| NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? | |
| Posted by: | MarkBearSF 03:43 am EDT 09/10/14 |
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| One late Sunday night, I happened upon what must have been a rebroadcast of the New York City Opera's production or A Little Night Music, back in 1990. At the time, my only knowledge of ALNM was bad covers of "Send in the Clowns." I tuned in about 20 minutes into the broadcast and was captivated but didn't pursue learning more many years. I rediscovered the show and devouring the OBCR, LCR, and the revival, the misfire of the movie and finally, the Broadway revival (both casts). Through the years, I kept remembering that late night TV. Not only in comparison to other performances, but also Bergman films (Smiles of a Summer Night, of course, but also Fanny & Alexander). Since it was a "Live From Lincoln Center" broadcast, I assumed that I would only have my memories. A few days ago, after talking to a friend, I searched a popular video site and found a grainy copy. I was so impressed. It felt more "complete" than the Nunn revival and the supporting roles were so well performed (and directed) - such a joy to see Danielle Ferland and Anna Kendrick. Does anyone have any memories, stories or opinions of the NYCO production? | |
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| re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? | |
| Posted by: | Paschal 07:38 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? - MarkBearSF 03:43 am EDT 09/10/14 |
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| I first learned to appreciate Sondheim when I saw the 1990 telecast. If only it were available on DVD! | |
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| A WONDERFUL AND WONDEROUS PRODUCTION!!! | |
| Posted by: | adammueller308 02:48 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? - MarkBearSF 03:43 am EDT 09/10/14 |
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| The 1990 ALNM for the NYCO was just perfect. An amazing cast top to bottom and a production quality that was peerless. The Nunn revival - both casts - was a pale shadow - or 'hiccup - of the magnificent 1990 NYCO production. | |
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| SO SO SO much better than the Nunn revival | |
| Posted by: | Chazwaza 01:55 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? - MarkBearSF 03:43 am EDT 09/10/14 |
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| I treasure this production. Though sometimes too operatic and the acting and comedy not quite as effortless as the piece wants, I think generally it's marvelous. | |
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| re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 12:40 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? - MarkBearSF 03:43 am EDT 09/10/14 |
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| I'm glad that the Anna Kendrick thing got cleared up below. I suppose I'm spoiled by having seen the original production three times. I don't think it was perfect, but it was better than anything thing I've seen since. The later production that came closest for me was the 2003 City Opera revival. Perhaps because I had bought my tickets for the last performance, knowing that it would be terribly underrehearsed, I liked it more than some others did. Although there were still some musical problems at the final performance, and the NYCO production was never visually distinguished, overall it was the best-acted production I've seen since the original. I thought that the only major weak link was Claire Bloom's surprisingly undercooked Madame Armfeldt. The production may have been better still the following year in Los Angeles with a cast that sounds very solid indeed and that clearly pleased DistantDrumming a lot. I only saw the 1990 cast on the telecast. I don't think that Sally Ann Howes was altogether right for Desiree, but she gave a smart, well-crafted performance that really could not be faulted except that her essence did not seem to be the character's. George Lee Andrews was good, if lacking a bit in world-weariness. Regina Resnik was very good for an opera singer, but I didn't feel she had an overall grasp of the character. Ferland was fine, but Fredrika doesn't make or break a production of the show. I can't say that I was wild about anyone else. Some were better than others. Having a good Fredrik and Desiree was certainly a big help. | |
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| re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? | |
| Posted by: | Chazwaza 01:59 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? - AlanScott 12:40 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
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| I'm surprised to see you say that you saw the original 3 times and you don't think it was perfect. If there was ever a musical and a production that people seem to remember as perfect, this is one of them. I'm very curious what your memories and issues with it are/were. | |
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| To try to answer you a bit more fully | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 07:32 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? - Chazwaza 01:59 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
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| By the time I saw it, at the Majestic, there were replacements as Fredrika and Frid. Both seemed undirected. Obviously, neither role is crucial to a production's success. And I kind of hate the things poor Frid has to say. The writing seems truly awkward to me so I can't blame any actor for having trouble making it believable. And a couple of the other roles that were played well enough, I've nonetheless seen played perhaps a bit better in later productions, even if those productions overall were less good. D'Jamin Bartlett acted the scenes well as Petra, and perhaps no one has sung "The Miller's Son" better in purely vocal terms, but dramatically her performance of the song was a bit neutral. It was somewhat like the song was being presented (not that her performance was presentational) rather than being really lived. But then I've never seen or heard a performance of the song that fully satisfied me. It seems a very tough song to really get both dramatically and vocally. I do think Bartlett gave one of the best performances of the song I've seen or heard, but I wish she had hit more of the mix of desperation and resignation that I think are at the heart of it. She was probably the best Petra I've ever seen, but I want more from that song. I'd guess that neither Prince nor Sondheim helped her enough. And I think the show probably did suffer, as Cariou later said, on the bigger stage of the Majestic. It still played well, but it looked a bit diffuse up there. They had built a new, bigger set for the Majestic, sending the original set on tour. | |
