#26
Posted: 6/25/20 at 1:34pm
Jan Maxwell would have been brilliant...like anything she ever did. Marin Mazzie would have been great. But, I do love Kate Winslet.
Dreamcast: Desiree Armfeldt — Page 2
#27
Posted: 6/25/20 at 2:14pm
fashionguru_23 said: "Marin Mazzie would have been great."
Btw, there's an audio clip of Marin singing Send in the Clowns in Prague in 2016: https://through-my-memoirs.tumblr.com/post/175752162770/marin-mazzie-sings-send-in-the-clowns-from-a
Updated On: 6/25/20 at 02:14 PM
#29
Posted: 6/25/20 at 9:09pm
AC126748 said: "For years, there were rumors that Desiree would be Emma Thompson's return to the stage. She's a bit old for the part now, but when she was the right age, she would have been perfect. She has the humor and the vulnerability needed for the part."
She's perfect for that part. Perfect.
I don't think Desiree's age is so much the problem (Judi Dench was 61 and Bernadette was 62)...it's Fredrik. Especially nowadays, a 60-year-old man married to an 18-year-old woman is really cringey.
#30
Posted: 6/25/20 at 9:47pm
ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "I don't think Desiree's age is so much the problem (Judi Dench was 61 and Bernadette was 62)...it's Fredrik. Especially nowadays, a 60-year-old man married to an18-year-old woman is really cringey."
Well at least it's an important part of the plot that Fredrik has NOT slept with Anne and is respecting her bodily autonomy and not exerting his marital "rights"
#31
Posted: 6/25/20 at 10:33pm
Yes, AEA AGMA SM, but even so...it's an odd arrangement! But that's probably what Sondheim and Wheeler intended.
#32
Posted: 6/25/20 at 10:39pm
ElphabaGoodman said: "Katrina Lenk"
Katrina as Charlotte.
#33
Posted: 6/26/20 at 1:19am
ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Yes, AEA AGMA SM, but even so...it's an odd arrangement! But that's probably what Sondheim and Wheeler intended."
Oh, I definitely agree with you there. I would imagine IF a new movie were made that it would need to be addressed. At the very least the backstory of her being the daughter of a friend of his and having known her since she was a child would probably be excised.
I do think Trevor Nunn did a good job in casting age appropriate leads to open the 2009 revival. It was refreshing to see a Desiree and Fredrik who were not already approaching the twilight of their lives (and who could have believably conceived a daughter 14 years before the start of the show).
That also always brings me to the question of just how long ago Fredrik's wife died. Was Fredrika conceived before or after she passed? Anne remembers the summer he became a widower, but in her speech about deciding to marry him because she thought he was so sad she doesn't state how old she was that summer. So that does leave a brief window that allows for Fredrik to have had his affair with Desiree after his wife died, but not much.
#34
Posted: 6/26/20 at 8:36am
ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "AC126748 said: "For years, there were rumors that Desiree would be Emma Thompson's return to the stage. She's a bit old for the part now, but when she was the right age, she would have been perfect. She has the humor and the vulnerability needed for the part."
She's perfect for that part. Perfect.
I don't think Desiree's age is so much the problem (Judi Dench was 61 and Bernadette was 62)...it's Fredrik. Especially nowadays, a 60-year-old man married to an18-year-old woman is really cringey."
Desiree is meant to have been an ingenue when she and Fredrik were first lovers, and is now a mid-career leading lady during the events on the musical. To me, she should be 40-45. (Keep in mind, too, that she's meant to have a 13-year-old daughter). The role has been played well by some older actresses, although Peters certainly reads younger onstage.
Thompson was envisioned for the Trevor Nunn production that instead opened in London with Hannah Waddingham (34 at the time) and on Broadway with Catherine Zeta-Jones (40). If Thompson had opened the London production she would have been 49 at the time, roughly the same age as Glynis Johns when she originated the role.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#35
Posted: 6/26/20 at 9:50am
What a shame Thompson didn't end up doing that production!
