"The aim of the musical at this specific point in time is fairly ambiguous, but White’s production is surprisingly tasteful. He honours tradition with creativity and tact, maintaining a steady grip on the tone of his concept and delivering it with sensitivity and charm. All in all, this is probably the best way one could stage the material these days"
Read more

“This is the first revival of Sondheim’s singular, peculiar musical since his death in 2021 and it is a wonderful, bijou surprise.”
Read more

"It is thrilling to see this lesser-performed Sondheim piece staged with such zest and imagination. It’s one of the most original and ebullient musicals in town."
Read more

“There’s much admirable detail here – the use of Japanese puppetry, integration of origami and video wizardry, and you can’t fault the cast in bearing, or vocal execution. The show, though, remains sui generis – slippery, even slight, hard to respond warmly to (perhaps knowingly so), and, despite a few achingly lovely songs, arguably falling short of a Sondheim masterpiece.”
Read more

“Even if you’re a Sondheim sceptic you’ll be startled to see just how entertaining — as well as thought-provoking — this stripped-down collaboration with the Osaka-based Umeda Arts Theater turns out to be...Matthew White’s production possesses the tantalising, ethereal beauty of scenes sketched on a vase.”
Read more

“Yet the melancholy strain that underpins the show, the sense of something valuable lost as well as modernity gained, somehow goes missing.”
Read more

“Dissonance is the show’s subject, yet we still crave dramatic coherence, and that remains elusive here. Still, this is a rare chance to see this little-revived show – and to marvel at its glittering fragments.”
Read more

This revised version, despite being so successful in Japan, does seem to be missing something though, and that might not help this musical to eventually reach the prominence of other Sondheim works.
Read more