt Disney, Ford Motors, Toyota Cars, Volvo Cars, Sony Eriksson, BMW, British Airways, Holiday Inn and Canon.
Orchestral conducting includes: The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Symphony, Haifa Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony, Hamburg Sinfonia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, London Mozart Players, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, London and Manchester Concert Orchestras and the Ukraine Opera and Symphony Orchestra. He conducted the Royal Choral Society in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen.
Recordings include: Disney Film Classics and Crazy for Gershwin (BBC Concert Orchestra), the studio recording of Hair, cast recordings of The Secret Garden, The Woman in White and South Pacific. He was orchestrator and conductor for Walt Disney’s award-winning Animator’s Palette and Cinderellabration (Disneyland Tokyo). He produced the ‘live’ recording of Oliver! starring Rowan Atkinson, the 25th Anniversary recording of Les Misérables and the Dutch and Australian recordings of Mary Poppins. Stephen conducted the Oscars – The 85th Academy Awards and is an Australian Helpmann Award winner for Mary Poppins.
STEPHEN METCALFE
Musical Arrangements by
STEPHEN METCALFE
Stephen Metcalfe is a composer, orchestrator and record producer for film and theatre. He is a two-time Grammy Award nominee.
As record producer: Oliver! (2008 London cast album); Les Misérables (2010 cast album, 25th Anniversary Concert film, 2019 Concert cast album and film); Betty Blue Eyes (Original cast album); Half A Sixpence (Original cast album); Miss Saigon (2014 London cast album, 25th Anniversary film); Mary Poppins (2010 Australian cast album, 2020 London cast album); Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends Gala (Original cast album).
Other productions include: Les Misérables (London, New York, UK and US tours); Miss Saigon (London, New York, UK and US tours); The Witches of Eastwick (London and UK Tour); My Fair Lady (London, UK and US Tours); Avenue Q (London); Mary Poppins (London, New York, UK and US Tours); Oliver! (London, UK Tour); Betty Blue Eyes (London); Barnum (Chichester, UK Tour); Half A Sixpence (Chichester, London); Hamilton (London).
Stephen orchestrated and produced the double-platinum award winning soundtrack albums for the Universal Pictures film of Les Misérables.
MATT KINLEY
Set Design by
MATT KINLEY
Matt graduated from the Motley Theatre design course in 1994 and spent the next decade working at the National Theatre in London, as a designer, associate and draughtsman. Matt left to work within commercial theatre, developing many large productions and also adapting them for tour. As part of a long working partnership with Cameron Mackintosh, Matt initially adapted the original versions of My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins and The Phantom of the Opera as well as co-designing the recent international productions of Miss Saigon.
In 2009, he was invited to redesign Les Misérables for its 25th anniversary production as a UK tour. The success of the new staging has seen subsequent productions and tours across the world alongside presentations on Broadway and the new West End show at the Sondheim Theatre. Matt also designed the 25th anniversary concerts of Les Mis at the O2 Arena and The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall as well as the recent Les Mis concerts at the Gielgud and Sondheim theatres. Matt also designs a wide variety and scale of productions both in the UK and internationally with a long history of developing large scale musical theatre in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
GEORGE REEVE
Projection Design by
GEORGE REEVE
George is a UK-based video and projection designer whose work can been seen across the UK and internationally.
Video design credits include: In Dreams (Leeds Playhouse/Toronto); The Lord Of The Rings (Watermill); Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show (Royal Festival Hall and UK Tour); Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends (West End); My Son’s A Queer (But What Can You Do?) (Turbine Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe, West End); The Great British Bake Off Musical (Noël Coward Theatre); Notes From a Small Island (Watermill Theatre); Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Hope Mill Theatre); Dawn French Is A Huge Tw*t! (UK Tour); Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends Gala (Sondheim Theatre); Sandi Toksvig – Next Slide Please (UK Tour); SIX (London & Broadway); The Sound of Music (National Tour); Gypsy (Alexandra Palace); My Son’s A Queer, But What Can You Do? (Garrick Theatre, Turbine Theatre & Edinburgh Fringe); A Christmas Carol (Dominion Theatre); RENT, The WIZ & Hushabye Mountain (Hope Mill Theatre); But I’m A Cheerleader (Turbine Theatre); The Pleasure Garden, Dick Whittington & Tommy On Top (Above The Stag); Avalanche (Bloom Theatre); The Wind in the Willows (UK and UAE Tour); Girls Just Wanna Have Fun & WANNABE (UK tour); Cinderella In Concert (Cadogan Hall); Welcome Aboard (Viking Cruises); Musicals In Concert (Palladium, Stuttgart). Associate Design and
Animator credits include: Frozen (Theatre Royal Drury Lane & Theatre an der Elbe); Anastasia (International Associate Designer); Les Misérables (Gielgud & Sondheim Theatre); SpongeBob Live Television Broadcast (Nickelodeon), Starstruck (ITV); Frozen (North American Tour); TINA (Aldwych & Hamburg); Paramour (Cirque Du Soleil); Divas For Democracy (StageIt Stream); The Sound Inside (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Flight (Royal Caribbean); Aladdin (Walt Disney Co.); Beauty and the Beast (Walt Disney Co.); All My Sons (Broadway). George was an Offie 2022 Finalist for Best Video Design for his work on The Pleasure Garden at Above the Stag
JILL PARKER
Costume Design By
JILL PARKER
Jill Parker has designed for opera and theatre. She represents the late Maria Bjornson as Associate Costume Designer on The Phantom of the Opera, worldwide.
