Bernadette Peters is an American singer and actor. Born in 1948 in Queens, New York, where her father worked as a delivery driver, she has appeared in numerous TV shows and films, including The Muppet Show, Ally McBeal, Silent Movie with Mel Brooks, The Jerk with Steve Martin, and Annie. But she is probably best known for her Tony award-winning work on Broadway, where she has starred in, among other musicals, Mack and Mabel, Annie Get Your Gun and Hello, Dolly! One of the foremost interpreters of the work of Stephen Sondheim, her association with the composer began in 1983 when she was cast as Dot in the first production of Sunday in the Park With George. Later this month, Peters will make her West End debut in Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, a celebration of the music of Sondheim devised by Cameron Mackintosh. She will co-star with Lea Salonga, alongside a cast that includes Janie Dee, Damian Humbley and Joanna Riding.
It’s amazing that only now are you making your West End debut. Are you excited?
Absolutely. I’ve never gotten [to London] before, but I’ve always had solid reasons for that: I’ve needed to be at home, or the material wasn’t right. But now I’ve moved here for four and half months, which has meant getting someone to live with my dogs while I’m away. Steve [Sondheim] loved England so much. He told me that any opportunity he had, he’d visit. So to make my debut here singing his music is very touching and important to me.
