#1
Posted: 2/16/10 at 11:18pm
I feel privileged to have seen Jayne Paterson's first performance as Desiree Armfeldt this evening. You could say that I'm a fan--I saw her perform in place of both Natascia Diaz and Gay Marshall in Jacques Brel...--but nothing could have prepared me for this evening. Paterson is everything you could possibly want in a Desiree: stunningly beautiful, with a crisp, clear voice; wonderful in the book scenes; able to convince that she is both world-weary and girlish. She has a better command of the score than Catherine Zeta Jones, who tended to oversell the songs when I saw her in December. Her "Send in the Clowns," for example, was the perfect hybrid of naturalism and style. She sang it as written, without holding on to notes too long, but still manages to bring lyricism to the text. She was greeted with hearty cheers and bravas after the number, and at the curtain call.
I'm still no lover of the production, and a large part of the ensemble still feels out of place. Erin Davie isn't even trying to sell Charlotte's zingers anymore; they all land with a thud. Aaron Lazar, however, has finally found a nice balance as Carl-Magnus; where he was once too milquetoast, he is now appropriately commanding. I'm still baffled as to why Hunter Ryan Herdlicka, who has a gorgeous voice, feels the need to scream and caterwaul. And Angela is Angela; to quote Miss Jean Brodie: "for those who like that sort of thing, it is the sort of thing they like." The ravishing score still sounds like elevator music here.
But the stage justly belonged to Desiree Armfeldt tonight. I'd highly recommend that anyone who can get to the Kerr by Sunday do so.
I'm still no lover of the production, and a large part of the ensemble still feels out of place. Erin Davie isn't even trying to sell Charlotte's zingers anymore; they all land with a thud. Aaron Lazar, however, has finally found a nice balance as Carl-Magnus; where he was once too milquetoast, he is now appropriately commanding. I'm still baffled as to why Hunter Ryan Herdlicka, who has a gorgeous voice, feels the need to scream and caterwaul. And Angela is Angela; to quote Miss Jean Brodie: "for those who like that sort of thing, it is the sort of thing they like." The ravishing score still sounds like elevator music here.
But the stage justly belonged to Desiree Armfeldt tonight. I'd highly recommend that anyone who can get to the Kerr by Sunday do so.
"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
