"A Little Night Music" revival ending question (SPOILER ALERT)

[roquat]

Posted: 4/24/10 at 12:54pm

SPOILER*****

In the "Night Music" revival, how is Madame Armfeldt's death staged, and does Angela Lansbury handle the moment well? I ask because this particular moment is so quick and is usually handled so awkwardly--I have yet to see a production where it is made clear she's dead (not just fallen asleep again.) The last time I saw the show (in Baltimore) was painful; Polly Bergen indicated Armfeldt's death by pressing both hands to her heart, twitching several times, and falling heavily to one side (like someone dying in a high-school play); there were giggles in the audience.

[wickedfan]

Posted: 4/24/10 at 12:57pm

She's in her wheelchair center stage playing solitaire, she then twitches a bit, and collapses with the cards falling on stage. Everyone then waltzes around her. Many think she does it well, I don't.

[bobert5353]

Posted: 4/24/10 at 12:59pm

I thought her death was a joke. She throws down the cards and then keels over.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/24/10 at 1:00pm

Ok, I'm glad someone else thought it was a little overdone also. I've seen the show 4 times now and each time she almost tosses the cards down on the stage as if to say "THIS GAME SUCKS!" than drops her head.

[ljay889]

Posted: 4/24/10 at 1:54pm

I love how the death is handled in this production. It is subtle yet heartbreaking. When Angela is in, the audience usually claps when it happens, it is kind of odd but I think they get the fact that she died.
The original out of town tryout made it too obvious that she died. I like how the scene is written now.
Updated On: 4/24/10 at 01:54 PM

[legally_popular]

Posted: 4/24/10 at 2:09pm

To be honest, I couldn't tell if she died or fell asleep. I saw Karen Murphy and am curious about how Angela does it.

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 4/24/10 at 2:11pm

This is definetly Nunn's doing. I nearly screamed at the stage (but why punish the actors for doing as directed). It was the most bothersome of Nunn's choices.

The original stage direction had her wig fall off and it, in every other production I've seen, has always been obvious that she dies.

I found Nunn's treatment of that final moment careless and anti-climactic in an evening full of puzzling choices that often fought with the text.

Updated On: 4/24/10 at 02:11 PM

[dshnookie]

Posted: 4/24/10 at 2:43pm

Having seen the production a few weeks ago, and with no previous knowledge of the music or story, I did not question that she had passed away.

Another audience member nearby even muttered "I knew she was going to die."

I found it pretty obvious.

With respect to the dropping of the cards, at least the night I saw it - she merely laid her hand down by her lap and the cards fell out onto the floor - there was no indication of any forceful release.

[ljay889]

Posted: 4/24/10 at 3:44pm

I've seen the show 5x now, Angela 4x. Angela has not forcefully flung the cards across the stage since previews. I love the moment.
I really don't get what is wrong with it? People will do and say anything to bash this production nonstop. But I'll stop now, I have money in this production! Hehehehe.

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 4/24/10 at 4:05pm

We're allowed to state our negative opinions on shows here, right? I think people are just as annoyed at the constant defending of this production towards anyone who hates it. YOu're welcome to like it but I find it hard to believe that you can't see why some would dislike many of Nunn's choices. This goes, for me at least, beyond being a purist (which I don't consider myself). I just don't think Nunn's choices fit the material.

[wickedfan]

Posted: 4/24/10 at 4:07pm

I guess it's just very hard to believe, ljay, that many of us didn't LIKE the production. At all. For me, that included Lansbury. I'm glad that YOU enjoyed it. I'm glad that you've been exposed to A Little Night Music, as it is a fantastic musical. Many of us, though, really disliked it. I wanted to like it. I wished it was going to be better than it was at Menier. I thought that it ended up being worse.

[ljay889]

Posted: 4/24/10 at 5:09pm

I've never suggested people couldn't have negative opinions about this show. I have sone issues with it myself, and previous posts of mine will reveal that.
But when people are down right cruel about it (I'm not saying anyone in this thread is) it just takes the joy out of things.
So no more being cruel! We are trying to recoup, and need to keep those steady sales.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 4/24/10 at 5:11pm

I never saw Angela, but thought it worked terrifically well in the London incarnation of this production.

[theminutepast]

Posted: 4/24/10 at 5:53pm

When we saw the production, we questioned whether she had fallen asleep or died. The moment of death is unclear, because she looks as if she fell asleep. Additionally, the moment when everyone dances around her dead body seemed so bizarre to us that we thought it would make more sense if she were asleep. There just wasn't any time in which another character recognized that Mdme. Armfeldt had passed.

[dshnookie]

Posted: 4/24/10 at 6:04pm

Is there some significance as to why everyone wears black in the opening and more notably the closing waltz scene - perhaps dressed for a funeral/wake?

Madame Armfeldt's character spoke lines regarding her death/wake/funeral a couple of times in the musical.

I mean no disrespect to anyone who thinks her death is unclear, and perhaps it's better done in previous productions - but yes she dies. I dont think we need to be knocked over the head with it.

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/24/10 at 6:11pm

I think she should convulse and fall out of her wheelchair gasping before going limp. Then Fredrika can shout, "She's DAID!!!" as the rest of the cast, wearing black veils and carrying white lilies, waltzes around her in tears.

... and still people would ask, "Did she just die?"


Honestly, I have always thought the moment relies more on Fredrika's reaction when Mme. Armfeldt slumps in the chair. We should see the moment of realization on her face. Not tears, just an understanding of what has happened to her grandmother.

Updated On: 4/24/10 at 06:11 PM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/24/10 at 9:38pm

Do you think it matters if people think she's dead or merely asleep?

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 4/24/10 at 10:22pm

Yes, cause then there isn't the third smile. Guess that'd be, what, 2 smiles and a smirk?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/24/10 at 11:10pm

Usually after a production of Night Music, I wish I was dead, but realize I had just been asleep.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/24/10 at 11:35pm

Fredrika should put a mirror under her nose, see that she's dead, say "looks like the third smile was for me...Bitch", than roll the chair off the stage. As the lights go down, her mother calls her name, she pulls a knife out of her pocket and quietly says "Coming, Mother" as she moves slowly into the darkness.

Blackout.

[dshnookie]

Posted: 4/24/10 at 11:51pm

matricide - just what shows need more of these days.

[aasjb4ever]

Posted: 4/25/10 at 2:51pm

Jordan has just proved to be my best friend

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 4/25/10 at 8:21pm

Jordan wins.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 4/25/10 at 8:30pm

I've never liked that they kill off Mme Armfeldt. It feels like a forced bit of phony profundity that has nothing to do with what has gone before. That said, it wasn't so much Ms. Lansbury's portrayal of the passing that was annoying as the appearance of the blue-lit waltzing couples that recalled the dancing ghosts in Disney's Haunted Mansion.

[EarthLuau]

Posted: 5/14/10 at 7:52am

This is the first production of ALNM I watched and I don't know the story. But when my friends and I saw it, it did look pretty obvious that she had died. (We kinda saw the bit of difference of Angela's acting in the death scene vs when she dozed off during dinner in the country)