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| re: To try to answer you a bit more fully | |
| Posted by: | LegitOnce 07:43 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | To try to answer you a bit more fully - AlanScott 07:32 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
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| Well, I have always hated "The Miller's Son." It feels like a cabaret song (one of those Sondheim "Three Act Plays" the Don't Tell Mama divas lovs so much) wedged uncomfortably into anotherwise organic score. What's worse, its position in the show makes it feel like it should be the 11 o'clock number, and who wants an 11 o'clock number from a comic relief maid you've hardly noticed all night? | |
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| re: To try to answer you a bit more fully | |
| Posted by: | Michael_Portantiere 12:49 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: To try to answer you a bit more fully - LegitOnce 07:43 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
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| I think "The Miller's Son" is one of the greatest songs Sondheim ever wrote, musically and lyrically. I find it's placement in the show to be perfect, and the fact that it's sung by a relatively minor character makes it all the more effective. For one thing, it's a smart idea to take a little bit of time away from the Fredrik-Desiree-Carl-Magnus-Charlotte-Henrik-Anne plot(s) at that point. In my opinion, there's only one flaw in this otherwise brilliant song: the line "It's a very short road from the pinch and the punch to the paunch and the pouch and the pension." All that alliteration makes the line sound "written," and not organic to the character. Sondheim himself later criticized his own use of alliteration for certain characters in certain shows, so perhaps he later came to dislike this line as well? I don't know if he has written about that. Anyway, this one flaw aside, I rate the song as truly brilliant -- witty, very perceptive, and ultimately quite moving. | |
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| re: To try to answer you a bit more fully | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 08:14 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | re: To try to answer you a bit more fully - LegitOnce 07:43 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
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| Well, you're not alone in your feelings about the song. I know that others feel similarly. I love the song, but it does seem like actresses who are the right age for Petra rarely have the life experience to really put across the song. | |
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| re: To try to answer you a bit more fully | |
| Posted by: | LegitOnce 01:15 am EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: To try to answer you a bit more fully - AlanScott 08:14 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
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| I might like the song a little better if it occurred earlier in the show, though don't ask me where that possibly might be. And I think you are on the right track with the age complaint; I would go farther and say that there's no particular indication that Petra is old enough to have the "life experience" necessary. I could almost see Charlotte singing this song instead -- though obviously it would take some kind of major setting up. Has there ever been a production of ALNM that used "Silly People" instead of/in addition to "The Miller's Son?" Honestly I think it's superior both as a stand-alone song and in context. I'll go out on a limb and say the song even could be given to Petra... | |
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| re: To try to answer you a bit more fully | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 07:45 am EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: To try to answer you a bit more fully - LegitOnce 01:15 am EDT 09/11/14 |
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| One of my typically long answers is below. One of the things that I like about "The Miller's Son" is that it reveals unexpected depths in Petra, and yet the thoughts don't sound altogether beyond what someone her age and with her life experience might feel and perceive. Having said that, the darker side of the song does elude many actresses. It seems to me that a working-class girl in that time would have seen what happens to other women of her class. Perhaps the problem that actresses playing the role have really getting the song has less to do with age than with class and modern life generally. A couple of productions have restored "Silly People" with permission (and perhaps some others have restored it without permission). I find it a fairly lackluster song, but lots of people, like you, like it a lot. I have a theory that what happened with it was that when the show opened out of town it worked pretty well, but mostly because the audience was desperate for a full song by that point. "It Would Have Been Wonderful" was added during the Boston run. As soon as that song went in, "SIlly People" stopped working. "It Would Have Been Wonderful" always strikes me as a kind of unnecessary song. Perfectly well written, even fun and entertaining, but not a song that adds anything interesting to our knowledge of either character. My big problem with the show is my feeling that so many of the characters are undermusicalized. I do think that both Fredrik and Carl-Magnus need something in Act Two. Just not