Here We Are (2023)
Book: David Ives
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In short: Here We Are is a surreal dark-comic epilogue to an extraordinary career, exploring social conventions and class disparities, with a musical and lyrical style that is distinctly Sondheim.
“At the end of his life [Beethoven] was in a very gnarly, complicated, forward-looking musical world. And I think that’s where Steve [Sondheim] is in this. You hear, of course, the elements of everything he’s ever written. But there’s also, in the harmony and in the dissonance, something else going on. […] He created a new thing.”
david hyde pierce (actor, Emmy, Tony and Golden Globe winner)
Overview Here We Are - background and excerpts
Here We Are, initially announced as Square One, is the final addition to Stephen Sondheim’s repertoire. Sondheim wrote all the music and lyrics, though the book was completed after his passing. The second act of the musical contains no music, a choice the creators deemed fitting for the narrative but also a result of Sondheim’s unfinished work.
Plot Summary and Themes
Here We Are draws inspiration from the films of Spanish-Mexican filmmaker Luis Buñuel: Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie) and El angel exterminador (The Exterminating Angel).
In a surrealist setting, the story explores themes of social conventions and existential entrapment. The first act, based on Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie, follows a group of wealthy individuals repeatedly attempting to dine together, only to have their plans disrupted by a series of absurd and unexpected events. The second act, inspired by El angel exterminador, sees the group unable to leave the house after a lavish meal.
Why can’t I be free
To like what I see
And not what I know?
I want things to gleam.
To be what they seem.
And not what they are.
If it isn’t the sun,
it’s the birdsong.
If it isn’t the air,
it’s the view.
I’m completely undone by the endless abun-
dance of life,
aren’t you?
Here We Are offers a darkly humorous exploration of social conventions and class dynamics, featuring Sondheim’s signature musical and lyrical style.
Reception
The musical premiered at The Shed in New York, running from September 2023 to January 2024. Critics praised Sondheim’s unmistakable wordplay and melodies, alongside Joe Mantello’s direction, Jonathan Tunick’s arrangements, and the compelling performances of a cast that included Bobby Cannavale, David Hyde Pierce, Denis O’Hare, and Rachel Bay Jones.
However, some noted that the music and lyrics bore strong resemblance to Sondheim’s previous work. A major point of contention was whether Sondheim would have intended for the final part of the musical to remain without music, as it was completed posthumously.
Video excerpts
Musical highlights include “Waiter’s Song,” “Soldier’s Dream,” “Bishop’s Song,” “Shine,” and the closing music. Clips of “Bishop’s Song”, in which a bishop dreams of a different career, and the closing music are featured.
More Here We Are: audio and video
Cast albums
Go to More Sondheim for our Sondheim Archives.
Reviews of Here We Are
Off-Broadway production (2023)
“That we’re seeing the musical at all is truly fortunate since even minor Sondheim, which in my estimation this piece feels like on a single viewing (always risky when it comes to his work), puts most other composers to shame. […] The songs, none of which are identified in the program or the script, are consistently tuneful and delightfully playful, featuring the wittiest lyrics the composer has written in a very long time. The wordplay is consistently hilarious, and if both the music and lyrics too often call to mind previous Sondheim compositions, that doesn’t make them any less pleasurable.” – Frank Scheck, New York Stage Review (2023)
“The best good news about Here We Are,[…] is that it justifies the idea of merging these two works and succeeds in making a surrealist musical expressive. In Joe Mantello’s breathtakingly chic and shapely production, with a cast of can-you-top-this Broadway treasures, it is never less than a pleasure to watch as it confidently polishes and embraces its illogic. Musically, it’s fully if a little skimpily Sondheim, and entirely worthy of his catalog.” – Jesse Green, New York Times (2023)
“Even though the Sondheimiest stuff drains away at the two-thirds point in Here We Are, the evening is still full of a certain familiar sonic pattern, an only-Steve-could-do-it interval, which hops jarringly upward in the middle of a phrase. It’s earwormy, so it follows you out of the Shed, into the subway, and all the way home.” – Helen Shaw, The New Yorker (2023)
