Sondheim’s last musical: good but not great?

Opinions on Stephen Sondheim’s final musical didn’t so much vary as go to polar opposites, from five stars to two. The show is a surreal critique of capitalism based on two films by Luis Bunuel, one of which was The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie. In the musical, the bourgeoisie are Americans facing an existential crisis. Some critics thought it was deep, some found it shallow (feelings that were reflected in their view of David Ives’ book). Some heard music typical of Sondheim’s late great period, others felt he was not at his best. The fact that it was unfinished and notably short of songs in the second half didn’t bother some but ruined it for others. The reviewers all agreed it was a top class cast which included Jane Krakowski, Rory Kinnear, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Martha Plimpton.

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

5 stars ★★★★★

Reviewing for TheArtsDesk, Matt Wolf, something of an expert on Sondheim, saw a perfection that others didn’t: ‘Musical theatre newbies may want more distinct numbers, not knowing that late-career Sondheim…some while ago dispensed with those. But those willing to meet the show on its own wacky, wonderful terms are in for a treat, and not just because the National has fielded a lineup of talent that is extraordinary, even at that address.’ Mr Wolf may look at his idol’s work through rose coloured spectacles, but it’s worth reading his insightful review.

4 stars ★★★★

The Times’ Clive Davis thought it was a ‘curate’s egg’: ‘The first part of the evening is quite simply extraordinary, the typically angular melodies delivered with panache by a first-rate ensemble…This show reminds us that (Sondheim) can also be very, very funny’. However, ‘It’s in the second act that something strange happens to Joe Mantello’s urbane production. An astonishingly deft piece of musical theatre slowly gives up on songs and becomes a mixture of comedy of manners and existential drama.’

Sarah Crompton of WhatsOnStage seemed   pleased just to be there: ‘Here We Are is not anywhere near peak Sondheim, but…there are constant glimmers of his wit, and his ability to grapple with the secrets of the human heart. It feels like a late-career bonus, a curiosity but one that gleams.’

The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish was sanguine: ‘We can carp until doomsday about what it lacks but it’s a boon to have it over here. Sure, it’s no masterpiece, but a minor-league swansong from a giant of musicals is still a major deal.’

Dominic Maxwell in The Sunday Times said it had flaws, ‘And yet: Sondheim’s songs, which nod to his back catalogue while always staying spry, still delight. Joe Mantello’s deluxe staging is swish, swift and surprising. The Anglo-American cast is sensationally good…When it’s just satirical, it’s so-so. When it surrenders to its strangeness, it’s an exquisitely unpredictable ensemble piece.‘

3 stars ★★★

Time Out’s Andrzej Lukowski decided to be ‘quite indulgent’ because audiences were warned in advance that the musical was incomplete. He called David Ives’ book ‘deft, funny and perceptive’. He concluded with an element of irony: ‘as final unfinished works go, it’s pretty bloody good. Here We Are is a really, really great example of half a musical. The luxury casting doesn’t simply flatter flimsy material: what Sondheim actually wrote was very good, and Ives’s second half is hardly a hack job.’

Arifa Akbar of The Guardian was disappointed: ‘for all its interesting ideas on life and death, rich and poor, it melts away rather too quickly afterwards.’ Adam Bloodworth at CityAM observed, ‘Much of the comedy is mined from Fawlty Towers-style farcical faffing – but on a grand, complex scale. It’s the type of tomfoolery that might look silly but is pulled off vanishingly rarely.’  ‘As for (Sondheim’s) ditties,’ he said, ‘they serve as a function to enable the story rather than existing to entertain us in and of themselves.’

2 stars ★★

The Stage’s Sam Marlowe called it ‘a strangulated swansong.’ The Stage gave her the opportunity to write a ‘Long Review’ and she certainly took advantage to explain her reaction at length. The characters were part of the reason: ‘There is an immediate, and fundamental, problem: not only are these shallow idiots – here a bunch of vacuous urbanites in search of a place to have brunch – too thinly drawn to feel properly human, but there’s not a single compelling or convincing relationship between them.’ That’s not all: ‘It’s all pretty tedious, and although the score is immediately recognisable as Sondheim – that bouncy chromaticism, those rising modulations from major to minor – it’s not especially memorable. Still less arresting are the lyrics‘. And if that’s not enough: ‘you just feel as if the performers are flailing about helplessly, with no guidance from Ives’ aimless book.’

Alexander Cohen of BroadwayWorld took a similar line. ‘There’s little dramatic mileage to be milked from characters who are deliberately flimsy caricatures,’ he said. He continued, ‘At its worst David Ives’ book is a single punchline Monty Python sketch dragged out into an entire musical – that punchline being that the one percenters barely possess a brain cell between them.’

The Standard’s Nick Curtis declared, ‘Here We Are is extremely sketchy and gets lumpier and messier as it goes on. The characters are barely-fleshed stereotypes’.

Critics’ average rating 2.9★

Value rating 33 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price)

Here We Are is at the National Theatre until 28 June 2025. Buy tickets from the theatre here.

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