#36
Posted: 6/26/20 at 12:44pm
David10086 said: "I love Donna Murphy, but afraid she’s too old for the role to have a teenage daughter.
Helena Bonham Carter would be my choice - either on stage or on screen!"
Not really. Donna did not look a day over late 40s in Dolly, say 50. A working actress could have delayed and had a child in her mid to late 30s. BP won a Tony for Annie Get Your Gun, when she was 52...Annie Oakley was supposed to be in her 20s at the start of the show. Particularly on the stage, it is easy to hideorignore years, and I can't imagine that Desiree is a particularly exhausting role.
#37
Posted: 6/27/20 at 1:15pm
imeldasturn said: "fashionguru_23 said: "Marin Mazzie would have been great."
Btw, there's an audio clip of Marin singing Send in the Clowns in Prague in 2016:https://through-my-memoirs.tumblr.com/post/175752162770/marin-mazzie-sings-send-in-the-clowns-from-a"
I love this, thank you so much! I don't know if there is any truth to the rumour, but at one stage people here were throwing around Marin Mazzie's name as one of the ones being considered for the 2010 revival before CZJ was announced.
Give me claws and a hunch, just away from this bunch.
#38
Posted: 6/27/20 at 3:36pm
qolbinau said: "I love this, thank you so much! I don't know if there is any truth to the rumour, but at one stage people here were throwing around Marin Mazzie's name as one of the ones being considered for the 2010 revival before CZJ was announced."
They saw everyone for this revival, but the reality is the producers wanted a Hollywood name to bank on. The Broadway names, and yes, Marin Mazzie was among them, who were seen were seen far more as a courtesy than any real consideration.
#39
Posted: 6/27/20 at 4:12pm
Out of curiosity, do you know if Bernadette was ‘seen’ originally? The story of her replacement is that she never really considered the role because of a lack of songs, but when she was on the phone to Sondheim about ‘something else’ (perhaps the Kennedy Center Follies) he asked her if she’d replace CZJ. Surely they would at least have considered it before.
Give me claws and a hunch, just away from this bunch.
#41
Posted: 6/28/20 at 5:33pm
JBradshaw said: "Ruthie Henshall"
That voice is, unfortunately in absolute tatters 
#42
Posted: 6/28/20 at 6:18pm
Sheena Easton (61), here in a quick bit of rehearsing for her star turn in London's 42nd Street.
Non sibi sed patriae
#43
Posted: 6/28/20 at 8:08pm
Donna Murphy as Desiree and Katrina Lenk as Charlotte
#44
Posted: 6/29/20 at 2:26am
I believe before her untimely death there was every intention of Natasha Richardson and Vanessa Redgrave starring in the show. They both sang the roles in the Roundabout benefit reading.
#45
Posted: 6/30/20 at 9:40am
Renée Elise Goldsberry would be a terrific Desiree too
#46
Posted: 6/30/20 at 10:00pm
Cate Blanchett as Desiree Armfeldt and Liv Ullman as Madame Armfeldt.
#48
Posted: 7/2/20 at 1:32am
I would love to see Kate Winslet as Desiree with Leonardo DiCaprio as her Fredrik.
#49
Posted: 7/2/20 at 10:40am
broadwayboy223 said: "I believe before her untimely death there was every intention of Natasha Richardson and Vanessa Redgrave starring in the show. They both sang the roles in the Roundabout benefit reading."
Did they have the intention of a full production? I know that their 2 other readings (Kiss Me, Kate and She Loves Me) turned into full productions. I had no idea this was suppose to go the same route.
#50
Posted: 7/2/20 at 11:14am
Loopin’theloop said: "JBradshaw said: "Ruthie Henshall"
That voice is, unfortunately in absolute tatters "
I was so surprised, I had to look this up. This, from 3 years ago, is what you call tatters??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2jDZv2xHI0
And more importantly, for Desiree? Reminder Desiree doesn't sing the Miller's Son.
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