Back in 2016, the Public Theater held a top-secret workshop of Stephen Sondheim’s new musical, Here We Are, based on director Luis Buñuel’s movies The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Exterminating Angel. The first act was fine, with, a source told me at the time, “gorgeous music.” The second act was a problem—in fact, it barely existed. Sondheim had run dry.
Producer Scott Rudin planned to launch the show at the Public and then move it to Broadway. But he needed more songs. They did not come. He told the then 86-year-old Sondheim, “Steve, the actuarial tables are not on our side.”