necessarily that. I feel that so many good possible moments for musicalizing were missed for other characters, perhaps because Sondheim was so far behind schedule. A bit more about "The Miller's Son": To me, it acts as the show's equivalent of Frid's great speeches in Smiles of a Summer Night that sum up everything and cause Petra to say to him, "Just think, you're a poet, too." I can understand why they may have felt it was more important for Petra to get an equivalent of Frid's poetic little speeches about humanity and the smiles of the summer night in the movie. They are so much more richly expressed than what Madame Armfeldt is given to say about the smiles of the summer night in the musical. I do actually like giving those thoughts to her, and changing for whom the third smile smiles. I like how the show is about the life cycle in ways that the movie is not. But I feel that Frid is made bland and colorless in the musical. And that would be true even if his song were to be restored. I think it might have been more effective if his song about the smiles had been closer to what Frid in the film says about them. The song could have been more boisterous and uptempo, just as Frid in the movie is a boisterous and fun character. Perhaps it it had been, his song would still be in the show. | |
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| re: To try to answer you a bit more fully | |
| Posted by: | larry13 11:41 am EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: To try to answer you a bit more fully - AlanScott 07:45 am EDT 09/11/14 |
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| God knows it's been years since I saw Bergman's film but my memory of it is that it is a truly adult sophisticated comedy, what the musical may have aimed for but, in my opinion, never truly achieves beyond moments. Yes, in comparison to other B'way. fare--especially of recent vintage--ALNM appears the height of sophistication. Much of the film's distinction is, obviously, due to Bergman's superior screenplay(and direction!); much to the incomparable cast he assembled. Maybe if I ever saw a singing actress on the order of Harriet Andersson play Petra I might like "The Miller's Son" more than I ever have. I fully agree with Legit Once--not something I often do!--that the song, as sung by this character(as written by Wheeler)and, especially, as the 11:00 number, is pretentious and out of place. Anyway, thank you both for a fascinating discussion. | |
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| re: To try to answer you a bit more fully | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 03:01 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: To try to answer you a bit more fully - larry13 11:41 am EDT 09/11/14 |
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| I think Wheeler did some very smart things, although some of them may not have been his idea and they were certainly, ultimately, group decisions. For example, making Desiree's child a 13-year-old girl rather than a 3-year-old boy, making Desiree older than in the film, and making the whole thing more about the life cycle, but I agree that the actual writing too often strives for an elegance that it does not achieve. Unfortunately no one seems to have thought about what making Desiree and Fredrik's child 13 years old does in terms of dating Desiree and Fredrik's affair. Fortunately, audiences don't seem to think about it either. The odd thing is that Wheeler could be a very elegant writer. His writing for the low comedy of Candide is sometimes very elegantly phrased. | |
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| the lack of elegance... | |
| Posted by: | Chazwaza 08:05 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: To try to answer you a bit more fully - AlanScott 03:01 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| I'm not quite sure what you (and some others) are referring to about the elegance that the show wants to have but never quite does. What about it is inelegant? Where does it seem like it might be elegant or wants us to think it is, but it really isn't? And what is an example of something like this that DOES achieve elegance? Because to my ears, the show does achieve elegance very much so. It's also a sex farce to a degree so there's only so much it can do in that sense... but I'm not sure I can think of a more elegant musical actually. | |
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| re: the lack of elegance... | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 03:53 pm EDT 09/12/14 |
| In reply to: | the lack of elegance... - Chazwaza 08:05 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| I started writing an answer for you last night, and perhaps I'll finish it and post it later, but there's just so much. I would agree with the two examples cited by LegitOnce. Since one of those is in the first scene, and I was starting with the first scene, it was in the post I started (but didn't finish) writing last night. For something similar that is much better written, you can look to the play that they originally wanted to adapt for their waltz musical set at a country house, Ring Round the Moon, adapted and translated by Christopher Fry from Anouilh's Invitation to the Chateau. | |
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| re: the lack of elegance... | |
| Posted by: | LegitOnce 01:27 am EDT 09/12/14 |
| In reply to: | the lack of elegance... - Chazwaza 08:05 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| Desiree: "A dragoon. A very handsome, very married dragoon with, I'm afraid, the vanity of a peacock, and the brain of a pea, but the physical proportions…" Fredrik: "Don’t specify the vegetable, please." That is, quite simply, a dick joke. Not a clever dick joke or an original dick joke, just a plain ordinary bad 1960s drag show dick joke. Don't get me wrong, I love dick jokes, and I think you could even work a dick joke into A Little Night Music in an elegant and witty manner. This, though, isn't that dick joke. "Don't squeeze your bosoms against the chair, dear! It'll stunt their growth, and then where would you be?" isn't much better. It's a very ordinary sniggering bazoom joke, and ungrammatical besides. | |
