And while Ms. Ringer was occasionally overemphatic in her solos, the wit and simplicity of her dancing in general recalled Violette Verdy, the original interpreter of the role.
Interestingly, they suggested that the original interpreter was more likely to medicalise terms and was less detailed.
"I'm not interested in circus, and taming, and animals doing things that they were not meant to do," he said, describing his first meeting with the original woolly interpreters at a rehearsal in Germany as one of the most beautiful moments in his life as a director.
And it showed the current crop of musicians to be versatile, original interpreters.
Ms. LuPone, who at the Sondheim birthday concert serenaded the song's original interpreter Elaine Stritch with her own rendition, wisely didn't try to recreate Ms. Stritch's inimitably brassy loudmouth scold.
And in the middle of the program is "Sonatine," a pas de deux that carries all the wit and charm of its original interpreter, the French ballerina Violette Verdy, who passed away earlier this month.
Appropriately enough, Renée Fleming's gown is inspired by a portrait of the legendary beauty Maria Jeritza, the original Met interpreter of the aria Mr. Fleming has chosen, from Korngold's runaway hit "Die Tote Stadt," except that Ms. Fleming's dress shows off her trim waistline.
It starred the dancer Nicholas Johnson, who commissioned the one-man drama and was its original interpreter in 1991 and previously performed many of Nijinsky's roles with the Royal and English National Ballets.
In a conceptual coup, Ms. LuPone directed "The Ladies Who Lunch" to Ms. Stritch, its original interpreter, who wore a cap as if to answer the song's question, "Does anyone still wear a hat?" Ms. Mazzie delivered an increasingly angry "Losing My Mind," Ms. Murphy a furious "Could I Leave You?," Ms. McDonald a luscious "Glamorous Life" and Ms. Peters a plaintive "Not a Day Goes By".
But Mr. Ohlsson, whose musical interests range widely, quickly saw the danger of being seen as a specialist and proved himself an equally original interpreter of music from Haydn and Beethoven to Busoni and contemporary composers like Charles Wuorinen.
