NIGHT MUSIC officially recoups.....

Congrats!

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The rumor was that they basically recouped by the time CZJ and Lansbury departed, but about another million or so had to be spent for the arrival of Peters and Stritch.

Updated On: 1/6/11 at 03:44 PM

Thank Catherine Zeta Jones!

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I've never seen the crew who does the filming for the TOFT archive to arrive in a TV truck, so I would assume that that truck is there for something else.

No, they'e not going to film it. Would have been announced by now.

Love Peters and Stritch but why would I see them in Nunn's clueless revival?

I was there last night...they were filming it for the Lincoln Center archives, not for PBS or anything like that.

They filmed the show for the lincoln archives with Lansbury but CZJ's understudy was on at the time (Jayne Paterson?), strange.

Did they really film it again with Peters/Stritch for the archives? Has this happened before?

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qolbinau- Yep, it happens quite often. I know they re-taped The Color Purple with Fantasia. They tend to re-film with celebrity replacements for some reason.

HeyMrMusic- I haven't seen it for a while, but yes. I saw a 2:00 matinee a few months ago (with the new cast), and it definitely went past 5. I think it ended around 5:10, and after everyone got out of the theatre, it was probably 5:30. With CZJ & AL, It was about under 3 hours. I went to an 8 pm performance, and it ended around 10:45-50.

I have seen both casts multiple times. CZJ and Angela had the show down to about 2 hours and 50-55 minutes. When I see them, Peters and Stritch usually finish at just about 3 hours. And when there were Broadway Cares speeches, everything finished at about 3 hours and 5 minutes. I must see them on good nights, because I've yet to spend 3 hours and 20 minutes with them, besides their first performance.

Updated On: 1/7/11 at 06:37 PM

I love Elaine Stritch with all my heart, but what a mess. If her performance last night is what they recorded for posterity...woof! Angela was a bright spot in a dull show. Elaine just dragged it down with her.

Funny, I've seen her performance multiple times and have never seen her drag the production down. I love her loose cannon approach to the character, and got more a sense of who Madame Armfeldt was in her past with Elaine than with Angela (who I also loved). Elaine's Liaisons might be slower, but she really tells that story better than either of the other Madames in this production.

And for the record, the only time I ever saw Elaine Stritch struggle extensively with her lines was her first night

I suspect a lot of people's dislike for her has more to do with her salty personality (especially compared with Angela, who's the grandmother we all wish we had)than with her performance.

And PS, the show has never clocked in at 3 hours and 20 minutes. The latest I've ever gotten out of the theater was 11:15...the night of the first preview. CZJ and Angela got the production to under 3 hours, while Bernadette and Elaine keep it just over 3 hours. When they were doing a Broadway Cares speech, it would go up to about 3 hours and 10 minutes.

Updated On: 1/7/11 at 08:46 PM

Well, adamgreer, I have no reason to exaggerate the exact time I stepped out of the theatre. By the time I got from my seat to the street (no bathroom stop or anything), it was 10:20. The show probably started around the standard five minutes late. So it probably brought the show to three hours, ten minutes.

Last night, there wasn't a scene where Elaine wasn't grasping for her lines. In "Liaisons," there was one line in the second bridge that she was just not getting. The conductor slowed the tempo almost to a halt to allow her to get it, but she didn't. And whenever she did figure out her lines, she would mutter, "Oh my God" and it sounded like she was saying them on the verge of tears. Her "Where was I"s, or whatever she says to get back on track, were the only points in the song that rang true and that she committed to fully. And the wooden ring speech was incomprehensible because she could not remember the story and her pauses were too great for the audience to put the pieces together.

I highly respect Elaine Stritch and love her stage presence, but I couldn't get any sense of character in her performance last night. Not to mention, her lack of accent just adds to the inconsistency of the issue in this production. She was not acting last night; she was just trying to get through it. It was a shame. Again, I'm a huge fan of hers, but I was very disappointed.

I went with a friend who hadn't seen or heard the show before. He said the music is nothing special. I mentioned that they were taking many, many liberties with the melodies and their deliveries and that this show is often done with opera singers. I believe some of the actors have gotten way too comfortable and conversational in the songs to the point that their backphrasing sounds wrong with what the orchestra is playing.

O duh, I forgot about that. Thanks, Jordan!