photo by Nick Sangiamo
Stephen Sondheim
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The audience at the New York Philharmonic's sensational gala, "Sondheim: The Birthday Concert"-conducted by Paul Gemignani, directed by Lonny Price, hosted by David Hyde Pierce, choreographed by Josh Rhodes, and produced by Price and Matt Cowart, on March 15 (repeated on the 16th), a week before Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday-awarded standing ovations to just two artists, out of the stellar array appearing, and both came near the very end of the evening. The first went to Elaine Stritch, a law unto herself, after the "Follies" song "I'm Still Here"-and, thank the Goddess, she certainly still is!-which she spiced up with a topical reference-"I lived through Barbara Walters," in lieu of "Brenda Frazier." The second, following the company's singing of "Happy Birthday," which brought Sondheim to the stage, was for the honored composer and lyricist himself, who, fighting back tears, offered closing remarks, quoting, "First you're young, then middle-aged, then you're wonderful"-which, by Googling, I found attributed to actress, socialite and great beauty Lady Diana Cooper (1892-1986)-and adding, simply, "This was wonderful!" The sentiment couldn't have inspired the lines "First you're another/Sloe-eyed vamp,/Then someone's mother,/Then you're camp," in "I'm Still Here," could it have?

Greeting us, as we entered Avery Fisher Hall, was a sign reading, "Happy Birthday Steve!" on a stage 'wrapped' in a red ribbon, with a huge red bow, as if on a birthday present, thanks to set designer James Noone. Gemignani began leading the orchestra, ominously, in music from "Sweeney Todd," until Pierce entered and reminded him that this was a birthday party, and "Sweeney," not appropriate. Maestro and players then launched into a potpourri that included "Old Friends," from "Merrily We Roll Along," and "Side by Side by Side," from "Company," which accompanied a procession of the performers, and prompted Pierce to quip that the introduction, arranged by Gemignani and Jonathan Tunick, was a "new overture entitled Happy Birthday Steve-now we don't have to give you a present!"

The program continued with songs with lyrics by Sondheim to music by other composers. Karen Olivo, as Anita, led women of the cast of the Broadway revival of "West Side Story" in singing and dancing a lively "America," with Leonard Bernstein's music. Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley, he reassuring and she, not so sure, joined forces for "We're Gonna Be All Right," from "Do I Hear a Waltz?" written with Richard Rodgers, and using the original, uncensored lyrics, like "sometimes he's homosexual." Victoria Clark portrayed a regular Ms. Gloom-and-Doom, whose outlook made a complete turnaround, in the course of "Don't Laugh," written for Judy Holliday's opening number in "Hotspot," to Mary Rodgers' music.

Tunick, Sondheim's principal orchestrator for his great musicals of the 1970s, introduced a sampling of music from these shows. Nathan Gunn lyrically limned "Johanna," from "Sweeney Todd," never overwhelming the song with his full operatic baritone. Jenn Colella, Matt Cavenaugh, Bobbie Steggert, and Laura Osnes, a youthful quartet, gave us fresh and energetic accounts of the paired "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow" and "Love Will See Us Through," from "Follies." Continuing with "Follies," Gunn and Audra McDonald collaborated on a rhapsodic "Too Many Mornings," and John McMartin, the original Ben in "Follies," reprising his role of nearly four decades ago, movingly considering choices made and not, in "The Road You Didn't Take."

Turning to Sondheim shows of the 1980s, which James Lapine directed and for which he wrote the books, Chip Zien and Joanna Gleason, the original Baker and Baker's Wife in "Into the Woods," still made a loving pair in "It Takes Two," and Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters, creators of the roles of George (Georges Seurat)/young George, ostensibly his great-grandson, and Dot/Marie, her daughter, in "Sunday in the Park with George," rolled back the years, nay the decades, in his song "Finishing the Hat," a bit more of it in head tone now than in 1984, probing the mind of the artist, and an achingly moving "Move On," in which Seurat's mistress and model appears to her young descendant and encourages him to be true to his art and dreams.

Turning back to Sondheim's last show of the '70s, "Sweeney Todd," recent Todd, Michael Cerveris, and yesterday's Todd, George Hearn, who succeeded role's creator, Len Cariou, as Todd, dropping down here to the role of Sweeney's nemesis, Judge Turpin, reached across the generations to sing the deceptively harmonious duet "Pretty Women." Patti Lupone, who was Mrs. Lovett to Cerveris' Todd in 2005, joined them for a wonderfully bloodthirsty "A Little Priest," with her two Todds alternating lines or singing them together, and the finale of the first act of "Sweeney" suitably serving to wring down the figurative curtain ringingly on the first act here.

American Ballet Theater dancers Blaine Hone and Maria Riccetto opened the second act by taking sad leave of each other, in a graceful pas de deux to "Goodbye for Now," the theme song Sondheim wrote for Warren Beatty's 1981 film "Reds," after John Reed's "Ten Days that Shook the World," and Laura Benanti sang a wistful "Some People" ("I guess the man means more than the means") from "Saturday Night," Sondheim's 1954 musical, which remained unperformed until 1997.

Pierce sang "Beautiful Girls," breaking into various languages in which Sondheim didn't write the song, to introduce a starry procession of ladies in red, made up of Lupone, Mazzie, McDonald, Donna Murphy, Peters, and Stritch, who then remained on stage for each other's numbers. This meant that Lupone sang Joanne's "The Ladies Who Lunch," from "Company," in the presence of Stritch, the original-who else would have the guts to?-and gave it an eloquent reading, softer grained, but rich in sarcasm, than Stritch's murderously biting original. Stritch, sporting a cap, gave us all a look when Lupone delivered the line, "Does anyone still wear a hat?" and was the first to jump to her feet, clapping and then embracing Lupone, after the song. Mazzie warmly sang an, at first, understated "Losing My Mind," from "Follies," before bringing it to a gut-wrenching conclusion. McDonald segued delightfully from Frederika's original verse "Ordinary mothers," from "A Little Night Music," into "Glamorous Life," from the film version. Murphy reminded us that she was Phyllis in the City Center Encores! "Follies," with a "Could I Leave You" marked by a subtly wry start, before she unleashed her character's full, unbridled bitterness. Peters, similarly, began "Not a Day Goes By" intimately, before giving it a wrist-slitting twist. Stritch's "I'm Still Here" concluded this cathartic section of the program.

With "Sunday(/By the blue/Purple yellow red water)," the finale of "Sunday in the Park," at the end of the concert, dozens of cast members from current Broadway shows, marching down the aisles of Fisher Hall's orchestra level and giving, for those of us downstairs, new meaning to the idea of surround sound, paid fitting tribute to the man who has so enriched American music theater.