ajhlovestheatre

HERE WE ARE

Book by David Ives

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

inspired by the films of Luis Buñuel

directed by Joe Mantello

National Theatre/Lyttelton, London – until 28 June 2025

running time: 2 hours 20 minutes including interval 

https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/here-we-are/

When God’s gift to musical theatre (oh come on, yes he was) died in 2021, he’d been working with playwright David Ives on this distillation of a couple of Luis Buñuel mid-twentieth century art house movies for a decade. In truth, the opportunity to hear the final score by Stephen Sondheim is the main reason why people are flocking to the National this summer and, if you’re a fan of his work, Here We Are is unlikely to disappoint. His detractors probably won’t go anyway, but a lot of the stuff that grinds their gears (dense, challenging lyrics, staccato rhythms, shards of melody, unexpected chord structures) is all present and correct. So too is one of  the strongest ensemble casts on any current London stage and a dazzling Joe Mantello staging based on his earlier version seen at NYC’s The Shed in 2023.

Here We Are is a heck of a lot of fun, and it’s also by turns frustrating, alarming and downright baffling. Despite ten years of work, it feels unfinished, specifically Sondheim’s contribution which is a full, and sparkling, musical score during the first act which sees a bunch of rich, successful, self-obsessed Manhattanites heading out in search of a restaurant brunch that’ll never happen, but is reduced to underscoring and short sequences – non sequiturs in song really – in the elliptical, apocalyptic second half. Sondheim uses music and lyrics conversationally here, and fans will derive much fun from trying to work out if this or that bit sounds more like Sunday….or Company…..or Passion, then suddenly hits us with something thrilling and unexpected, or shimmering and lovely. 

The music never really blooms into the sweet release of something conventionally melodic though, as it does in, say, Sunday In The Park With George or Passion, which may prove unsatisfying to some. Jonathan Tunick’s orchestrations are as fine as anything else he ever created from the maestro’s work. Here We Are may be unsatisfactory if viewed as a conventional musical but when you can consider it as its own, bizarre beast, a witty, unsettling hybrid of script and music, then it’s zanily rewarding. 

If any creative team is going to work on a show that casts an absurdist eye on the concept of civilisation totally breaking down, then it’s this one. Sondheim has already dealt with the potential destruction of all that gives us comfort and hope in Sweeney Todd and Into The Woods, and David Ives explored shifts in power with a macabre wit in his hit 2010 play Venus In Fur. While Here We Are isn’t as complete a piece as any of those, it shares a beady-eyed appraisal of the faults and foibles of humans, overlaid with an off-the-wall surrealism that that has audiences rocking with laughter in one moment then reeling in shock the next. 

The characters aren’t sympathetic but they are grimly enjoyable company, especially with a cast that for the most part owe their primary allegiance to the stage rather than the orchestra pit underneath it. That’s especially important in a second act which barely feels like musical theatre at all, and requires the characters to unravel quite extremely (and entertainingly), which this superb team manage in spectacular fashion. The acting really is sensational throughout.

Rory Kinnear’s crazily wealthy vulgarian, living in a permanent state of low level aggression, is a familiar but horribly compelling creation while a bewitching yet hard-edged Jane Krakowski invests trophy wife Marianne with the constant sense of self-absorbed delight and childlike wonder that typifies a certain brand of super-rich. Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Martha Plimpton are gleefully hard nosed and hilarious as the plastic surgeon and publicist that turn up unexpectedly in their apartment. Chumisa Dornford-May continues to deliver on her earlier promise as Marianne’s rebellious younger sister, and Paulo Szot is an absolute riot as a womanising South American ambassador with criminal activity on his mind. 

If Harry Hadden-Paton can’t quite eclipse memories of David Hyde Pearce as shoe-obsessed Bishop having an existential crisis (“God knows / I’m a terrible priest”), he’s funny, endearing and truthful. Cameron Johnson and Richard Fleeshman make bold, essential contributions as a pair of military men with unexpected connections to the central figures. 

Returning from the original New York company are Tracie Bennett and Denis O’Hare playing multiple variations of serving and hospitality staff, bearing witness to the entitled and/or deranged behaviour of their financial, if not moral, betters. O’Hare was indisposed the night I saw Here We Are but Edward Baker-Duly delivered sparky, detailed, impressive work across a selection of roles. 

An astonishing Tracie Bennett proves once again why she’s been a Sondheim specialist for decades, prising a diamond-hard showstopper out of the extravagantly dour ‘It Is What It Is’ as a lachrymose, preposterously accented French maîtresse d’, but also finding irresistible comedy with an undertow of sadness and mania in a variety of other women, each exquisitely delineated. She has one line in the entire second act, playing an embassy maid whose look and physicality are not a million miles from Julie Walters’s ancient waitress in the inspired Victoria Wood “Two Soups” sketch, but is utterly magnetic whether passing silent judgement on the appalling guests or furtively slurping from a cognac bottle. Bennett was Olivier nominated for her stunning Carlotta (“I’m Still Here”) in the 2017 National revival of Sondheim’s Follies, and I strongly suspect she’ll be up for that same award again for this.

David Zinn’s clinical, chic set which makes the onstage figures look like exhibits in an art installation undergoes a luscious transformation in the second half, and Sam Pinkleton (director of current New York sensation Oh, Mary!) brilliantly makes his choreography feel character driven , like it springs organically from the scripted scenes. Natasha Katz’s lighting has a sculptural, transformative quality that further enhances a production where every creative feels at the top of their game.

In the UK, it’s probably only the National that would have the resources to present this strange yet insistent show with such style. Sometimes bewildering, more often ravishing, frequently delightful, and clearly unfinished, Here We Are is a curio for sure, but a life enhancing, challenging one. I mostly loved it but fully respect the opinions of those who totally won’t. You really have to experience this one for yourself.