Is A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC coming back? - Page 4

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 8/4/16 at 8:41am

AC126748 said: "Fiddler is a show that I can understand them non casting POC (although I hear the show was hugely popular in Japan) because the story has to do with their Jewishness.

Fiddler on the Roof is hugely popular around the world and has been performed by casts of all ethnic make-ups. The themes of family, faith and tradition transcend specific races and cultures.

 

"

Yes but not on Broadway.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 8/4/16 at 8:47am

wonderfulwizard11 said: "Casting black actors in any or all of the roles maybe doesn't help us understand the Belle Epoque of Sweden (which I seriously doubt anyone seeing it knows or cares about) but as long a story about love and loss and longing is told well, the casting of actors of color is of no consequence. "

The first time I saw the show, I went with a friend who didn't realize until after the show that "They weren't British."

I saw Paolo Montalban as Carl-Magnus in American Conservatory Theater's ALNM, and while I felt he was miscast, it wasn't due to his ethnicity. I did enjoy that SOMEONE was branching out.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 8/4/16 at 8:56am

AC126748 said: "Fiddler is a show that I can understand them non casting POC (although I hear the show was hugely popular in Japan) because the story has to do with their Jewishness.

Fiddler on the Roof is hugely popular around the world and has been performed by casts of all ethnic make-ups. The themes of family, faith and tradition transcend specific races and cultures."

If anyone on this board hasn't already read it, I would strongly recommend picking up Alisa Solomon's Wonder of Wonders, about the genesis and legacy of Fiddler on the Roof. It's a great read anyway, but there's a wonderful story about a school in the Brownsville (I believe) neighborhood in Brooklyn that did Fiddler on the Roof with primarily minority students. (While the original was still on Broadway, at that!)

[Kad]

Posted: 8/4/16 at 10:00am

People are getting bent out of shape over hypothetical casting of people of color in a production that is at this point purely conjecture?

Updated On: 8/4/16 at 10:00 AM

[broadwaybabywannabe2]

Posted: 8/4/16 at 10:07am

from this old SUNDHEIMMANIAC I say let it come back in any form...i really didn't like the cast recording of the recent Broadway revival as compared to the OBC which in my mind is perfect in every way...i do hope they produce it for either live tv or a new movie version.. also i do think that ALNM is the most perfect show combining book and music that SONDHEIM has ever written...it is seamless in every way!

Updated On: 8/5/16 at 10:07 AM

[showinoff]

Posted: 8/4/16 at 12:01pm

I would actually love to see a Toni Collette / Annie Golden as Desiree and Madame Armfeldt. I think both have the chops and the depth required for the show. 

[AC126748]

Posted: 8/4/16 at 12:04pm

Nothing about Annie Golden suggests world-weary former courtesan to me.

[gypsy101]

Posted: 8/4/16 at 4:40pm

AC126748 said: "Nothing about Annie Golden suggests world-weary former courtesan to me."

...and Hermione Gingold seems like that?

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 8/4/16 at 5:10pm

Annie Golden is really not right at all for Madame A.  Plus, she's only 64 and doesn't have the right kind of voice for the role.

[ljay889]

Posted: 8/4/16 at 5:17pm

Maureen Lipman played Madame at 62 in the Menier production. A wide age range of women could play the role. 60's-80's. 

Updated On: 8/4/16 at 05:17 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 8/4/16 at 5:25pm

Glynis Johns should just do it. 

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 8/4/16 at 7:02pm

ljay889 said: "

Maureen Lipman played Madame at 62 in the Menier production. A wide age range of women could play the role. 60's-80's. 

 

"

I think that she looks far too young.  I think anyone under the age of 70 is probably too old for the role.  Age aside, Annie Golden is wrong in every way for Madame A.  I wouldn't mind seeing Angela Lansbury step back into the role.  What about Chita?  I know that it's blasphemous to confine that woman to a chair for the whole show, but I could see her really sinking her teeth into the role.

 

[ljay889]

Posted: 8/4/16 at 7:07pm

Trevor Nunn's original concept was to cast EVERY role younger. Hannah Waddingham was only 34 when she played Desiree. Nunn maintained the younger casting on Broadway with the exception of Lansbury. The most brilliant choice was finally casting a CHILD as Fredrika, not a woman playing a child.  

It was said at the time that Lansbury approached the production herself about the role, with one condition, that she shared the show with another star, to alleviate the entire revival being on her shoulders. She gave a stunning performance. Her second act was heartbreaking. Stritch was also wonderful, she owned act one, whereas Lansbury had a stronger second act. 

