Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.So, here it is, and it\u2019s hard to imagine it better done. Stephen Sondheim\u2019s final musical, first produced posthumously in New York, arrives in London: a bonkers, bitty and sometimes brilliant coda to the great composer-lyricist\u2019s work, superbly delivered by a terrific cast. As many have noted, it\u2019s barely a musical \u2014 more a surreal drama in which music is part of the texture \u2014 and it certainly doesn\u2019t match Sondheim\u2019s masterpieces. But in Joe Mantello\u2019s affectionately precise staging, even the work\u2019s unfinished state makes sense. When the songs dry up, early in the second act, it seems in tune with the context: the shift from satire to something more reflective. Here, the piece feels like both an acerbic comment on a world on the brink and an ironic meditation on the nature of theatre where characters remain suspended in their own hermetic little world. It\u2019s not Sondheim at his greatest, but it\u2019s still uniquely him: witty, wry and suddenly wise.The plot, which could be subtitled Five Go Feral, is drawn from two films from the Spanish surrealist Luis Bu\u00f1uel\u00a0(The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Exterminating Angel), deftly tailored by playwright David Ives into two linked acts. Part one sees a handful of tiresome, uber-privileged types bustle about town in search of the perfect brunch, only to be met with the dismaying news that every establishment has run out of food.Conversation sparkles with expensive dysfunction: billionaire Leo (Rory Kinnear, in designer tracksuit) and his sweet, airhead wife Marianne (Jane Krakowski in drifty sky-blue n\u00e9glig\u00e9e) plan to clone their dogs so they have identical pooches in all their houses. Martha Plimpton\u2019s bristling film agent, Jesse Tyler Ferguson\u2019s cynical plastic surgeon and Paulo Szot\u2019s lecherous diplomat squabble, sulk and flirt. Tagging along, supposedly reluctantly, is Marianne\u2019s wannabe anarchist kid sister Fritz (Chumisa Dornford-May), who growls about bringing down capitalism and the end of the world. Ominous offstage gunshots and bomb blasts suggest she could be right. Sondheim\u2019s score propels and comments on the action: a capricious, spiky little running tune to accompany the desperate hunt for Insta-worthy food, a lush Piaf-style number for a waitress at the end of her tether. And there is superb work from Denis O\u2019Hare and Tracie Bennett as a succession of eccentric, Mephistophelian waiting staff.Cut to part two and the gang have holed up in the ambassador\u2019s lavish residence, only to find they can\u2019t leave. Soon all pretence at civility has evaporated as the friends (plus a couple of soldiers and a reluctant bishop) haggle over the remnants of food, hack into the mains for water and resort to eating the library. The songs stop. As political comment on the excesses of late-stage capitalism, it\u2019s pretty blunt and the lack of action is problematic. But there\u2019s an edge to Mantello\u2019s staging that lifts it into something weird and existential.\u201cHere we are,\u201d runs a refrain. But where are they really? In purgatory? Certainly there are echoes of Sartre\u2019s Huis Clos in the second part and a nod to Beckett throughout. David Zinn\u2019s set design, all glossy surfaces in the first half and mad opulence in the second, makes the characters look like exhibits in a gallery. And, for all the piece\u2019s drawbacks, in the middle of it comes an unexpectedly deep and moving takeaway. Marianne asks the priest for meaning. \u201cWe\u2019re here. Actually here on Earth. Most probably,\u201d he replies. It feels like a quiet reminder to uses our time wisely from a great artist who is no longer here.\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606To June 28, nationaltheatre.org.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.So, here it is, and it\u2019s hard to imagine it better done. Stephen Sondheim\u2019s final musical, first produced posthumously in New York, arrives in London: a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":307307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-307306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307306"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":307308,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307306\/revisions\/307308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}