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| re: To try to answer you a bit more fully | |
| Posted by: | JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 03:31 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: To try to answer you a bit more fully - AlanScott 03:01 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| Could you elaborate on the issue you see with the child being 13 years old, rather than 3? | |
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| re: To try to answer you a bit more fully | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 03:45 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: To try to answer you a bit more fully - JereNYC 03:31 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| It suggests that the affair Fredrik and Desiree had was when his wife was still alive. Though we are never told when Fredrik's wife died, I get the feeling from other things in the script that it was somewhat more recently than 14 years ago. | |
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| re: To try to answer you a bit more fully | |
| Posted by: | JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 03:58 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: To try to answer you a bit more fully - AlanScott 03:45 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| Oh, I see...I guess I've never seen that as an issue, probably because none of these characters are being held up as models of virtue and decorum. Quite the opposite, actually. And your theory would certainly explain why Desiree and Fredrik couldn't work it out the first time around when they seem so obviously suited for one another. On a related note, I've wondered if Henrik's melencholy and strive for perfection is a result of growing up without a mother and with a father who could offer little in the way of emotional support due to his own issues. | |
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| re: To try to answer you a bit more fully | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 04:16 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: To try to answer you a bit more fully - JereNYC 03:58 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| Interesting. While it's true that none of these characters are held up as models of virtue (and Desiree is having an affair with another married man), I kind of prefer to think of Fredrik as a man who would not cheat on his wife, although your point about his marriage having been why they would not have been able to get together is a good one. But when I think of Anne talking about how lonely and sad he was the summer after his wife died (which comes pretty directly from Bergman), I prefer to think of him as having been truly choked up over his wife's death. Of course, he could have had an affair with Desiree and still have been devastated by his wife's death. Some years back, D'Jamin Bartlett was interviewed in the Sondheim Review. One of the things she talked about was that she had never fully appreciated Glynis Johns's performance till she got to play Desiree herself some years later. She specifically said that Desiree could easily be viewed by the audience as a rather unpleasant woman — one who is having an affair with another woman's husband and simultaneously plotting to steal another woman's husband. Johns made the audience like her and root for her despite that. So, yeah, as you say, Desiree (much as audiences may tend to like her) is hardly a model of virtue. Fredrik does have the line to Henrik about Anne being too young for him to reasonably expect her to take his mother's place. Of course, if "Two Fairy Tales" hadn't been cut, we'd have the image of his mother having repeatedly read him this rather sad and gloomy story. Well, the lyric doesn't actually say that she read it to him repeatedly, but one does get the image of Henrik saying to her, "Read it again! Read it again!" ;) | |
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| re: To try to answer you a bit more fully | |
| Posted by: | JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 04:58 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: To try to answer you a bit more fully - AlanScott 04:16 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| Perhaps Desiree has a type and that type is men who are unavailable. And that would probably work out fine for a woman who is dedicated almost solely to her career. One of my favorite aspects of this story is watching two characters, who are very entrenched in their well-established lives and patterns, let go of who they thought they were and what they thought they wanted. Desiree comes to this rather quickly, but Fredrik hangs onto his outdated sense of himself almost until the very end. These are deeply unhappy people, but, because their unhappiness is a result of making choices and choosing what they thought they wanted, they don't even realize how unhappy they are until the events of the story push them together again. So much of the Sondheim canon is about making choices and the consequence of those choices once they're made. This show is just one more example. I'm glad that Fredrik and Desiree get the second chance at happiness that many Sondheim characters do not. | |
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| Very eloquent (nm) | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 05:19 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: To try to answer you a bit more fully - JereNYC 04:58 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| nm | |
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| I have to correct myself | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 04:42 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: To try to answer you a bit more fully - AlanScott 04:16 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| While some of the scene between Fredrik and Anne at home, after they've returned from the play, is very similar in the Bergman screenplay and the musical, there is not the suggestion that he told her fairy tales during one particular summer. Of course, the musical does not explicitly state that the summer was the summer after his wife died, but I've always understood it to mean that. ("You were so lonely and sad that summer. I felt terribly sorry for you, so I said: Poor thing, I'll marry him.") Perhaps this was added to try to make it clear that Fredrik's wife did die long ago. But since Fredrika's age is given as 13, and Anne is 18, that would mean that she was four or five when she was thinking, "Poor thing. I'll marry him." Which seems to make it an awfully long time for her to have thought about it before it happened. There is some darker Bergman stuff in the Fredrik-Anne scene that did not make it into the musical. | |
