Caught A Little Night Music last week... Wasn't gonna see it... But, a friend of a cast member (OK, one of the stars!) gave me a free ticket to join her...
I'd seen an original production way back in the day... Can't recall if I saw it on Broadway or when it toured in Baltimore or Washington... I remember seeing Hermione Gingold... But beyond that... Who knows? (See Wikipedia entry on A Little Night Music)
I was completely unimpressed as a twenty something self-involved youth... French Farce has never been my forte... I couldn't see a role in there for me. (What? No twenty-something colorful ventriloquists?) And so, it's quite likely that I had bolted at intermission... That was often my wont when I was bored to tears by things I didn't understand...
OMG...
First thing: This fabulous brilliant Stephen Sondheim score is completely AMAZING! The Hugh Wheeler book is lean and mean in a tastefully clever and perfectly uppity way...
And the cast? Well: Sublime...!
Bernadette Peters, in her first ever replacement role, was a terrific Desiree'. She comes across on stage easily twenty years less her real age (1948 sez Wikipedia! Ouch!)... Her Send in the Clowns was entrancing and moving. My date was in tears...
Elaine Stritch? She's a phenom and I'm glad I saw her in this. I enjoyed her immensely... That being said??? Couldn't she at least have attempted to become a European great lady from a certain time period?... Instead of a true Madame Armfeldt she was her typically acerbic American 2010 "Elaine Stritch: At Liberty" title role... In a wheelchair this time. We got a begrudged Liasons... And to great comedic effect, nonetheless... But instead of a, aristrocratic Euro-Dame, we get a mouthy American Broad.
My true hunch is that the Director, Trevor Nunn, was afraid of her! Ha!
Elaine May, went to see Stritch backstage the other night and told her "You landed every pause". Stritchy roared with delight. Yes, she paused a lot... She milked every line of dialogue and every lyric with impeccable comedic timing... But ... She's all wrong... She's delightfully all wrong ... So go see her! LOL
The rest of the cast?... Superb!!!
It seemed somewhat obvious that they were all cast as a better match to the original Broadway cast of the two lead women... less so for this particular cast... For example, one of the paramours seemed far fetched in his swash-buckling attraction to this particular Desiree'... While I can well imagine he was a perfect fit for Catherine Zeta-Jones...
But that's a quibble...
See this show... It's a Stephen Sondheim classic with this legendary cast (Both uniquely made into stars by other Sondheim works!)...
And you'll always be able to say... "Oh, I saw that with them!"
3 comments:
Last year, we saw a production in The OC starring Stephanie Zimbalist. She's not a great actress, but I think she was perfect for the part, which to me has always someone who seemed to be on the last legs of her career, her voice and acting not as grand as they once were.
And it's probably one of my favorite Sondheim scores.
God Bless Elaine May!
It's possible that Stritch's "pauses" were the result of the lines being prompted into her ear from off stage...an old trick that works sometimes.
Yes, she was wrong in the role, but delightful anyway.
I am so glad you were sent some clowns! And it was good!
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