Video: In Rehearsal with the Cast of STEPHEN SONDHEIM'S OLD FRIENDS

The audiences went crazy in London, and we can only imagine what a New York audience is going to be like

I want to hear it. I want to hear it. Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

Following a critically acclaimed sold-out run on the West End, Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends is coming to Broadway and Manhattan Theatre Club

and we dropped by the rehearsal room to meet the company, led by Tony Award winners, Bernadette Peters, Leia Solanga, and Beth Leaville

It's my favorite music and lyrics to really. Steve's music and lyrics are when I do my concerts

Mostly that's what I choose to sing. Because he, every song is like a little musical play

He writes with such depth. And that's where I live, you know, in Steve's music

I'm very excited. I'm excited for the audiences to see, because people that

I love Sonheim will just, you know, and people that don't even know Sonheim will love the show

It's just, you know, he writes such human conditions, but it's fun, it's a review

There are sections that have some reminiscence of the actual shows, and it's just great

We just take the songs out. We take them out of the original context

we put whatever we want on top of it and we make them their own entities and some of them are so many of these songs are like one plays so it challenges all of us as actors as well as vocalists and it nice that like every tool in

my toolbox gets used including a cockney accent so um i you know and even when we were doing it

in london i'm like my god this has to come to Broadway

This has to cross the pond. This definitely has to make it to New York

because it's Steve's town. It's my first immersion besides that 54 below thing I did with Sondheim

but it's my first immersion with a company on Broadway to do Stephen Sondheim's brilliant music and lyrics

It really is a privilege. And I'm, I'm, it's like going to school

and performing at the same time. I had never met Bernadette Orlea

before they were like Broadway royalty to me so for them to come over and grace our show in the West End

just gave it that something other. But yeah, it's just, it's the icing on the cake, though

I think for them to be here in New York. I mean, he was an American genius

and when you sit here and realize that all of this music came out of one heart and one mind

it's an extraordinary tribute to him. Yeah And to be able to maybe that was the part of the casting too or the decisions of assembling certain people together Because it is It just like a it a true collaboration From the moment because you know there the UK cast that came a week later after rehearsals We all started together

And it's just an amalgamation of wonderful human beings doing complex, amazing work

And it's... As a team. Yeah, as a team, as mates and old friends

And it's a true collaborative show. Well, I was just really honored and very proud to be asked

That's always the first thing, because you always think, oh, I must have done all right then. And then just the thought of it, I just thought, well, I can't miss this

I can't not do it. I have to come. I have to find a way to make this work

And we have. And whenever you do a job that you absolutely love and it finishes

to get a call eight, nine months later, say, you want to all come together and do it again

And this time in New York, I mean, that's what I was most excited about. I knew what the job was, so I knew what the job was

so I knew how great it was going to be to revisit again. Pinch me moments of being in the room

what have some of your biggest pinch me moments been with working on this show? Oh, there's Bernadette Peters

Oh, there's Leis Salonga. Oh, my gosh. There's Cameron Backer. You know, name many

There's too many, you know? Too many. Mine would probably be standing next to Bernadette singing Sunday

You know, I mean, there aren't too many people that can say that's happened to them

I'm just overjoyed. I don't know if there are true words that can encapsulate how I'm feeling

What do you think? No it one of the most exciting things that ever happened to me Just to be a part of this show with these people these old friends and these new friends I feel very very lucky to be here I think it surreal I been using that word so much today

I mean, we're in the room with literal Broadway legends, creators who have worked with Sondheim

since the day one. So it's like, it's just magic. It's surreal. It feels great to be back

especially with this show, bringing Steve back home to Broadway. I mean, Steve is loved in London

You know, you know that. And he loved London as well. And we felt very, it was the tribute we wanted to give him in London

But now bringing this to Broadway, it feels like bringing it home. I'm excited to see the reaction to these incredible bits of Broadway history that we have to share

What's giving you the most joy being in this rehearsal room, putting this show together for Broadway

Well, I came, I started to see it in the last two days. And in fact, our first run, prop full run through is when you all leave, okay

But I saw the first act And I yesterday and I saw the second act before

And I'm going The alchemy of it is extraordinary And I'm just seeing how people want

Because of course they hadn't put it all together And it's until you're in the room

And see performers of this talent like that Everyone is learning from everyone

And just see And there's a sense of love and camaraderie in here

Which you cannot Our job is to get cast it with people who will do that

But they have created their own And I'm seeing here, they have seized this

And these are going to be the greatest pile of old friends on Broadway and the youngest

And the most, the energy in the room is palpable