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| re: I have to correct myself | |
| Posted by: | MarkBearSF 02:01 am EDT 09/12/14 |
| In reply to: | I have to correct myself - AlanScott 04:42 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| I had always thought that his wife died recently and married Anne on the rebound. Also that the tryst with Desiree was before his first marriage. | |
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| re: I have to correct myself | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 02:29 am EDT 09/12/14 |
| In reply to: | re: I have to correct myself - MarkBearSF 02:01 am EDT 09/12/14 |
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| His affair with Desiree can't have before his first marriage. Fredrika is 13. Henrik is 19. And there are other things in the script that argue against that scenario. I do agree that the script seems to imply that his wife died fairly recently. | |
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| Two things about Petra/Miller's Son | |
| Posted by: | counterweight 02:45 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: To try to answer you a bit more fully - larry13 11:41 am EDT 09/11/14 |
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| I remember reading the original actress playing Petra was let go in Boston because she couldn't handle the vocals for Miller's Son, but that many of the cast thought the original was a better actor. Also, I remember reading on this board that the song was originally titled "Meanwhile." Learning that, it clicked for me that this song balances the Now/Soon/Later sequence. That help mitigate some of my concerns that others here have mentioned. | |
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| Just want to add | |
| Posted by: | larry13 11:50 am EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: To try to answer you a bit more fully - larry13 11:41 am EDT 09/11/14 |
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| Re AlanScott's wish that there were more songs for the major characters: I fully agree. WHY are there so many songs for the anonymous Greek(or Swedish)chorus(or ensemble)members? They're beautiful songs but at the expense of not having the characters in the story sing?? I understand about Glynis Johns' vocal limits but the other original cast members were fine singers. | |
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| re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 02:28 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? - Chazwaza 01:59 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
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| I'll try to answer a bit later. Can't wrap my mind around it right now. I will say that I might remember it as perfect if I'd seen it at the Shubert. Len Cariou has spoken about how much better he felt it played at the Shubert. And Gingold always just seemed to be falling asleep at the end. | |
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| LOL, Gingold... | |
| Posted by: | garyd 03:14 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? - AlanScott 02:28 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
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| It didn't matter which theatre, Shubert or Majestic, it always appeared as though she just fell asleep. I would swear she deliberately played it that way. | |
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| re: LOL, Gingold... | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 03:27 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | LOL, Gingold... - garyd 03:14 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
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| In my experience, most actresses just seem to be falling asleep there, though some have died clearly and effectively, among them Regina Resnik. ;) | |
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| Okay, here is one for you... | |
| Posted by: | garyd 07:31 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | re: LOL, Gingold... - AlanScott 03:27 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
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| Did Despo Diamantidou ever go on for Gingold? (this is not a test :) I honestly don't know. I always thought it odd she played Malla but I wasn't aware, at the time of her association with Prince.) | |
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| re: Okay, here is one for you... | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 07:33 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | Okay, here is one for you... - garyd 07:31 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
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| Yes, she went on for Gingold. I have a playbill with an insert for her, which I got while the show was running from a relative who was an avid theatregoer. | |
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| re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? | |
| Posted by: | MarkBearSF 01:47 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? - AlanScott 12:40 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
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| I was most fond Maureen Moore, Beverly Lambert, and Susan Terry playing Charlotte, Ann and Petra - perhaps because I was so disappointed with the portrayals in the Nun production. ...and I guess the Anna Kendrick confusion is a good reason to use an authoritative source like Overtur rather than the error-riddled Wikipedia, right? | |
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| re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 02:25 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? - MarkBearSF 01:47 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
