SWAN SONG

Final Stephen Sondheim Musical to Be Staged in NYC This Fall

It’s unclear how much of Sondheim’s final musical, “Here We Are,” has been amended and updated since his death in November 2021.

Stephen Sondheim’s final musical will be staged in September this year at Off-Broadway venue The Shed. The New York Times reports that the musical—inspired by two of Luis Buñuel's films, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Exterminating Angel—is titled Here We Are, with music and lyrics by Sondheim, a book by David Ives, with Joe Mantello directing. The legendary composer and lyricist died, aged 91, on November 26, 2021. Speaking to the Times days before, Sondheim described the musical as incomplete, and the paper says it is “unclear” what work has been done to it since his death. Of its plot, Sondheim told the paper that the first act revolved around a group of people “trying to find a place to have dinner and they run into all kinds of strange and surreal things,” then a second act in which the group are unable to leave their dining venue.