Evening Standard Fiona Mountford The Full Sondheim is worth the wait Rather than producing an irritating buzz, the occasional bee in the bonnet can be responsible for a fine melody. The Bridewell Theatre, an estimable friend of the non-blockbuster musical, has been a long-time supporter of Stephen Sondheim, and to celebrate the connection, produced earlier this year a compilationof his songs for the female voice. There's Always A Woman, sassy and poignant, proved such a success that artistic director Clive Paget, with a little help from Sondheim himself, put together its equivalent number for men. You get a lot of Sondheim for your money here, 28 songs in all. All of his major music-and-lyrics works are represented, with an especially strong showing from the memory lane-oriented Follies. The pleasure of the piece, however, lies not just in having old favourites performed well, but in hearing some Sondheimian apocrypha, the out-takes and the songs he wrote for films. How the beautiful Multitudes of Amys didn't make the final cut for Company is a mystery. As the title implies, the overwhelming mood is one of wistfulness. Into an art gallery private view walk four men, Old Friends, as the number from Merrily We Roll Along has it. Commitment, marriage, ageing: these are the predominant themes as they proceed to spend an evening together. The mood is lightened by the odd welcome upbeat number; there's a spirited rendition of the increasingly desperate You Must Meet My Wife from the glorious A Little Night Music, and and exuberantly camp take on A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum's Everybody Ought to Have a Maid.The four performers are well chosen- Michael Cahill is in fine form. Sam Spencer-Lane's excellent choreography has the men moving deftly yet unobtrusively around the Bridewell's opened-up stage. Yet the star of the evening must remain the man responsible for such lyrical and musical riches. "The beautiful people who live out there/ Have savoir faire (that's class in French)" he wrote in Saturday Night's Class. As The Road You Didn't Take confirms, Sondheim has class in any language.