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| I'm sorry to say that even though I do get annoyed with the errors I find on wikipedia, we've got plenty of errors on ovrtur. I fix them when I come across them. And we're way behind on updating. Which I'm sure we always will be. | |
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| re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? | |
| Posted by: | TheOtherOne 12:48 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? - AlanScott 12:40 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
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| Alan, did you see the 1989 revival at the Piccadilly in London? I was glad to see Dorothy Tutin as Desireee and Lila Kedrova as Madame Armfeldt. It lacked the lightness of the original production (easily the best of the four I have seen live) but worked on its own terms and I did appreciate seeing it. | |
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| re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 02:12 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? - TheOtherOne 12:48 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
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| I didn't that London production. I've heard such wildly mixed things about it, from raves or at least strongly favorable impressions to totally negative impressions, especially about Lila Kedrova, who does seem odd casting in an English-language production. But one person told me that he found her incredibly moving. | |
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| Forgot to mention | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 02:14 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? - AlanScott 02:12 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
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| One thing that's surprising to me about that production is that Sondheim permitted them to use "Love Takes Time." | |
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| re: Forgot to mention | |
| Posted by: | TheOtherOne 08:12 am EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | Forgot to mention - AlanScott 02:14 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
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| I had forgotten that, but after the revision of "Follies" (which I did not see) that had been presented on the West End I can't say it surprised me all that much. It was a more somber take on the material than either the original production or Susan Schulman's ELT revival (which had been a bit more somber, or rather artsy, than the original as well). | |
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| re: Forgot to mention | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 08:37 am EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: Forgot to mention - TheOtherOne 08:12 am EDT 09/11/14 |
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| I remember the Schulman production as being played mostly for laughs and with the dark shadows minimized or gone entirely. Madame Armfeldt, played by the very good actress Avril Gentles, just seemed to be a jolly old lady. I hated some of the staging, like Carl-Magnus and Charlotte fencing during their section of "A Weekend in the Country." I couldn't stand the production, but the audience with whom I saw it seemed to love it. I do remember there being "summer night" dances added involving servants. Perhaps that's what you were thinking of in terms of "artsy"? If you feel like it, email me at AlanScottG@aol.com. | |
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| re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? | |
| Posted by: | dooey 11:31 am EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? - MarkBearSF 03:43 am EDT 09/10/14 |
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| I remember cutting classes in college to watch the 1990 version on PBS each time it aired. That production was sublime. | |
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| re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? | |
| Posted by: | Michael_Portantiere 10:46 am EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? - MarkBearSF 03:43 am EDT 09/10/14 |
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| "It felt more 'complete' than the Nunn revival." Certain more complete in terms of orchestra/orchestrations. I'm guessing the orchestra for the NYCO production was at least 40 pieces, whereas for the horribly misguided Nunn production I'm pretty sure it was less than 10. The first NYCO production of NIGHT MUSIC, with Sally Ann Howes, Regina Resnik, etc., was much better overall than the revival with Jeremy Irons, et al., but both were far superior to the Nunn production. | |
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| re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? | |
| Posted by: | MeredithChandler1973 07:08 am EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? - MarkBearSF 03:43 am EDT 09/10/14 |
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| I was confused by this post. Anna Kendrick was in the 2003 NYCO Revival of the show while Ferland was in the 1990 production. Did you see both? Was the 2003 production filmed and aired? I saw the 1990 NYCO on TV and it's one of the reasons A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC is one of my favorite Sondheim musicals. I saw the Kennedy Center production in 2002 and the recent Broadway revival (with Zeta-Jones/Lansbury and Peters/Stritch), but none of them are as perfect to me as the original NYCO production. I do wish I had seen the LA Opera cast (Judith Ivey, Victor Garber) as that does seem pretty perfect as well. | |
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| re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? | |
| Posted by: | MarkBearSF 12:23 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? - MeredithChandler1973 07:08 am EDT 09/10/14 |
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| Thanks for clearing that up. I was basing it on the Wikipedia entry and they evidently conflated the two productions. (or I likely misread) I really wouldn't recognize Anna Kendrick who was listed, but was certain that Henrik was NOT Jeremy Irons as mentioned. | |
