Fantastic (Old) Interview With Donna Murphy About FOLLIES And PASSION!

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 2/19/08 at 1:07am

For those of you who subscribe or buy "The Sondheim Review" this is old news, but I just came across this fascinating interview with Murphy. God, I love this woman! And God Stephen Sondheim is a genius, period. My favorite excerpts follow, though I LOVE the whole thing:

TSR: Was there a particular moment in Passion that was hardest to learn?
DM: "I Read." It was difficult to learn, only because I said to James and Steve that I have to act the SH*T out of this as well as sing the SH*T out of it, and it's impossible to do that in two days [for the final audition]. It's quite long, quite complex, and I said if I couldn't get lost in Fosca's world, I couldn't do it well. To really be lost, I really needed to know the song, so I postponed it.

(...)

There was also an interesting thing that happened with "Lucy and Jessie."

TSR: The ending?
DM: Exactly! The song was originally done without a vocal ending — it just went to dancing, never returning to the lyric "just fine." I didn't think a lot of about it. But as we rehearsed I thought it would be great to finish it vocally. Maybe I'd have felt differently if I was a dancer accustomed to all the time going into a big dancing thing and knowing that's what would send the song through the roof. But then I watched — more prep work — the [1985] concert version at Lincoln Center and noticed they added a little vocal thing at the end [for Lee Remick]. Now, it wasn't what we ultimately did, and it wasn't necessarily definitive, but I felt there was something satisfying about it. So I asked Casey [Nicholaw, the director] and Eric if we could do something like that, and they said they didn't think it would be a problem as Steve had obviously approved it before. But apparently Steve said no: It's a patter song, and he said you don't return to the same lyric in a patter song; it's a dance number.

TSR: So much for that idea.
DM: Initially the lyric ends with "I could tell you someone who would finally feel just fine." So we're doing the sitzprobe, and Steve says, "I have an idea for the end of the song. I'm watching you, and I think instead of singing, 'I could tell you someone who would finally feel …" it should be "I could tell you someone who would finally feel/I could tell you someone who would finally feel/I could you tell someone who would finally feel just fine." Someone who would finally feel. Doesn't matter what Phyllis feels so long as she feels it."
TSR: An acting moment as much as a singing moment.
DM: Wait! And then Steve said, "However, you're screwing up a lyric." He said, "It isn't 'I could tell you someone who could finally feel …' It's 'I could tell you someone who would finally feel just fine."

(...)

TSR: Really?
DM: Most of us changed into character shoes for "Who's That Woman?" because we wanted to wear our most glamorous four-and-a-half-inch heels with our gowns. But we couldn't dance in them, so most of us found moments to change. At the last performance, there was a lot of "Can I take your picture?" stuff backstage, and also I always looked at my script before going on. So this night, I forgot to change (...) At the end of the show, Steve said, "Nice shoe bit. Did the heel break?" I said no and told him what happened. Then I said, "But I got that lyric right," and Steve said, "Nope. But you were great," and gave me a hug. Then he said, "I should have given that note to you as an acting note. The reason Phyllis sings 'would,' not 'could,' is because she's sure of it — she knows it." And, as always, he was right.


For Full Interview

Updated On: 2/19/08 at 01:07 AM

[ljay889]

Posted: 2/19/08 at 1:12am

Wow. I always wondered about her changed ending of Lucy & Jessie. Though the way Donna is telling the story is confusing. Maybe it's too late.
Updated On: 2/19/08 at 01:12 AM

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 2/19/08 at 1:17am

Sorry, Ljay, it was my fault, I forgot to include the actual link. The excerpt I posted is just my truncated version, the full thing is on the link.

[ljay889]

Posted: 2/19/08 at 1:20am

It's still a bit confusing. Oh well. haha. I like the changed ending though.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 2/19/08 at 1:23am

I love the new ending. The way I see it is she didn't want to just end it with the dancing, she wanted to go back to the lyrics. She asked Casey and Eric if she could do something similar to what Lee Remick did in the Lincoln Center concert (which I actually thought they would do for the Encores! concert, didn't expect them to have the big dancing break), they came up with something, Sondheim didn't approve, then Sondheim came up with the ending we saw in the concert.

Posted: 2/19/08 at 7:09am

Donna Murphy, Donna Murphy
men have named you
youre so like the lady
with the mystic smile....

Posted: 2/19/08 at 2:41pm

BTW, did you see the photos of Donna @ CELEBRITY AUTOBIOGRAPHY?!?!

more gorgeous than ever!!!!
Photo Coverage: 'Celebrity Autobiography' with Broderick & Murphy

[broadwayfan7]

Posted: 2/19/08 at 2:52pm

Thanks for that interview!

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 2/19/08 at 3:07pm

Is it me or does Donna Murphy get more gorgeous every day???
Thanks for those pictures, Norn!
I looooved the interview, it's neat to hear her talk about FOLLIES and share some PASSION trivia as well.

[B3TA07]

Posted: 2/19/08 at 3:17pm

HAH, I love the quip about the Sunset Blvd. Musical:

"Paul Gemignani said, "It's getting a little Norma Desmond, Steve." And Steve made this very dramatic Norma Desmond face and said, "What's wrong with that? Somebody's got to do it right.""

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 2/19/08 at 3:21pm

I love that part too! But I doubt it has anything to do with the SUNSET BLVD. musical since the show didn't open on Broadway till '95, and this incident probably happened in '93.

[thinggoes]

Posted: 2/19/08 at 4:03pm

As I wasn't able to see Encore's production, could someone tell me a bit of what happened at the end of "Lucy and Jessie"? I'm trying to piece it from the interview but it seems a bit rambling at best. Thanks guys!

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 2/19/08 at 4:10pm

She says it in the interview. She performed the whole song, then she danced with the chorus during the dance break, and at the end she sang: "Lucy wants to be classy, Jessie wants to be classy... if Lucy and Jessie could only combine...I could tell you someone who could finally feel/I could tell you someone who could finally FEEL (she stressed the word "feel")/I could tell you someone who could finally feel just....FINE!" *Cue showstopping cheering and clapping*

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/19/08 at 4:29pm

I think part of the confusion in the interview has to do with the part about him correcting her saying "could" instead of "would."

As someone who is such a stickler for his own lyrics, I was really surprised to hear the chorus sing "sweeter than apple pie" as opposed to the correct "sweller than apple pie." Updated On: 2/19/08 at 04:29 PM

[thinggoes]

Posted: 2/19/08 at 4:30pm

gotcha. I figured that's what happened but I just needed the clarification. Thanks!

[mmousefan]

Posted: 2/19/08 at 5:51pm

this is great, does anyone have a link to the Victoria Clark interview around the same time (FOLLIES at Encores!)....maybe it was on Playbill Online?!?!?!

edit: I called Victoria Johnson instead of Clark at first, don't know why....

Updated On: 2/19/08 at 05:51 PM