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.
Give me claws and a hunch, just away from this bunch.
Updated On: 4/21/21 at 03:02 PM
