A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC'S reopening tonight...(review updates here) — Page 19

Actually, Bergman's film was loosely based on "Midsummer." He's right.

I've seen the film many times and have read much on it (and Bergman in general) and have never heard a connection made between the two. Aside from the fact that both are set in the summer and are about relationships, they have nothing in common.

---

Maybe you need to brush up on your Shakespeare. The parallels were very clear to me seeing it for the first time last month. Even the NYC Ballet's version with no words would call up story of mis-matched couples, the drama and apparent conflict in the human world and the world of the fairies, the very human and sometimes silly comedy of people accidentally in love with the wrong person, the apparent intervention of the "gods" to make things come right--all on a summer's eve when the moon is out and the gods are smiling on the fools below. A comedy which reveals the darker sides of love. Don't you love farce??

Just because no one ever wrote about it in anything you read, doesn't mean its not there. Bergman modernized and updated the story and like the ALNM makes it more "realistic" and I think more profound --at least to the middle aged adults among us. My first words on exit were about how "Shakespearian" I found it. But then this is a former English major talking.

Updated On: 8/11/10 at 11:21 PM

^ Were there any understudies on?

Hunter wasn't out tonight.

---

Thanks, Jerby.
I misread the inserts.

Once again, for everyone who saw the first cast: I highly recommend you pay a return visit. You'll love what you see!

---

Updated On: 8/12/10 at 09:19 AM

Sounds like this cellphone situation would have been the perfect time to pull a LuPWN

---

No. That is the actual commercial. The original commercial was only 15 seconds too, and it was seen on TV.

I was at the show last night. I thought it was absolutely wonderful. This show is in my top 3 favorites for sure, and I really loved this production of it, despite the negative buzz it previously had. Based simply on the opinions I have read on here, the new leads must have elevated the cast, as this company was about as pitch-perfect as I could imagine for this show.
First, as previously stated above, Betsy Morgan was on as the Countess. Other understudies were Karen Murphy covering Mrs. Segstrom for Morgan and Erin Stewart covering Mrs. Nordstrom for Jayne Paterson.
The cast was, to me, exemplary. Even Herdlicka and Mallory seemed very on tonight, and only cartoony when it served to get a laugh. Mallory was especially funny tonight.
The chorus was phenomenal sounding, and the understudies fit with the rest seemlessly. Lazar was hilarious as the Count, and Hanson captured Fredrik perfectly. Larkin was hysterical tonight, and got a tremendous amount of applause for her Miller's Son.
Betsy Morgan was, to my ears, identical in voice to Erin Davie. In fact, if I hadn't been told Davie was out, I would've spent the whole show thinking that Erin Davie looked a bit unlike herself at that performance. To that end, I'm not sure if Davie has been getting closer to this, but Morgan's performance was 100% biting wit. She had a bit of trouble landing the jokes at first (though I thought they were excellently delivered), but then the audience caught up with her and she later brought down the house with her Act 2 humor. She was absolutely stunning in the role and in Everyday a Little Death (which I'm SO glad is back to it's rightful tempo).
Stritch and Peters had the audience in the palm of their hand from the moment they stepped onstage. I have never seen a show with so much applause after lines. The show was stopped countless times while people applauded during scenes. Stritch in particular only had to turn her head sideways to get a laugh. As far as Stritch's lines went, she was nearly perfect. There were a few moments when she took some rather long pauses, but they really appeared to be deliberate. She did drop the line right before the "squatting like Bohemians" one, but otherwise, she had me hanging on every word she said. Peters embodies this role beautifully, and her Clowns is one of the most devastatingly beautiful things I have ever seen in a theatre.
I'm not 100% familiar with the script, but I also think that Hanson may have flubbed a line (though it might have totally been my imagination). He started to say the line about his wife “to boast and complain” in the dialogue before the music starts, and then said something to the effect of “oh hell, why am I talking like such a lawyer?”. Maybe someone on here could tell me if this is in the script or if it was improvised.
Everyone came to the stagedoor except Mallory and Stritch. Everyone was very gracious, especially Peters, who waited while she signed my playbill so I could get a picture with her.
And finally, I witnessed a very interesting thing while waiting at the stagedoor. As I waited for Bernadette to make her way over to where I was standing, I saw a group of people usher an older man over to right across from where I was standing. The man stopped directly in front of me across the railing. I got a good look at him and realized that it was Arthur Laurents. After Bernadette signed for me and for the rest of my section, she and Laurents walked away down 48th street with their arms around each other. I couldn’t believe what I had just witnessed. A miraculous end to a wonderful evening!

---

^ I doubt it. Laurents and Peters have maintained a surprisingly healthy friendship throughout the years. I doubt he's scheming to replace LuPone with Peters....but again you never know with him.

He hasn't been that critical. According to his book "Mainly on directing", he did pick her to play the part based on Bernadette's concert performance of "Some people", and thought that she was good towards the end of the run. His main criticism was of Sam Mendes, who, he says over and over and over and over again, "does not have the musical in his bones", and, if I remember correctly "did a terrible disservice to Bernadette and the play".

---

Just to be clear I was totally kidding :P.

---

Well, I don't see A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC/SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT being particularly based on A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, except only in a very very general way as a romantic comedy of mismatched couples. There'd need to be a much closer similarity in plot for it to make much sense.

Anyway. I saw the revival with Peters and Stritch, and was pleasantly suprised. Even the ghastly Trevor Nunn cannot dim the genius of these two artists. I'd give a lot to have been around when Peters and Stritch reminded (or probably just plain informed) Trevor Nunn that the show is a MUSICAL COMEDY, not the funeral procession he seems to have envisioned. Peters, for me, seems to overdo the "farce" elements in Act Two, but any complaints I had were completely obliterated by her magnificent performance of "Send In The Clowns," which I'll always treasure as being one of the highpoints of my life as a theatregoer.

As for Elaine Stritch, well. She's magical, funny and heart-breaking. The woman gets laughs out of thin air, simply by saying "No," at one point. I'll say it: she humanizes Mme Armfeldt in ways that Angela Lansbury never did. Her palpable sadness and regret as expressed in "Liaisons" were deeply moving, unlike Lansbury's lighter, less committed version.

The rest of the cast was uneven. Aaron Lazar started well but just plain faded from view in the second act, finally just plain evaporating for good when Stritch put him in his place during the dinner scene (her line to the effect "whoever you are, given the level of the conversation lately, what makes you think I was paying attention?" was delivered as a bare-faced putdown). We saw an understudy for Charlotte, who was fine. Hunter Herdlicka was adequate as Henrik, a sketchily written part.

Ramona Mallory has improved a good deal as Anne, but she remains the show's biggest problem. For some reason, she has elected or has been directed to play Anne Egerman unsympathetically, and it just throws the entire play off balance. Simply put, there is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON WHY ANYONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD DUMP DESIREE ARMFELDT TO STAY WITH THIS IGNORANT ILL-MANNERED SPOILED LITTLE BITCH. Alexander Hanson makes Fredrick Egerman's annoyance with his frigid child bride most palpable, without ever once making me believe that he views his marriage to Anne as being anything but a colossal mistake. He'd throw himself at Desiree's feet and beg for rescue, which of course means that the show's big song would have no reason for being. So this portrayal of Anne just makes no sense, to me at least.

---

For discussion purposes, why is this show not packing them in?


Because Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch do not sell tickets like Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury. It's sad, but true.