The iconic star returns to Costa Mesa for the first time since 2015 for a concert with a bounty of Sondheim works.
Think Bernadette Peters and you think multi-talented singer and stage and screen actor, with numerous successes as a musical theater star on the Broadway stage, the greatest of which have been in connection with the uncannily gifted Stephen Sondheim.
Add to that 78 movies and television appearances, six solo albums and, perhaps most importantly, concert tours and individual solo vocal concerts on both sides of the Atlantic.
Peters, who long ago passed the threshold of being an icon, visited Costa Mesa more than 30 years ago in a solo show at Segerstrom Center for the Performing Arts. She returned there in 2015 in what she described to Culture OC as a reunion concert with Sondheim and his longtime colleague James Lapine.
Now she’s back in Orange County again as the sole guest of an evening of pops backed by Pacific Symphony Orchestra.
Peters was joined by PSO in a 2012 Valentine’s Day concert. This time she’s kick-starting the orchestra’s 2024-25 pops season.
You might be wondering how anyone could have accomplished so much, and where Peters finds the energy for her work and life.
Her reply to that question: “Mostly because I love it, love doing it, and love the creative process. It’s important to me and it feeds me.”
NEW 'OLD FRIENDS' JOIN THE LINEUP
This weekend, Peters is being backed by the full symphony orchestra under the hand of principal pops conductor Enrico Lopez-Yañez. Her repertoire will include show tunes and pop masterpieces by the likes of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Jerry Herman and others whose works constitute the bulk of the Great American Songbook – and, of course, the works of Sondheim, the musical theater composer and lyricist with whom she is most closely associated.
Her career has included starring roles in Herman’s “Hello, Dolly!,” Sondheim (lyrics) and Jule Styne’s (music) “Gypsy,” and Sondheim works such as “Follies,” “Into the Woods” and “A Little Night Music.” Costa Mesa audiences will receive a generous dose of selections from these and from Peters’ successful 2023 West End debut of “Old Friends,” a new revue celebrating the life and work of the late Sondheim.
In her chat with Culture OC, Peters referred to the two-day event as “so exciting. I love to work with symphonies and am looking forward to it.”
A Life Immersed in Music
The resident of the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens, New York City, said music has always been the all-encompassing artistic form in her life “since I was a little girl. My mom said I used to sing along with the TV. I love all kinds of music,” which she defines as “such a beautiful, remarkable thing.”
The youngest of three children, Peters was born in Ozone Park in 1948, getting her start as a child star when her mother got her onto the television show “Juvenile Jury” at age 3 ½.
She obtained her Actors Equity Card at age 9, her mom taking the girl’s dad’s name Peter for her stage name “Peters.” From 1958 to 1961, she appeared in numerous TV productions alongside the likes of Jessica Tandy and Margaret Hamilton and fellow child actor Richard Thomas.
In 1961, she understudied for the second national tour of “Gypsy,” impressing veteran accompanist and arranger Marvin Laird with her powerful vocals. More stage appearances followed, including roles in “The Sound of Music,” and opposite Joel Grey in a 1968 staging of “George M!” Her portrayal of Ruby in a 1968 Off-Broadway production of “Dames at Sea” brought critical acclaim, and she received her first Tony nomination for her work in the 1971 revival of “On the Town,” followed by a second nod for the 1974 production of “Mack and Mabel.”
By then, the family had relocated to Los Angeles to allow Peters to concentrate on further work in the movie and television industries.
As you might expect, Peters has racked up awards and nominations by the armful. She snagged both Tony and Drama Desk awards for her performance in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Song and Dance” and a Tony for her performance in the revival of Irving Berlin’s “Annie Get Your Gun,” plus Tony nominations for her work on Broadway in Sam Mendes’ revival of “Gypsy”; Neil Simon’s “The Goodbye Girl”’ Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park with George”; “Mack and Mabel,” Jerry Herman and Gower Champion ode to the movies; the Leonard Bernstein/Comden and Green musical “On the Town”; and a Drama Desk nomination for her portrayal of the Witch in “Into the Woods.”
‘Old Friends’ Brings Something New
“Old Friends” is just the latest Sondheim show to star Peters, who said the pandemic prompted Sondheim and longtime producer and colleague Cameron MacIntosh to create and stage a new revue to join the ranks of “Side by Side by Sondheim” and “Putting It Together.”
Peters said she saw a London production of “Side by Side” a handful of years ago and that Mackintosh told her he envisioned something similar, had a rough playlist in mind, and wanted the show to be “a benefit in London for Steve’s foundation” – the Stephen Sondheim Foundation, a nonprofit established in 2023 in Sondheim’s honor to provide financial support for emerging theater composers, lyricists and playwrights as a way of helping them advance their careers.
“We were on the phone, and Cam asked me ‘what would you like to sing?’ Right off I said ‘Losing My Mind’ (from the 1971 musical “Follies”). He asked, what about ‘Into the Woods’?, so we agreed on including songs from that show.”
She characterizes “Old Friends” as featuring “the best of Steve’s music,” “a beautiful journey to go on,” and “a revue with a bunch of very talented people, some from London, some from the states, with myself alongside Lea Salonga.”
Sondheim Is In a Class Unto Himself
Peters said just one area where Sondheim distinguished himself from his peers was that “he writes music and lyrics, something not many do,” citing Jerry Herman as one of the few others in that class.
