London's 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
London's 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
MamasDoin'Fine
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/28/08
#1London's 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/23/09 at 1:49pm
Even before its original Menier run has closed and its West End Transfer opens, the shows London producers and New York counterparts are in advanced talks for the production to open on Broadway before the end of 2009.
It has a short London run opening in March that is expected to run until September.
Negotiations are in full swing with Vanessa Redgrave and daughter Natasha to headline the New York production.
Updated On: 2/23/09 at 01:49 PM
#2re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/23/09 at 1:51pmOh God, no. With the exception of the actress who played Madame Armfeldt, her name escapes me, this was a completely humorless production. Please let it fall through and let a proper production come to fruition.
"Sing the words, Patti!!!!" Stephen Sondheim to Patti LuPone.
#2re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/23/09 at 6:05pm
know nothing about the London production, but I have a question and comment. Why does it have to go through London 1st? I mean, come on American producers! can't they just produce it now and have it ready without it being a production from London?
..and will that mean it will be the London Cast Recording that we get?...like the lousy London cast recording of Sunday in the Park with George?...I'm just saying,,,
#3re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/23/09 at 6:26pmI don't get it. How can this happen if we have a roundabout production next season?
"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
#4re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/23/09 at 7:02pmI was hoping for something more along the lines of Roundabout's reading...
SueleenGay
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/9/03
#5re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/23/09 at 9:08pm
How could it be possible to have a "humorless" production.
The lyrics could be read on a bare stage by the contestants on the Biggest Loser and it would still be funny.
PEACE.
wonkit
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/30/08
#6re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/23/09 at 9:22pmRoundabout has not announced that it is having a production of this next season.
#7re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/23/09 at 9:36pmWas Merrily rumored or am I "losing my mind?"
I'll have them clawing at eachother, like drag queens at a wig sale"
WishingOnlyWounds2
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/25/08
#8re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/23/09 at 9:47pmIsn't there an upcoming production that's going to premiere in Westchester over the summer?
2008: Feb. 18- Rent, Feb. 19- Curtains, April 18- Xanadu, April 22- Wicked, April 26- Legally Blonde, May 31- Wicked, June 13- The Little Mermaid, June 28- Wicked and Young Frankenstein, July 2- The Little Mermaid, July 6- A Chorus Line and Legally Blonde, August 16- Xanadu, September 13- Legally Blonde and 13, September 28- Xanadu and Spring Awakening, Oct. 12-GYPSY and [title of show], Oct. 19- Hairspray & Legally Blonde, Nov. 9- Wicked and 13, Dec. 14-13, Dec. 26- Billy Elliot, 2009: Jan 1- Shrek, Jan 2- 13 and Wicked, Jan 4- 13, Feb 17- In The Heights, Feb 19- Billy Elliot, Feb 22- Sweeney Todd (tour), March 28- Mary Poppins, April 4- Mamma Mia!, April 15- Jersey Boys (on tour), April 25- next to normal & 9 to 5
May 1- Billy Elliot, May 3- Spelling Bee (tour), May 8- Chicago, May 21- Wicked, June 6- Everyday Rapture, June 23- The Wiz, June 25- Hair July 15- Shrek, August 9- Wicked, September 7- Rock of Ages, October 11- Next To Normal, October 23- The Marvelous Wonderettes, November 7- Ragtime November 29- Dreamgirls, December 25- Billy Elliot, December 30- Finian's Rainbow, 2010: January 9- Bye Bye Birdie, January 16- Memphis February 17- The Phantom of The Opera, February 18- God of Carnage, March 7- Billy Elliot, March 31- American Idiot
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#9re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/23/09 at 10:30pmI don't want to see Natasha butcher Desiree. Can't they find someone else?
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
Plum
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/4/04
#10re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/23/09 at 10:43pmI was over the moon when Emma Thompson was rumored as Desiree. How amazing (and unlikely) would that be?
