Super-producer on reviving Les Misérables and Phantom of the Opera, Broadway Sondheim show

The great theatre composer Stephen Sondheim loved puzzles, and when he died in 2021, he left one for his good friend, British super-producer Cameron Mackintosh. He left him an unfinished show. The two men conceived of a revue of Sondheim’s songs during the pandemic and began listing tunes they wanted. But with the death of his friend, it was up to Mackintosh to make the show real. “I did say to him, ‘I really want to concentrate on the music’,” recalls Mackintosh. “I want it to be personal, but we never really got that far with the construction of it.” Sondheim died in November 2021. Soon afterwards, Mackintosh created the skeleton of what would be Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, which has landed on Broadway and stars Tony award-winners Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga. The final rundown has some of Sondheim’s most memorable songs, including “The Ladies Who Lunch”, “I’m Still Here”, “Send in the Clowns”, “Losing My Mind”, “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” and “Children Will Listen”. “I wanted the songs to reflect the fun I’d had with him,” says Mackintosh. “We’re both klutzy, we can’t dance, we can’t sing, we make terrible puns. “We were silly together, and I think we loved being silly, making each other laugh. We never had a conversation in 45 years where we didn’t make each other laugh even when we were grumpy.” Mackintosh has produced two Sondheim revues before this one: Side by Side in 1976 and Putting It Together in 1993. He wanted the third to emphasise that Sondheim, who had a reputation for clever lyrics and complicated melodies, was actually an accessible writer. “The great thing with Side by Side is for the first time people saw the songs shorn of the books, and they were all like little playlets. And you realise, ‘Oh my God, they live in their own world’ and therefore anyone can understand it. You didn’t need to have an intellectual passport to enjoy Steve’s work.” Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends is just one of several projects the tireless Mackintosh is overseeing as one of the last great theatre impresarios, one who champions Sondheim as well as Andrew Lloyd Webber. The Phantom of the Opera will have a revitalised, multi-year North American tour starting in November, and Les Misérables will have two – one a worldwide arena concert tour and the other a traditional staging going through North America. A new production of Miss Saigon will launch a UK tour in the autumn and there’s a fresh revival of Oliver! that opened earlier this year in London and could end up on Broadway. I don’t mind changing it, but you don’t change it unless it’s at least as good. And maybe in a few instances you come up with a better idea Cameron Mackintosh on reinventing old shows Mackintosh has a knack for returning to former triumphs, stripping them down and building them up again, adding fresh new talent and delighting a new generation. “Most of my shows have turned out to be really good shows. They are, then, worth reinventing,” he says. “I don’t want it to ever become Madame Tussauds.” Mackintosh makes his revivals more nimble with tweaks. For the new Phantom production, he reduced its orchestra from 27 players to 14. The speed may be quicker, too. “If you listen to a cast album of 40 years ago – for instance Les Mis – to modern ears, well that sounds a bit slow. We’ve got used to doing materials slightly faster,” he says. “Have we changed the material? Have we cut it? No, it’s just treating it as if it’s brand new. And you go into it with a group of talented people and you create the show in the moment. What happened 10, 20, 30 years ago doesn’t matter. To keep the shows fresh, you’ve got to create it as it is today.” Bonnie Langford, who was the original Rumpleteazer in Cats, and has known Mackintosh for decades, recalls seeing him backstage when she appeared in Old Friends in the West End. “I just could not get over his enthusiasm after all these years. He was still so excited,” she says. “He can be like a little boy in a candy shop sometimes. He was having the time of his life, and I found that so endearing for someone who’s been in the business a long time. He just loves theatre and shows.” Mackintosh has brought Les Misérables to Broadway three times but doesn’t plan to take either current iterations there. He wants regional theatres to do it, even if that means leaving money on the table. “I’ve got more than enough money, but the show needs to get back into the capillaries of the entertainment business and be great to bring new generations of audiences and actors into the profession.” He’s plotting the return to New York of his new Phantom, two years after the show ended its 35-year Broadway run. His reimagining of Oliver! is a full-circle moment. He was an assistant stage manager – and understudied Phil Collins – in a touring company of Oliver! in 1965. This time he worked with noted choreographer Matthew Bourne to “come up with a modern contemporary spin on it”. Mackintosh even wrote a few scenes to strengthen the connective tissue. “I don’t mind changing it, but you don’t change it unless it’s at least as good. And maybe in a few instances you come up with a better idea,” he says. “I’ve always had a very good instinct. for what’s missing.” Mackintosh must be won over first by the dialogue and the plot, not the songs. “I have to fall in love with the words – the characters – first. I want the music to be great, but if I don’t love the story and the characters, I don’t feel I’ve got anything to add to them,” he says. He loves classic authors, taking work by Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, Giacomo Puccini, P.L. Travers or Gaston Leroux and putting their stories to soaring scores, luxurious costumes and sets. “All the great musicals were mostly driven by the passion of the authors against the customary wisdom of saying, ‘I don’t think that’ll work. No, no, no.’ And then they become the classics,” he says, laughing.

Super-producer on reviving Les Misérables and Phantom of the Opera, Broadway Sondheim show

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Impresario Cameron Mackintosh talks about creating Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends and reinventing several of his classic shows for a new age

Impresario Cameron Mackintosh talks about creating Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends and reinventing several of his classic shows for a new age