Here We Are is a surrealist musical comedy with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by David Ives. It is noteworthy for being the final musical Sondheim was working on at the time of his death in 2021. Sondheim died with much of the score for Act 2 incomplete, but the show was produced after Ives developed a dramatic rationale for the lack of singing, and before his death Sondheim gave his blessing for the show to be produced based on it.
The musical is an adaptation of two different films by Luis Buñuel. The first act is inspired by The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, with a group of wealthy friends trying to find a place to eat brunch but are unable to find a restaurant willing or able to serve them. Eventually they find themselves eating at the Morandan embassy, where after they arrive to eat an unseen catastrophe occurs outside. Act 2 is inspired by The Exterminating Angel, when the group (along with a Colonel from the Department of Homeland Security and one of his soldiers) finds themselves trapped in the library of the embassy and are unable to leave.
After being in various stages of development for more than a decade, the show finally opened Off-Broadway in 2023 under the direction of Joe Mantello, with an All-Star Cast including Bobby Cannavale, Rachel Bay Jones, Steven Pasquale, Denis O’Hare, Micaela Diamond, and David Hyde Pierce.
Tropes Associated With Here We Are Include:
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: During the soldier's song in Act 1, he says "I dreamed we were all actors on stage in a play", whereupon everyone realizes they're part of an performance, and some forget their lines.
- Closed Circle: Act 2, where whenever someone attempts to leave the library something convinces them they have to stay inside.
- Contrived Coincidence: The Colonel assigned to investigate Leo is the son of the people Leo murdered to get the money he used to make his first investment.
- Crisis of Faith: The Bishop, who appears near the end of Act 1 desperate to find another job because he's convinced he's not cut out for the priesthood. By the end, he's become more confident in his ability to guide people's faith.
- The Casanova: Raffael, the Morandan ambassador, has slept with thousands of women including almost every female member of the cast except Fritz.
- Closet Key: Inverted with Fritz, who tells Raffael early in the play that she's "been gay since I was three!" but immediately falls for the Soldier when he appears on stage.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: The Soldier had apparently dreamt of everything that had happened before his entrance into the show the night before.
- Fetish: The Bishop seems to have quite the obsession with women's shoes.
- Incredibly Long Note: Between The Solider and Fritz during their song, sometimes with the actors running out of breath and having to restart partway through.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Leo calls out Fritz saying that while he's an unrepentant asshole at least he doesn't pretend to be anything else, while Fritz enjoys the benefits of her family's wealthy lifestyle while crusading against the evils of the rich.
- Latin Land: Steven Pasquale uses an ambiguously Latin accent as Raffael, the ambassador of the fictional country of Moranda.
- Leitmotif: A dissonant arpeggio plays every time a character tries and fails to leave the room.
- Locked in a Room: The entire second act.
- Love at First Sight: Between Fritz and the Soldier, although it's implied to be genuine on the part of the latter while more lust on the part of the former.
- Mind Screw: As befitting the surrealist nature of the material. Bonus points go to the scene where Marianne dances with a bear that is only briefly mentioned in passing afterwards.
- Painting the Medium: The first act of plays like a conventional musical, albeit with absurdist elements. During the second act, once the characters are unable to leave the library the musical elements become gradually less prominent as the characters fall deeper into despair and hopelessness at their situation, until there aren't any songs at all.
- Proscenium Reveal: See Breaking the Fourth Wall
- Significant Haircut: Fritz takes her bandanna off and lets her hair down during Act 2, signaling her break from the Leftist militia.
- Surreal Humor: It's a show written by David Ives based on the movies by Luis Buñuel - What do you expect?
