Lockdown Review: Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration

On the one hand, so much to love with such an inordinate array of talent assembled to mark Sondheim’s 90th birthday. But on the other, where’s the editor, there’s a real sense of the rambling here too. Fortunately as this has been put together in lockdown (and very well too) it is easier than ever to skip to the bits you want (in the spirit of these times, I ain’t telling you who disappointed me).

For me, I loved the unexpectedness of Katrina Lenk’ ‘Johanna’, the cuteness of Beanie Feldstein & Ben Platt’s ‘It Takes Two’, and the energy of Alexander Gemignani’s ‘Buddy’s Blues’. And of the heavy hitters in the finale, Donna Murphy and Patti LuPone nailed ‘Send in the Clowns’ and ‘Anyone Can Whistle’ respectively, and there’s huge fun (if not finesse) in Christine Baranski, Meryl Streep & Audra McDonald giving us their ‘Ladies Who Lunch’.  

 

Please donate to ASTEP (Artists Striving to End Poverty): http://www.broadway.com/sondheim90

Featured musicians
Matt Aronoff, Ted Arthur, Summer Boggess,  Benedict Braxton-Smith,  Caleb Burhans, Katherine Cherbas, Nicholas Connors,  Monica Davis, James De La Garza, Elizabeth Doran, Tedd Firth, Michael Gacetta, Lino Gomez, Todd Groves, Chris Gurr, Richard Heckman, Sarah Hewitt, Tony Kadleck, Steve Kenyon, Adda Kridler, Alex Lacamoire, Randy Landau, Judy Lee, Dan Lipton, Nate Mayland, Julie McBride, Jeff Nelson, Jon Owens, Jocelin Pan, Jared Schonig, Sara Seiver, Matt Smallcomb, Mark Stephens, Billy Stritch, Joseph Thalken, Mark Thrasher, Larry Yurman and Meg Zervoulis 

Full list of performers
Iain Armitage, Jacqueline B. Arnold, Annaleigh Ashford, Kate Baldwin, Christine Baranski, Laura Benanti, Kerry Butler, Stephen Carlile, Miguel Cervantes, Michael Cerveris, Andre De Shields, Zara Devlin, Jeanna de Waal, Claybourne Elder, Melissa Errico, Raúl Esparza, Kim Exum, Beanie Feldstein, Sutton Foster, Maria Friedman, Kathryn Gallagher Jr., Jenn Gambatese, Alexander Gemignani, Mandy Gonzalez, Celia Rose Gooding, Josh Groban, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ann Harada, James Harkness, Neil Patrick Harris, Roe Hartrampf, Erika Henningsen, Adrianna Hicks, Greg Hildreth, Robyn Hurder, Judy Kaye, Sean Allan Krill, Austin Ku, Marc Kudisch, Judy Kuhn, McKenzie Kurtz, Josh Lamon, Linda Lavin, Katrina Lenk, Dawnn Lewis, Kelvin Moon Loh, Patti LuPone, Brittney Mack, Ainsley Melham, Ginna Claire Mason, Rob McClure, Kenita R. Miller, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Donna Murphy, Manu Narayan, Anne L. Nathan, Christiane Noll, Brenock O’Connor, Kelli O’Hara, Brad Oscar, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Jessica Phillips, Meghan Picerno, Shereen Pimentel, Ben Platt, Randy Rainbow, Renee Rapp, Ciara Renee, Noah Ricketts, John Riddle, Jeff Romley, Michael McCorry Rose, Lea Salonga, Caesar Samayoa, Stephen Schwartz, Michael James Scott, Margo Seibert, Kyle Selig, Thom Sesma, Jennifer Simard, James Snyder, Kimber Elayne Sprawl, Elizabeth Stanley, Cody Jamison Strand, Meryl Streep, L. Steven Taylor, Aaron Tveit, Brandon Uranowitz, Jessica Vosk, Barbara Walsh, Adrienne Warren, NaTasha Yvette Williams, Amra-Faye Wright, Tony Yazbeck and Chip Zien

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *