Little Night Music Benefit- Page 2
Little Night Music Benefit
#25re: Little Night Music Benefit
Posted: 1/13/09 at 10:01amThat was my assessment as well. I thought if anything, it might have been nervous laughter. All in all, her performance was beautiful and as I said before, tragic.
#26re: Little Night Music Benefit
Posted: 1/13/09 at 10:26am
Wow...exciting!! I'm not surprised with this cast, but was worried about Baranski...glad she is as good as you say.
One casting idea...Nothing against Kendra, but I think Heidi Blickenstaff was born to play Petra.
"In Oz, the verb is douchifizzation." PRS
#28re: Little Night Music Benefit
Posted: 1/13/09 at 12:31pmput Heidi in the revival! I would love for this to be fully revived. My wish though is for Lansbury to take over for Redgrave if a revival does happen.
"I am sorry but it is an unjust world and virtue is only triumphant in theatricle performances" The Mikado
#29re: Little Night Music Benefit
Posted: 1/13/09 at 12:39pmAll that AND Lansbury. Plotz.
#30re: Little Night Music Benefit
Posted: 1/13/09 at 12:47pmWorks for me. Paging Todd Haimes and Scott Ellis.
A Director
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/18/07
#31re: Little Night Music Benefit
Posted: 1/13/09 at 1:10pmPalJoey - I hope once you have a bottle, a nap, a clean diaper and your sippy cup has been refilled, you won't be such a cranky boy.
#32re: Little Night Music Benefit
Posted: 1/13/09 at 1:23pm
Schmector--I wish you better luck next time you direct a community theater production of A Little Night Music.
Maybe you'll finally "get it"!
#34re: Little Night Music Benefit
Posted: 1/13/09 at 2:21pmJust bumping it due to my new BEAUTIFUL avatar.
logan0215
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/05
#35re: Little Night Music Benefit
Posted: 1/13/09 at 2:25pm
What a handsome cast.
Would love to see a production of this live...
NYadgal
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/18/04
#36re: Little Night Music Benefit
Posted: 1/13/09 at 2:39pm
I adore the photo of Vanessa Redgrave kissing her daughter.
It sounds like a spectacular evening, and the thought of a Lincoln Center production of this is pure heaven...
#37re: Little Night Music Benefit
Posted: 1/13/09 at 3:40pmThose photos look wonderful. They all look so right for the roles.
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#38re: Little Night Music Benefit
Posted: 1/13/09 at 4:55pmThe costumes were so beautiful! I believe that some of the costumes were rented from TDF.
#39re: Little Night Music Benefit
Posted: 1/13/09 at 5:06pm
I've been high from that performance all day long.
One of my friends quipped, "You've been smoking Sondheim again."
NYadgal
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/18/04
#40re: Little Night Music Benefit
Posted: 1/13/09 at 5:17pmSondheim is good smoking!
#41re: Little Night Music Benefit
Posted: 1/13/09 at 5:51pm
I'm not a director or a theatre professional in any way but I can see the flaws in A Directors' posts.
"There is no reason for Madame Armfeldt to die."
The show would be milk chocolate rather than plain if she didn't. Her death acts as a necessary emotional counterpoint to the other emotions raised in the other plotlines.
How could you have a musical where the summer night only has two smiles - it would not be enough for Frederika or the audience to watch out for.
"There are no lines about her being ill."
So people who are never ill live forever?
There is a line where she toasts "the only other reality - death". Again this line necessarily raises ALNM above being a romantic meringue.
"WHO ARE THEY? Are they neighbors, gods, people who wandered in from another show, ghosts, the chorus?"
Yes, No, No, Yes, Yes. The authors are teasing and challenging the audience. That is what I go to the theatre for. Amongst many, many other things. Sondheim supplies in bucketloads. My mind joins up the dots. Someone else's mind joins them up in different ways. Thank you Messrs Sondheim and Wheeler for placing your confidence in me and other audience members .
#42re: Little Night Music Benefit
Posted: 1/13/09 at 7:00pm
Well, I think it's a great show but I also think it's a very flawed show. I posted about some of my own reservations in this thread:
https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?thread=988038#3754810
But I certainly agree that Madame Armfeldt has to die. It's totally prepared for and necessary on several levels. The problem (not a problem in the script) is that in too many productions (including the original) everyone thinks she's just fallen asleep.
#43re: Little Night Music Benefit
Posted: 1/14/09 at 12:29am
From what I've heard, Kendra Kassebaum was absolutely marvelous as Petra.
It is a shame she wastes her immense talent by going back to WICKED time and time again, especially in a role that doesn't utilize her terrific high belt.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
#44re: Little Night Music Benefit
Posted: 1/14/09 at 1:50amShe's been doing workshops and regional work between Wicked runs. She was Amy a few years back in Seattle (where she's also done Night Music and Secret Garden).
#45re: Little Night Music Benefit
Posted: 1/14/09 at 2:43amSara Ramirez does my favorite "Miller's Son."
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/
#46re: Little Night Music Benefit
Posted: 1/14/09 at 2:57am
before reading this i was having a convo with a friend about ALNM and how heidi should be petra!
And then i see this convo....
ah... HEIDI :)
#47re: Little Night Music Benefit
Posted: 1/14/09 at 3:06amA good friend of mine went and called me as soon as he left the theater. he was elated. He sat behind Sondheim and was able to see all of his reations during the evening. He was so excited he said he didn't get to sleep until close to 2:00am because he just kept thinking about the evening. He had a chance to go to the party afterwards but didn't.
Byron Abens
Broadway Star Joined: 7/17/08
#48re: Little Night Music Benefit
Posted: 1/14/09 at 3:45pm
You should slap your friend for passing up a chance to have been at that party. Even if you don't get to talk to them just being in the same room with that many legends is an opportunity nobody should pass up.
I'm extremely jealous of everyone who got to see this production. Night Music is my favorite Sondheim piece and I can never get enough of it. I really do think it is one of the handful of nearly perfect musicals out there (for some reason I can't bring myself to think there is anything perfect out there. I think if a show is perfect then it would also be foolproof, and I don't think there is any show that is).
The Quintet is your Greek chorus, they do not need any more identity than that. They are the constant observers/commentators.
It is indeed, as others have stated, necessary for Madame Armfeldt to die. It is not unjustified. She is clearly already an invalid, hence the wheelchair, and she herself is ready and prepared for it, hence the numerous lines she has about it.
Hopefully this will show somebody that Broadway is ready once again to have this jewel box of a show back on one of its stages.
#49
Posted: 1/16/09 at 9:03am
It really was thrilling. It was just over much too soon! The day before we were there (for Pal Joey) and looked into upgrading our seats, as there was still orchestra available. But on Monday they sold out! I'm curious about how that happened.
I thought The Miller's Son was wonderful, and I know it was a concert reading, but in Boston the woman singing Petra threw herself all around the stage in that big puffy skirt, and I thought that worked well and made it more fun.
It was very exciting when Mr. Sondheim came out.
Later we tried to peek into the ballroom, just because we happened to be staying there at the Marquis. But the young folks with the clipboards couldn't even let us look in! Weren't they lucky to have those jobs?!
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