Trevor Jackson

On 3 May 2022, Cameron Mackintosh invited many of Stephen Sondheim’s old friends to join him in London’s West End for a thrilling, joyously staged production. He had specially devised it to celebrate Sondheim’s extraordinary talents as a composer and lyricist. Featuring an all-star cast including Michael Ball, Helena Bonham Carter, Rob Brydon, Petula Clark, Anna-Jane Casey, Rosalie Craig, Janie Dee, Judi Dench, Daniel Evans, Maria Friedman, Haydn Gwynne, Bonnie Langford, Damian Lewis and Julia McKenzie.

Charlie Stemp stars as the eponymous Arthur Kipps, an orphan and over-worked draper’s assistant at Shalford’s Bazaar, Folkestone, at the turn of the last century. He is a charming but ordinary young man who, along with his fellow apprentices, dreams of a better and more fulfilling world, but he likes his fun just like any other, except not quite. When Kipps unexpectedly inherits a fortune that propels him into high society, it confuses everything he thought he knew about life.

1970年代のベトナム戦争末期、爆撃で故郷の村と両親を失った少女キムと、長引く戦争に対する疑問と虚無感に苛まれるアメリカ兵クリスは、エンジニアの経営するナイトクラブで出会い、急速に惹かれあう。だが、サイゴン陥落の混乱の中、非情にも2人は引き裂かれ、クリスはキムを残しベトナムを離れてしまう。戦争が終わり、キムはクリスの帰りを待ちながら彼との息子タムを育て、懸命に生きていたが、帰還したアメリカで今もベトナムの悪夢に苦しむクリスは、妻エレンと共に新たな人生を歩き始めていた。 時がたち2人が再会するとき、キムは愛するタムを前に、ある悲壮な決意を固めるのであった。