Interview: Old Friends Star Bonnie Langford — She's Still Here, and Still Doing Splits

Few performers have had a career as enduring as West End star Bonnie Langford.

Langford first took the stage as a child star, winning the British talent series Opportunity Knocks at just six years old. She made her West End debut in Scarlett in 1972 and made her Broadway at the age of nine in as Baby June in Gypsy, alongside Angela Lansbury.

Since then, she’s carved out a dynamic career that has spanned decades and genres, with television roles in EastEnders and Doctor Who, and playing iconic musical-theater characters like Ado Annie, Charity Hope Valentine, Peggy Sawyer and Dorothy Brock, Roxie Hart, and Madame Thenardier.

Now, she’s part of Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, an all-star Broadway celebration of the legendary composer’s work. In this conversation, Langford reflects on the lessons she learned as a child on stage, the joy and challenge of ensemble work, and why singing “I’m Still Here” means more to her now than ever.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

You started out as a child actor — you made your Broadway debut in Gypsy with Angela Lansbury. How old were you, and what was the experience like for a kid?
I started it in London when I was age eight, and I came here the following year, so I was age nine. Arthur Laurents directed it. He’s quite tough. I loved him because he was not patronizing to children. He decided that we would be called small adults and that we would be included in everything the company did. It was so valuable because if you patronize people, they shrink, whereas if you elevate them, they grow. I learned so much from him, and from Angela.

When we first started the show, we had a public dress rehearsal which was open to members of Equity, so it was absolutely packed with all the pros from London who were just so exuberant, so thrilled to see Angela, so effusive in their praise and their reactions. It was very show busy, very over the top. We thought we’d done a wonderful job.

We went into the auditorium of Piccadilly Theatre after the show. We sat there expecting Arthur to say, “Well done, you’re all marvelous.” And he said that it was the most terrible performance. “I never want to see a performance like that again. You all played to the house. These are real people. It just happens to be a backstage musical. It’s really about relationships. It’s about the hardships that people go through.”

Angela put up her hand and said, “Arthur, I think I was the biggest culprit. I couldn’t help myself. I apologize because I think I probably led everybody on.” And of course, we just fell in love with her even more than we already had. I mean, she took one for the team.  

She led by example, and I vividly remember that. It was a huge lesson. Especially in a show such as Old Friends, which is revue, it would be very easy to lose the sight of the truth. And Stephen writes from his heart and from the truth, however harsh that may be. That that’s why it hits you so hard. 

Did you work with Stephen Sondheim then?
He didn’t come to London. He only came to New York. When I met him, I was only nine and I was terrified of him. I do remember him coming backstage quite often to see Angela because he was writing Sweeney Todd at the time.  I wish I had got closer to him.

Well, in Old Friends, you are, through his music. Tell me about rehearsals and becoming in this ensemble of iconic actors from Broadway and the West End.
It was really challenging, but also really joyous. We started rehearsals and they said, “Here are all these harmonies, here are all these extras.” We thought it was going to be just wearing black sequin dresses and putting on the odd scarf and hat. It became much more than that.

One of the things that we discussed was the fact that a lot of us are not used to being in an ensemble anymore. A lot of us are used to just walking on and being in the spotlight. What’s important is that we’re all friends, whether we know one another very well or not. The show is born out of respect and love for talent and friendship.

Your big number is “I’m Still Here,” from Follies. Do you relate to that song?
I always say that, as women, we develop this superpower that we probably don’t want when we’re older, which is invisibility. When you think of Sondheim’s work, it was written 30 years ago, and yet he’s able to tap into that. He was able to explain that, often without bitterness, sometimes with a lot of bitterness. How did he get that? How did he put that across? How relevant it still is today, even though as older women we have more of a voice? It still hits home so hard.  

This is why I absolutely love singing “I’m Still Here.” It’s saying that you’ve been through it, and it’s about celebrating. And when it looks like everything’s been great, and when it looks like you’ve got to a certain age and you’ve got it all sorted, you haven’t. You had good times and bad times, and we’re all just still going along.

You do a split in Old Friends. I’ve seen you do a cartwheel at the WhatsOnStage Awards. It’s very impressive.
I try and do a cartwheel every day. I can’t do anything else as far as gymnastics is concerned. Splits have become a bit of a thing, really. Cameron makes me do splits in every single one of his shows. I did a split as Madame Thenardier, can you believe it?

How did that happen?
He said to me “Darling, come and do Les Mis.” So, I did it for a month. Then he said, “Oh, come and do the world tour.” So, I did a bit of that, too.

When I was in London, he came to see a matinee and everyone was terrified that Cameron was there, but we go back a long way. There’s myself and Luke Kempner, who was playing Thenardier, and suddenly I hear “Darling, wait!” Cameron comes running onto the stage while they’re doing the reset for the evening show, so it’s quite busy, and he’s going “There’s one thing. I’d really love you to do a split.” I howled with laughter. And he said, “No, I mean it.” And I said “Well, it’s really difficult. I’ve got this dress on that weighs about 10 tons. I could only do it if I rolled onto the floor and then did a split.” And he went “No, no, no, darling, I want you to do a slow split.”

And then he proceeded to try to show me.

Luke Kempner said he had an out of body experience, because he was standing there in his full Thenardier gear on the stage in London watching Cameron Mackintosh show me how to do a split!