Chita would be wonderful but the lack of dancing would be unfortunate. Her dramatic acting in The Visit was fantastic, she would do very well as Madame. 

Updated On: 8/4/16 at 07:07 PM

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 8/4/16 at 8:05pm

I'm sorry if this is distasteful to ask, but does anyone have the radio broadcast of Theatre Du Chatelet's production of A Little Night Music?

Updated On: 8/4/16 at 08:05 PM

[binau]

Posted: 8/4/16 at 9:36pm

Elaine Stritch milked that Wooden Ring speech for every laugh she could get. Lansbury was not as funny (though I loved her punchline 'and I got them', but I found it a bit more heartfelt. I don't know what I'd do with myself if we had a Winslet-Lansbury pairing at NYPhil with Benanti as Charlotte. 

Of course, I'd also be interested in a Winslet-Bernadette pairing if they wanted to graduate her to Armfeldt. I'm sure she won't cry during liaisons :p. 

[gypsy101]

Posted: 8/4/16 at 9:45pm

lol Bernadette wouldn't be the right age til 2035 or so.

[binau]

Posted: 8/4/16 at 10:56pm

gypsy101 said: "lol Bernadette wouldn't be the right age til 2035 or so.

 

"

You think Bernadette needs to be nearly 90 to play the part? Lol. She needs to be convincingly elderly to play an older woman in a wheelchair close to death, not literally be an older woman in a wheelchair close to death. 

Of course, while I think Bernadette looks and sounds decades younger than she is, at almost 70 she is no spring chicken and could pull it off with a grey wig and different or no (as if that would ever happen haha) makeup. 

She has already played an older woman in a wheelchair close to death decades ago. 

How great it will be for Liaisons to have some pleasant melodic/musical value for a change. 

Updated On: 8/4/16 at 10:56 PM

[gypsy101]

Posted: 8/4/16 at 11:04pm

Bernadette truly is an ageless woman in my opinion, the fact that she'll be 70 in 2 years is stunning to me. But I guess you're right, she could play Madame Leonora Armfeldt 10 years from now.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 8/4/16 at 11:48pm

Bernadette was perfection when she played an old woman in a wheelchair - and that was when she was in her prime (age wise, although to me she looks almost the same, haha). If she brings to Madame Armfeldt what she brought to Marie, I'm sure the tears would be flowing when she got through with the wooden ring speech.

Updated On: 8/4/16 at 11:48 PM

[ljay889]

Posted: 8/4/16 at 11:48pm

qolbinau said: "How great it will be for Liaisons to have some pleasant melodic/musical value for a change."

 

There's always Regina Resnik's operatic version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA2_jx9qiqc

Also, Angela sang it quite nicely. Elaine completely spoke it, and it was absolutely brilliant when she could get the lyrics right. 

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 8/4/16 at 11:55pm

Regina Resnik's performance of the song is my favorite. That production is not without its problems, but she and Maureen Moore are sublime throughout. 

[ljay889]

Posted: 8/5/16 at 12:10am

For me, the problem with that production is having a Desiree with little to no sex appeal.

Glynis Johns looked so right in the role. 





 

As did CZJ





Both actresses looked glamorous in the role. Sally Ann Howes looked more like a grandma. 

Updated On: 8/5/16 at 12:10 AM

[HorseTears]

Posted: 8/5/16 at 12:50am

I think that's a touch unfair.  Sally Ann Howes was WONDERFUL in the NY Opera production.  And sang the score with remarkable restraint for a legit singer.  Usually I can't stand hearing the part sung by a 'proper' singer as they always oversing, but I thought Sally Ann Howes showed remarkable restraint and she absolutely nailed the characterization.  

 

And, with all due respect to Hermione Gingold, I think Regina Resnik's Mdme. A was perhaps the best interpretation of the role.  

[broadwaybabywannabe2]

Posted: 8/5/16 at 10:00am

about HERMIONE GINGOLD...listen very carefully to her LIAISONS and here how it was meant to be sung...while i ADORE Angela,  i really do think that Hermoine does this song the most perfect way...it was written for her alone...the rhyming of RAISIONS/LIASIONS is a master class in performing a song...

[AC126748]

Posted: 8/5/16 at 10:08am

gypsy101 said: "AC126748 said: "Nothing about Annie Golden suggests world-weary former courtesan to me."

...and Hermione Gingold seems like that?

 

"

Far more so than Annie Golden, absolutely. 

As to Glynis Johns as Mme. Armfeldt, I believe she played the role at one point in California. But she is not in good health and I can't imagine she'd be able to do a full run of anything today.