Here We Are at the National Theatre review: should this have been staged at all?

Here We Are at the National Theatre review: should this have been staged at all?

Stephen Sondheim’s posthumous musical has no songs, only a stellar cast save it from being completely unenjoyable

‘Here We Are’ review – Sprawling staging of Sondheim’s swansong

Stephen Sondheim’s posthumous musical is tonally inconsistent, desperate in its attempts to be funny and replicate the kooky style of the composer, and narratively ambiguous.

Review: HERE WE ARE, National Theatre

Steven Sondheim was so revered that his colleagues anointed with the nickname “God”. Is it sacrilege to criticise him? Here We Are remained in the drafting stage before Sondheim’s death in 2021. So perhaps it’s unfair to point a critical finger solely at him. A musical synthesis of two films by Spanish Surrealist Luis Buñuel, the first act invokes The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie with the second echoing The Exterminating Angel, it’s posthum…