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#11re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/23/09 at 10:48pmDidn't Sondheim mentionhat Lapine was working on merrily for Roundabout?
#12re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/23/09 at 11:21pm
Sondheim confirmed in Philly on Satrday that MERRILY will be happening next Spring.
But there's rumors that NIGHT MUSIC won't be with Roundabout.
#13re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/23/09 at 11:29pmSueleenGay- Believe me, it can be done. Act 2 was rather enjoyable, much thanks to Madame Armfeldt and Trevor Nunn finally realizing he was directing a COMEDY, but Act 1 got no laughs. None.
"Sing the words, Patti!!!!" Stephen Sondheim to Patti LuPone.
#14re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/23/09 at 11:33pmIt will be tragic if they transfer this with the same London orchestrations. They need to use the Tunick orchestrations, or at least a reduction. We do not need another SUNDAY.
Plum
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/4/04
#15re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/23/09 at 11:43pm
Agreed. I loved Sunday in the Menier and the teeny orchestrations were perfectly justified there because it's a teeny space, but it really galled me that they used the exact same orchestrations on Broadway. Studio 54 is not a freaking black box theater, so the tiny orchestra just made the producers look like cheap bastards. And if anything, the effect of a reduced orchestrations would be even worse on A Little Night Music's more classical, lush score.
Of course, now it's all going to be done with two violins and a piccolo, isn't it? 
#16re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/23/09 at 11:47pmI kind of hope Sondheim will step in this time and have the orchestrations beefed up. The score needs the Tunick orchestrations. The London revival sounds like a cheap imitation of Tunick.
Plum
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/4/04
#17re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/23/09 at 11:53pmFrom my understanding, with the Sunday orchestrations, Sondheim figured that the Roundabout was a non-profit so they couldn't afford more musicians, and the Roundabout people were like, "Oh, we totally could have afforded it but Sondheim didn't say anything", which is so freaking disingenuous it makes me a bit mad to this day. It could happen the exact same way this time.
#18re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/23/09 at 11:54pmI completely agree, but I would think Sondheim will be smarter this time around. And since it looks like this revival will not be Roundabout, they should be able to afford more musicians.
#19re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/23/09 at 11:58pmWickedfan and I must have seen two different productions, because when I saw this show last month, it was deliciously witty and sophisticated (and was enthusiastically received by the audience the night I saw it). Broadway would be lucky to have it. I have little intrest in seeing Natasha Richardson failing to sing the score, though. Hannah Waddington was divine as someone who could both sing and act the score AND be age-appropriate.
#20re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/24/09 at 12:00amHannah is NOT age-appropriate for the role. Natasha is the perfect age.
#21re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/24/09 at 12:26amHannah is the same age as Eva Dahlbeck was when Smiles of a Summer Night came out. Women got old at a much different age back in the day. Richardson would be far more age appropriate than most of the actresses who tend to get cast, but I have no interest in hearing her butcher the score.
#22re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/24/09 at 12:38amBUT this is the musical version of Desiree. The line "losing my timing this late in my career" makes zero sense with an actress who is in her mid 30's
#23re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/24/09 at 12:42am
Compare Hannah to Glynis Johns not Eva Dahlbeck. Though A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC is based on SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT, Sondheim and Wheeler clearly meant for an older actress to play the role, it's in the book, it's in the score. Richardson is the perfect age for the part and I'd be delighted to see her interpret the role on Broadway, Hannah is simply too young and just not really enough of a name to open a revival of this magnitude on Broadway.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
theatreguy
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/31/03
#24re: London 'A Little Night Music' For Broadway.
Posted: 2/24/09 at 12:54am
But in the time the show is set, wouldn't a woman nearing 40 be considered "late in [her] career"?
I thought the younger casting in the London production worked very well - especially in the case of Charlotte. How does it make sense that Anne is 18 and went to school with Charlotte's sister, and then most productions cast Charlotte as 45?
