Final musical from Sondheim is coming to Off-Broadway

The final stage musical from the late Stephen Sondheim is headed to New York, with an Off-Broadway production of “Here We Are” now in the works.

The show, which is inspired by the Luis Buñuel-directed films “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” and “The Exterminating Angel,” will begin a limited run this September at The Shed’s Griffin Theater, producers announced Thursday. Buñuel’s films depict guests who can’t leave a dinner party and others who show up but don’t get to eat.

Originally titled “Square One,” the surrealist show was workshopped by Manhattan’s Public Theater in 2016 but never debuted in the city. Sondheim told the Public Theater in 2020 he was no longer developing the musical, according to The New York Times.

“It was an appropriately surreal, unnerving and often hilarious piece,” actor Michael Cerveris, who was part of the workshop, told the newspaper in 2021. “And Steve was, as ever, experimenting with some fascinating, complex musical structures which [playwright David Ives’] sensibilities seemed to suit really well, I thought.”

Sondheim, the New York-born composer behind Broadway classics including “West Side Story” and “Into the Woods,” died in November 2021 at age 91.

Ives wrote the book for the production premiering this fall, while Joe Mantello will direct, producers said. Mantello previously directed the Sondheim show “Assassins,” as well as the Broadway staple “Wicked.”

Sondheim won six Tony Awards for best original score and was recognized at the 2008 ceremony with a lifetime achievement honor.

He also won eight Grammys and a best original song Oscar for “Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)” from 1990 s “Dick Tracy.” The 1961 film adaptation of “West Side Story” won 10 Oscars, including best picture and best supporting actress for Rita Moreno. Ariana DeBose won best supporting actress for Steven Spielberg’s 2021 adaptation.

“Here We Are” isn’t the only Sondheim musical debuting in New York this year. A new production of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” opens on Broadway on March 26. Josh Groban is set to play the title character, while Annaleigh Ashford and “Stranger Things” actor Gaten Matarazzo will also star.