Profile for Mellony

Georgeanddot2 said: "I've always believed that Norma was cast aside during the transition to talking pictures, as actually a fairly young woman. As an artist, she's remained frozen in time all these years and the things that worked for her as a young woman, no longer work for her in her middle-age. She lacks self awareness and has descended into madness while living in her secluded mansion."

In the film/original stage show, Norma was around 50 years old in 19

itsahopi said: “Traditionally I see Norma as driven mad by aging out. The revival featured a Norma whose mental health issues push her out and metastasize in isolation."

That’s not unique to this revival, though? Norma is always pushed out of the industry partially due to her mental health. Hence her saying “with one look, they’ll forgive the past” or DeMille saying “beautiful and strong, before it all went wrong”. The implication

Like I said, not trying to single anyone out. It just feels like there’s a trend here of people hitting back at criticisms of this production by gleefully trashing the original. I had a mixed opinion of this version to begin with, but my opinion has just soured more with how dismissive the Jamie Lloyd fans are being of any production or actress that came before Nicole.

It reminds me of all the hype around the current Cabaret revival a while ago, where people were trashi

I don't mean to single you out, Chernjam, since your comment is thoughtful, but I'm honestly a little disheartened by the general trend in this thread of praising this production by putting down the original. The group of people here repeatedly commenting about this production can't just say how much they love it. They need to emphasize how bad the original was in comparison. How the writing is awful. How they felt no emotional connection to the characters. How Nicole is the best

dan94 said: "I don't want to get into it much, things have descended rapidly and I don't want to give too much fodder for another 5 back to back postings."

I already said more than my fair share in the other thread, so I've been staying out of this, but thank you for bringing this up. So many people have been making bad faith arguments about why this production is the most awful thing ever, and so others are doubling down and saying it's the most reve

BJR said: "When the film was made, none of these issues (misogyny, ageism, mental health) were popular concepts.”

Those topics were in their infancy, but I think Billy Wilder deserves a bit more credit. Would he have written about Betty being pressured into a nose job or Norma undergoing arduous beauty treatments if he wasn’t interested in how the industry specifically impacted women? And he goes out of his way to suggest Norma is receiving some form of p

I always interpreted Norma wanting to play a 16-year-old as a delusional desire to return to some form of innocence. She started working at 16, and that's when she met Max and he started grooming her to be a star and his wife. It was a traumatic industry for young women to work in: Clara Bow ended up having a mental break and was diagnosed with schizophrenia, Judy Garland was fed pills from a young age, and many more stories. Others have rightfully pointed out that Norma was ousted due to

cmorrow said: "I don't know for certain when the practice of creating B-roll footage began, but I would guess it was in the 1970s, when producers started airing TV commercials for their shows. TOFT holds a TV commercial for the original production of A Little Night Music, first broadcast in 1974, but there is no video footage in it, just still photos."

Oh that’s cool to know about the ALNM commercial. I know the ‘79 Evita ad has video of Mandy and Pat

VintageSnarker said: "In terms of mental health, I don't think it quite finds its footing in negotiating Norma as both emotionally fragile and manipulative."

I loved the way Nicole played the scene between Norma and DeMille. That was the most impactful I've ever seen that scene be, and it threaded the needle perfectly between her ambition and her fear and fragility. I just wish more of that energy was brought to her scenes with Joe,

Norma is groomed by a man who is essentially her boss from the time she’s 16 (and maybe statutorily raped depending when her relationship with Max started). And now that man lives with her and has spent years gaslighting her into thinking she’s still famous. And who knows how else she’s been abused by the industry, you can read plenty of horror stories. And the industry responded by kicking her out as soon as she became too difficult and too old. So, maybe “emotio

ColorTheHours048 said: "I think the real divide here is between audience members who require some level of literalism in their theatre, and ones who are on board with experimentation and non-literalism.”

FWIW, Jamie Lloyd’s Evita was one of my favorite productions of Evita I’ve ever seen. Another show with a largely unlikeable protagonist, but I think his modern style made the character feel more immediate and easier to connect with. She certainly wa

SonofRobbieJ said: "She may be a pitiable figure, but she's not to be pitied. She is a vampire, sucking the blood out of Gillis (in this case, his writing talent) and when he tries to break the spell, she destroys him."

Yeah, I agree Jamie Lloyd has shifted Norma's characterization back to a modernized version of her movie characterization. But I don't know that that works for the musical? The Norma we see in the movie is not a character that sings. She w

PipingHotPiccolo said: "Is she a monster when her fragility leads her to self harm?"

Sorry to keep posting, but yes this really stuck out to me. Nicole plays Norma's panic attacks and suicide attempt with no gravity to them. Her panic attack after Joe finishes the script and says he's moving out was played for laughs with how quickly Norma snaps out of it. Yes, Norma is manipulative, but her suicide attempt always seemed like a genuine act of desperation and

ColorTheHours048 said: "I don’t think the monster needs to be fully human to connect with them. The woman murders a man in cold blood. She’s not as sympathetic as some seem to want her to be."

Totally, I think it’s a matter of preference, and not a right or wrong choice.

I just wanted to point out that I’m not going off of what I hypothetically “want” Norma to be, but the actual productions I’ve seen in th