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| re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? | |
| Posted by: | Ann 12:52 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? - MarkBearSF 12:23 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
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| Not to mention that Kendrick would have been 5 years old ;) | |
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| re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? | |
| Posted by: | larry13 07:55 am EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? - MeredithChandler1973 07:08 am EDT 09/10/14 |
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| If it was in 2003 that I saw the NYCO do NIGHT MUSIC, I thought it was pretty bad despite several wonderful performers(e.g. Pawk and Kudisch). Juliet Stevenson was miscast as Desiree, Claire Bloom was at sea as her mother, Jeremy Irons isn't a singer and the whole thing suffered from being done in a huge theater with poor acoustics and in the(typical?)misguided NYCO way with operettas. | |
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| re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? | |
| Posted by: | lordofspeech 10:08 am EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | re: NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? - larry13 07:55 am EDT 09/10/14 |
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| I too saw the Juliet Stevenson Jeremy Irons production. And it just didn't do it for me. And I don't know why. Maybe it was "miscasting." Maybe Jeremy Irons was too urbane and self-aware? Maybe Juliet S has too much air and not enough earth? Maybe the fullness of the acting was more than the style and the story could bear? Maybe the space was too big, and I was too far away? I just remember being slightly disappointed. However, I never saw it as caught on videotape. That might've focused it. | |
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| ADORE this production | |
| Posted by: | DistantDrumming 06:53 am EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | NYCO A Little Night Music Thoughts? - MarkBearSF 03:43 am EDT 09/10/14 |
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| Since I was just a babe in arms when this production was broadcast on PBS, I am also grateful for its existence. Above all, what this production got so right (besides the musicianship, of course) was the casting. I think virtually all of the principle and supporting casting is perfect. And, with all due respect to Ms. Gingold, I think Regina Resnik might be the definitive Mdme. Armfeldt. I saw the 2004 LA Opera revival of this same NY Opera production. Again, the casting was nearly perfect in LA with Judith Ivey, Victor Garber, Laura Benanti, Zoe Caldwell, Marc Kudisch, Michelle Pawk, Kristen Bell and a gorgeous 45 piece orchestra. Still, all these years later, the best single evening of musical theatre I've experienced. I left walking on air. | |
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| re: ADORE this production | |
| Posted by: | SJHYM 09:04 am EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | ADORE this production - DistantDrumming 06:53 am EDT 09/10/14 |
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| "And, with all due respect to Ms. Gingold, I think Regina Resnik might be the definitive Mdme. Armfeldt." I agree. I think Regina Resnik was the perfect Mdme. Armdeldt and her Liaisons is magnificently sung. I saw Gingold and Hamilton as well as Lansbury and Stritch and Resnik was the best of them all. Though I remember sitting at the edge of my seat wondering if Stritch was going to get through the song. She seemed to have gotten lost a couple of times and he back phrasing was interesting and fun. | |
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| re: ADORE this production | |
| Posted by: | MarkBearSF 12:25 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | re: ADORE this production - SJHYM 09:04 am EDT 09/10/14 |
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| It was the first time I heard the melody of Liaisons. | |
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| re: ADORE this production | |
| Posted by: | vivian22 11:02 am EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | re: ADORE this production - SJHYM 09:04 am EDT 09/10/14 |
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| I loved this production too. I think Maureen Moore was the best Charlotte I've ever seen. I wish we could have seen her in more roles where she wasn't a stand-by. | |
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| The Moore, the merrier | |
| Posted by: | WaymanWong 03:49 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | re: ADORE this production - vivian22 11:02 am EDT 09/10/14 |
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| I never saw the original cast of ''Night Music,'' but I agree: Maureen Moore's the best Charlotte I ever saw onstage. Moore seems to have become the queen of replacements and standbys: ''Song & Dance,'' ''Jerome Robbins' Broadway,'' ''Falsettos,'' ''Gypsy,'' ''Grey Gardens,'' etc. I also wish she got her shot to shine and originate a role. | |
| Link | Ibdb: Maureen Moore's Broadway credits |
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| re: The Moore, the merrier | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 04:08 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
| In reply to: | The Moore, the merrier - WaymanWong 03:49 pm EDT 09/10/14 |
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| Judy Kaye has talked about her reluctance to agree to be Madeline Kahn's understudy. It was offered to her three times before a friend persuaded her that she really should take the job. She did not want to become known as a reliable understudy. She was afraid that would be her career. Moore is one of several very good performers who indeed have sort of made careers out of being reliable understudies. Someone who you know will be prepared and ready to go on even in previews and give at least a solid performance. Obviously, a number of people who were understudies did go on to become stars, apart from Shirley MacLaine. Some people do seem to actually like the job. | |
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