Perhaps more crucial is that “Steve would write the character” and not merely the songs for that persona to sing. He would approach each new show “like an actor going into each character, like he’s playing the part,” which in turn would mean “each show had its own personality.”
As a result, every composition in “Night Music” is a three-quarter waltz, while the Pointillism painting technique innovated by painter Georges Seurat prompted the abrupt, staccato “dots” of music that dominate “Sunday in the Park with George.”
Peters relates that Sondheim “was surprised how well the songs did apart from the shows, how well each song worked.” And though she’s been focusing on and performing his songs for decades, his intricate music demands unwavering attention by and concentration from the performer.
“He might go to a different type of note you didn’t expect. To me, each song was the blueprint of the character. When you approach it that way, it isn’t as hard as people think.”
Peters says she “really loved” working with Sondheim,” saying “he liked the songs to be performed the way he wrote them. If I asked, ‘can I do this here?,’ and he’d say ‘let me think about it’ then would come back later and say ‘no, it doesn’t work that way.’ He knew, because when he would write each role and song, he went through the many possible scenarios.”
She also characterizes Sondheim as “kind,” citing examples of on-stage errors or problems of hers he addressed after a performance.
“At the end of ‘… George,’ I had a long litany of phrases. One time I got lost in them and made up words to be able to finish the song.” She knew he would have something to say about this but “didn’t know what his reaction was going to be.
“Afterwards Steve came backstage and said that though not his lyrics, ‘you had the right amount of bars.’ He was impressed with that.”
“Another time, I went up in my lines and he came backstage and said ‘don’t worry about it,’ and added ‘I can’t do what you do.’
Peters shared that her Oct. 28 Monday night show earlier this week “was the first he wasn’t at.” The world lost Sondheim on Nov. 26, 2021.
“Old Friends” has proven to be yet another Sondheim-Mackintosh hit with audiences. “By the end of the show, they become very emotional.”
For Peters, do memories of Sondheim come to the fore when she’s doing the show? “I used to call him up and get advice,” she said, “and I miss him, but I can think about him separately,” apart from her performance of his works.
For performance, does she look for new ways into his songs, for performance? “I will say I know what country I’m going to, I just don’t know what will happen when I get there. I try as much as possible to be in the moment. I might think of that the same day.”
Prepping for the Audiences
Does she seek new ways into any song she’s preparing to perform? “I do it all that way. The most important thing is being true to what I’m singing about, being in the moment, finding my way to put the emotion into the song.”
She said she looks for personal connections with each selection as much as possible. “It makes it more personal for the audience.” That approach is part of the process of creating each new set list. “A song might speak to me in a different way now than it did years ago,” which creates a new way to perform that particular song.
Once locked in, Peters adheres to her set list, which allows her to craft a sort of arc or storyline. Last-minute changes are unthinkable, especially when working, rehearsing and performing with a full orchestra. Her show this weekend “has an arc: a beginning, middle and an end.”
The exception to the rule of this structured approach: Peters has started doing more piano vocal gigs – cabaret-style solo shows in more intimate settings. When doing that, she said, “then I might go ‘let’s put that in’,” meaning she has more flexibility to improvise and rework her set list right up till the moment she’s in front of an audience.
Not so with shows like that coming to Segerstrom Concert Hall. “A show of that type kind of goes on a journey. Pace and ending are important and (each show) has a form that works. You don’t want to mess with the form.”
While reluctant to offer a sneak peek into this weekend’s set list, she volunteered that it features “a lot of Sondheim and Herman” and that “I tell a joke or two.”
A Commitment to Charities
In addition to her career, for more than 25 years Peters has dedicated herself to events that benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
In the late ’90s, Peters “went to a shelter, and I saw how beautiful the animals were. Animals that needed homes were stacked in the hallways.”
This prompted her and Mary Tyler Moore to co-found Broadway Barks in 1998. Peters said the annual dog and pet adoption event, produced by Broadway Cares, benefits shelter animals in the New York City and tri-state area. To support the charity, Peters has written three children’s books illustrated by Liz Murphy. The first, titled “Broadway Barks,” was published in 2008.
For her efforts, Peters has received the American Theater Wing’s Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award, which recognizes those from the theater community who have substantially volunteered time and effort toward one or more charitable, social service or humanitarian organizations regardless of any connection with the world of theater.
On Stage this Weekend and Beyond
In addition to visiting Orange County, Peters’ recent and upcoming projects include the 2023 London production of “Old Friends,” which ended its run this past January. She’s about to perform solo shows in New Jersey; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Palm Desert, California; and Connecticut, then will be appearing with the Boston Pops for New Year’s Eve.
After that, she goes back into rehearsal for “Old Friends,” which will arrive here in So Cal at the Ahmanson Theatre in mid-February before moving to New York at the end of March.
For those planning to see her this weekend, expect a first half featuring musical theater favorites performed by Pacific Symphony under Lopez-Yañez’s baton. On the program: George Gershwin’s overture to “Girl Crazy,” George M. Cohan’s “A George M. Cohan Overture,” Herman’s “Mack and Mabel” and “Hello, Dolly!,” and Carl Teike’s “Old Comrades, March.”
Peters takes over from there, saying she expects to deliver a show that “leaves the audience satisfied and feeling that they had a good evening of music.”
Opening Night with Bernadette Peters
When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 1 and 2
Where: Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa
Admission: $50-$189
Contact: 714-755-5799, PacificSymphony.org/Bernadette-Peters