WARREN LETTON
Lighting Design by
WARREN LETTON
Warren trained in Lighting Design at Rose Bruford College.
Theatre, opera and ballet as Lighting Designer includes: Rite of Spring – Seeta Patel Dance Company (UK Tour), Hamilton (West End – Associate Lighting Designer), Come From Away (Australia, West End and Dublin – Associate Lighting Designer), Wind in the Willows (West End), Crazy For You (Göteborg Opera), Our House (Pimlico Opera), Hairspray (Pimlico Opera), Miss Saigon – Broadway/ US Tour/Japanese Tour/UK Tour (as Associate Lighting Designer), Art (Old Vic – as Associate Lighting Designer), The Revengers Tragedy (Webber Douglas Studio), Rigolleto (Bucharest National Opera), Macbeth (Scottish Opera), Sister Act (Pimlico Opera), Fortunio (Grange Park Opera & Buxton Festival), The Lady from the Sea (Scottish Opera), The Magic Flute (Longborough Festival Opera), Sweet Charity, Les Misérables and West Side Story (Pimlico Opera), Tosca (Grange Park Opera at Nevill Holt), Noughts and Crosses (Royal Shakespeare Company), Orpheus (Ballet Black), The Lighthouse, La Scala di Seta, El Gato con Botas, Les Nuits d’été, Le Portrait de Manon, Bastien und Bastienne and Mozart and Salieri (Jette Parker Young Artists, Royal Opera House), Exposure Opera, Exposure Dance, Summer Collections, The Gentle Giant, Wind in the Willows (Linbury, ROH), Heart of Darkness (Opera Genesis, Linbury, ROH), In Good Company (Linbury, ROH Birmingham Royal Ballet, Australian Ballet, National Ballet of Canada), Wonderlands, Joie de Vivre, Hooray for Hollywood, Broadway, Noitamina and Legends (Orchard Theatre), Antigone (RBC Studio), Phantasy (Rambert Dance), Studio Nights (English National Opera), Carousel (Opera North, Barbican & Paris – as Associate Lighting Designer), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Royal Scottish Conservatoire).
MICK POTTER
Sound Design by
MICK POTTER
Mick is one of the world’s leading Sound Designers and he is honoured to have worked with many of the greatest Producers, Composers, Directors, Creatives and Artistes in Musical Theatre. He has designed the sound for well over a hundred first class musical theatre productions globally, working at the forefront of technical and creative innovation. His sound designs have garnered over 15 awards and nominations worldwide. Sound designs for multiple productions on both the West End and Broadway stage include: Les Misérables (Tony Award nominee Broadway 2014), Miss Saigon (Broadway World Audience Award UK 2014), The Phantom of The Opera (Parnelli Award Las Vegas 2006), Cats (Drama Desk Award nominee Broadway 2017), Evita (Green Room Award nominee Sydney Opera House 2019), Sunset Boulevard, School of Rock (Green Room Award Australia 2019 & Drama Desk Award nominee Broadway 2016), Sister Act, The Woman in White (Olivier Award London 2005), Saturday Night Fever, Bombay Dreams, Love Never Dies (Green Room Award Australia 2011 & Helpmann Award nominee Australia 2011).
The producers cannot guarantee the appearance of any particular artist at any performance due to illness or events beyond the producers’ control. If a featured artist is unable to perform, their part will be played by one of their co-stars or co-star alternates. No refunds or exchanges will be offered as a result of any artist’s unavailability to perform at any performance.
21 September 2023 – 6 January 2024
Gielgud Theatre
A Delfont MacKintosh Theatre
Shaftesbury Ave
London
W1D 6AR