The Stephen Sondheim Society Presents...
On the first Monday of each month (except August, typically), The Stephen Sondheim Society hosted an evening of cabaret at the Phoenix Artist Club in London's Soho. The idea of the cabarets was to present roughly 50% Sondheim, 30% musical-theatre classics and 20% new or recent writing for the stage.
The shows were usually hosted by Tim McArthur, with Musical Direction by Aaron Clingham, although occasionally we had some special guest hosts and MDs. We invited three guest performers each time, and aimed to include as many finalists and winners of SSSSPOTY as we could. The hope was to give young and up-and-coming performers the chance to sing some Sondheim in a West End venue alongside some more experienced artists.
We had more than 60 performers join us at the Phoenix over the past few years – for a full list of previous cabarets and artists, visit 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Following a COVID-19-enforced gap, we made a return to cabarets with Alex Young & Friends... in October 2022 at Upstairs at the Gatehouse in Highgate, a sell-out show that returned the following week for a repeat performance. With the success of these two nights, the Society is looking forward to returning to a regular cabaret slot somewhere in London. Watch this space!
In November 2019, we did something a little different – a quiz that will test your musical-theatre knowledge (not JUST Sondheim!) in order to win a £100 first prize, plus a poster signed by Mr Sondheim himself!