A Little Night Music- Bernadette Peters
A Little Night Music- Bernadette Peters
#1A Little Night Music- Bernadette Peters
Posted: 4/17/21 at 11:01am
Am I having a senior moment? I thought a limited edition CD sampler of Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch was released, but I can't find a trace of it now.
Was it ever released? Was it for press only? Anyone... remember.... ?
#2A Little Night Music- Bernadette Peters
Posted: 4/17/21 at 11:04am
I don't think they did, I never heard of it. The only kind of replacement CD sampler I can think of is Betty Buckley in Sunset Boulevard and Laura Benanti in My Fair Lady. It's a realy pity, especially since Bernadette has never recorded Send in the Clowns in any album.
Updated On: 4/17/21 at 11:04 AM
#3A Little Night Music- Bernadette Peters
Posted: 4/17/21 at 11:18am
It was never recorded or released - there were rumours that it was going to happen but it never did. Such a shame because her "Send in the Clowns" is among the best work she has ever done in my opinion - and the best performance in the show I have ever heard or seen (of course, everyone knows I am bias).
I wish the clip on the YouTube channel was the full one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNwnrA8EshM
Of course, there are Bootleg clips of the full thing on YouTube.
Cannot agree more with the NYtimes review.
"for theater lovers there can be no greater current pleasure than to witness Bernadette Peters perform the show’s signature number, “Send In the Clowns,” with an emotional transparency and musical delicacy that turns this celebrated song into an occasion of transporting artistry. I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced with such palpable force or such prominent goose bumps the sense of being present at an indelible moment in the history of musical theater."
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwin36eLy4XwAhWlThUIHa_nCvwQFjAAegQIBBAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2010%2F08%2F02%2Ftheater%2F02night.html&usg=AOvVaw0VTU08l_hHrEzXHvgvaQtD
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
Updated On: 4/17/21 at 11:18 AM
bear88
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/26/16
#4A Little Night Music- Bernadette Peters
Posted: 4/17/21 at 1:01pm
Peters has two performances that are my favorite versions of a famous Sondheim song and which aren't so easy to find. One is "Losing My Mind," from Follies, which at least has a cast recording. The other, "Send in the Clowns" from A Little Night Music, doesn't and so I'm stuck with that YouTube video.
It was the first time I really felt I 'got' the song, decades after I first heard it. And it's a mesmerizing performance, definitely one of those I wish I could have seen live.
#5A Little Night Music- Bernadette Peters
Posted: 4/17/21 at 9:53pmNo there never was one. I wanted to buy one at the theater after the show, but they didn’t record one. I’m so lucky to see her and Stritch together.
AEA AGMA SM
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/13/09
#6A Little Night Music- Bernadette Peters
Posted: 4/17/21 at 11:17pmimeldasturn said: "I don't think they did, I never heard of it. The only kind of replacement CD sampler I can think of is Betty Buckley in Sunset Boulevard and Laura Benanti in My Fair Lady. It's a realy pity, especially since Bernadette has never recorded Send in the Clowns in any album."
A sampler was also done for Nick Jonas when he took over for Daniel Radcliffe in How to Succeed. Brooke Shields also got to record two of her replacement roles when she took over for Rosie O'Donnell in Grease and Donna Murphy in Wonderful Town.
Additionally an entirely new recording was produced when Vanessa Williams joined Kiss of the Spider Woman.
#7A Little Night Music- Bernadette Peters
Posted: 4/19/21 at 3:36pm
Thank you all for sharing your knowledge. Clearly I am going senile because I was sure I had seen one advertized.
What a pity- Bernadette's 'Send in the Clown's' was indeed definitive- and clearly better than the much-praised Dench version.
#8A Little Night Music- Bernadette Peters
Posted: 4/19/21 at 8:49pmPetula Clark also got a Sunset sampler
#9A Little Night Music- Bernadette Peters
Posted: 4/21/21 at 3:02pm
devonian.t said: "Thank you all for sharing your knowledge. Clearly I am going senile because I was sure I had seen one advertized.
What a pity- Bernadette's 'Send in the Clown's' was indeed definitive- and clearly better than the much-praised Denchversion."
Agreed. Not to take anything away from Dench - a moving and well-acted performance. But musically the texture of Bernadette Peters' voice to my ears and the emotion behind it is like painting the most intricate, beautiful watercolour canvas that coupled with the right subject - mostly Stephen Sondheim's music - is really really hard to top. Especially in vulnerable moments such as "Send in the Clowns", or the last verse of "In Buddy's Eyes".
I must admit I don't think everyone hears the same beauty as I do in her voice, but I suspect Sondheim does since as Forbidden Broadway parodied she gets cast in all his shows 'whether she is right for the part or not', lol.
And it was Sondheim himself that called her to replace Catherine Zeta-Jones. From the Nytimes:
“Over the years people kept saying this would be a good part for me, but I never gave it much thought, because I didn’t know the show that well,” she said. She began to be more interested after seeing Ms. Zeta-Jones in the part, but it was Mr. Sondheim himself who thought of casting her, she said, and she signed on enthusiastically, especially after she heard that Elaine Stritch, replacing Angela Lansbury as Madame Armfeldt, would be part of the package."
And according to many interviews with all the main ladies associated with Sondheim: e.g. Patti, Bernadette, Lansbury - Sondheim is a very heavy handed director when it comes to performing his music, so you can bet Bernadette's performance is not just the work of Bernadette but of Sondheim himself.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
Updated On: 4/21/21 at 03:02 PM
