https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML00K0KUuII





BARBARA COOK, LEE REMICK, ELAINE STRITCH, MANDY POTEMKIN, GEORGE HEARN,
CAROL BURNETT AND MORE!


In recent years the tributes to Mr. Sondheim
have come so thick and fast that they have begun to blur. While such
celebrations tend to be messy affairs, “Sondheim: The Birthday Concert”
(directed by Lonny Price), was a model of organization, with a suave
host (David Hyde Pierce )
and witty leitmotifs woven into its structure. Performances by an
all-star guest list that included Patti LuPone , Audra McDonald , Mandy Patinkin , Bernadette Peters , Elaine Stritch and Nathan Gunn proceeded at a brisk
pace; there was no speechifying.

In one running joke, the
orchestra was continually striking up a theme from “Sweeney Todd,” only
to be told to change songs. Mr. Hyde Pierce, comically determined to
prove Mr. Sondheim’s global reach, sang parts of “Beautiful Girls” (from
“Follies”) in German and Italian.

Recent revivals of Sondheim
shows using chamber orchestrations have shown how sturdy his music is,
even in drastically reduced arrangements. But Monday’s concert
demonstrated that there is still no substitute for a force as mighty as
the New York
Philharmonic (conducted by Paul Gemignani) playing songs conceived
and orchestrated (most often by Jonathan Tunick) for a symphonic
palette. The major songs from “Follies” and “A Little Night Music” in
particular, are far-reaching ballads with melodic lines that sweep to
the horizon.

The program began with a special birthday overture
and continued with three 1960s collaborations, including an amusing
obscurity, “Don’t Laugh” (written with Mary Rodgers and Martin Charnin,
and sung by Victoria Clark), from the 1963 show “Hot Spot.” Then the
concert dug into the ’70s and ’80s with many of the great ballads from
“Follies,” “Sweeney Todd” and “Sunday in the Park With George.” (Perhaps
because “A Little Night Music” is now on Broadway, there was only one
selection, and it was not “Send in the Clowns.”) The evening’s single
most beautiful performance — Ms. McDonald and Mr. Gunn’s “Too Many
Mornings” (from “Follies”) could have been a master class in the
deployment of operatic voices with natural diction.

There were
clever theatrical jokes. One Sweeney Todd (Michael Cerveris from the
recent revival) got to slit the throat of another (George Hearn, who
took over the role in the original Broadway production, this time
playing the villainous Judge Turpin) during “Pretty Women.” The
Sweeneys, standing on either side of Ms. LuPone (also from the revival),
swapped the lyrics to “A Little Priest,” while she imparted a wickedly
lewd attitude to the number. Ms. Peters and Mr. Patinkin (both in
excellent voice) reunited to sing “Move On,” from “Sunday in the Park
With George,” and John McMartin, from the original cast of “Follies,”
offered a searching version of “The Road You Didn’t Take.”

Shortly
after intermission, six divas — Ms. LuPone, Ms. McDonald, Marin Mazzie,
Donna Murphy, Ms. Peters and Ms. Stritch, clad in shades of red —
sashayed to the stage for solo turns from a variety of shows as Mr. Hyde
Pierce sang “Beautiful Girls.” In a conceptual coup, Ms. LuPone
directed “The Ladies Who Lunch” to Ms. Stritch, its original
interpreter, who wore a cap as if to answer the song’s question, “Does
anyone still wear a hat?” Ms. Mazzie delivered an increasingly angry
“Losing My Mind,” Ms. Murphy a furious “Could I Leave You?,” Ms.
McDonald a luscious “Glamorous Life” and Ms. Peters a plaintive “Not a
Day Goes By.”

It remained for Ms. Stritch to deliver the evening’s
showstopper, “I’m Still Here.” This great trouper, now 85, used her
increasing physical fragility to maximum dramatic effect, building the
anthem of show business survival from a dismissive casualness to a peak
that was not the usual triumphal assertion of ego. Instead, it became a
struggle for the character to break through her own fatigue in little
bursts. The final phrases of this daring interpretation ended on a note
of ambivalence, as if to say, “I may still be here, but at this point,
what does it really matter?” The performance received a standing
ovation.

As the concert drew to a close, the aisles filled up with
a chorus of young, black-clad Broadway performers joining to sing
“Sunday,” the climactic anthem from “Sunday in the Park With George.” As
Mr. Sondheim, with tears in his eyes, acknowledged the thunderous
applause, he remarked, “Alice Longworth Roosevelt said, ‘First you’re
young, then you’re middle-aged, then you’re wonderful.’ This was
wonderful — thank you all.”

The collective gratitude in the house
was accompanied by a silent prayer to the powers on high: please, may it
never end.

Stephen Joshua Sondheim (born March 22, 1930) is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards (eight, more than any other composer) including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre,[1] multiple Grammy Awards, and a Pulitzer Prize. He has been described as "the greatest and perhaps best-known artist in the American musical theatre."[2] His most famous scores include (as composer/lyricist) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and Assassins, as well as the lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy. He was president of the Dramatists Guild from 1973 to 1981.