Q&A: The overwhelming, glorious quest of starring in a Stephen Sondheim revival
“Tell me your favorite Stephen Sondheim lyric.”
The task stumped each of the actors. "I have a ton, but I'd have to really think about it to narrow it down to one," said Katie Rose Clarke. And Montego Glover asked, "Does 'all of them' qualify as an answer?"
Annaleigh Ashford then shared a pick. "Stop worrying if your vision is new. Let others make that decision — they usually do. You keep moving on," she said, quoting the musical "Sunday in the Park With George." "I find that to be even more impactful as artists. It's like, don't listen to what anybody else says, because they're always gonna have an opinion anyway."
The group nodded enthusiastically — all eyes are on them as they work on new visions of works by Sondheim, who died in late 2021. Ashford currently plays deadly pie shop owner Mrs. Lovett in the gothic "Sweeney Todd" on Broadway; Merle Dandridge stars as glamorous actor Desiree Armfeldt in the romantic web "A Little Night Music," running at the Pasadena Playhouse through May 28; and Glover, as the commanding but conflicted Witch, leads the national tour of the fairy-tale-based "Into the Woods" (which arrives at the Ahmanson Theatre in late June).
Later this year, Clarke reprises her off-Broadway performance as devoted wife Beth in the reverse-chronological "Merrily We Roll Along" on Broadway; and Britney Coleman kicks off the national tour of "Company," as perennial singleton Bobbie in the gender-flipped Broadway production (which stops at the Pantages Theatre next summer).
The Times recently gathered these five actors for a discussion about the art of making art: what lessons they're discovering in texts they thought they already knew well, how they conquer their score's trickiest rhythms and emotional leaps, and whether these once-experimental works are
