Passion DVD- Page 2

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 10/10/05 at 2:07am

LuPone played Fosca? You know, I'm sorry, everybody can beat me for it but there are just some roles she shouldn't touch. I'm a big Bernadette Peters fan, I think she should play every single great women role ever written for the stage musical or non-musical and even I understand that she wouldn't be a good Fosca. Murphy is the definite Fosca, her performance on the DVD is brilliant, I mean she takes you in and you are on her side, and you just sympathize with this woman. I know I shouldn't judge LuPone if I haven't seen her, and I don't want to appear like one of those close-minded people that don't give others a chance, but LuPone as Fosca???? Come on. Maria Friedman, now that's another story...

[Isabella2]

Posted: 10/10/05 at 2:25am

I actually thought Patti was quite good, of what I can recall. I know the part doesn't seem matched for her, but she did a good job. I've never seen Freidman act the part out but i've heard her sing, I wish I could forget you and i thought she did a brialliant job both with the singing and the dialouge. Other songs I've heard were not too could (ex. Loving you) I don't like her scream as much as donna's and i can remember, Lupone's scream is close to the original.

I sure do appreciate my screams. I played Rapuzel in Into the Woods last year, so everyone got to hear me belt those out. haha
Updated On: 10/19/05 at 02:25 AM

[BwayLover]

Posted: 10/10/05 at 2:32am

Omg Ray, please don't get me talking about Maria Friedman. She was.....downright laughable. Over the top, robotic,and not in the least compelling. Did not like her at all.

Passion is my absolute favorite musical, and the DVD is divine - but yeah, I am bothered by the same exact parts the original poster is bothered by. Actually, it's only the kissing scene that got botched up, in my opinion - in the score, it is the most beautiful, delicate moment, but on the DVD..it's kinda awkward. And yes, as much as I love him, that's due to Jere Shea's way of kissing. Which is too bad, because it's supposed to be this cathartic moment, and it is when you just listen to it - but not when you watch it.

On the other hand, I do like the nightmare scene. I don't think it was compromised too much by that effect - it looked good. If anything, it's the cutting of that scene that made it a bit jarring.

Oh and yes, Donna Murphy as Fosca is, simply put, perfection.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 10/10/05 at 3:02am

Bway Lover, it's not only that Donna Murphy as Fosca is perfection, it's just that Donna Murphy is Fosca, period. Just like people think that Merman is Momma Rose, Donna Murphy created Fosca and this is her, when I hear her sing "I Read" I almost cry, she can portray so many emotions at the same time in a single song, props to Mr.Sondheim of course.

[BwayLover]

Posted: 10/10/05 at 4:19am

Ray- exactly! She IS Fosca. Both "I Read" and "I Wish I Could Forget You" never fail to make me cry, they are so beautiful...So filled with raw emotion. You really feel for this woman and her pain and love. Breathtaking.

Updated On: 10/10/05 at 04:19 AM

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 10/10/05 at 6:40am

BwayLover~Did you see Maria live as Fosca or are you forming your opinion based upon the cast recording? I saw Ms. Friedman live and she was sensational, but whenever I listen to the cast recording, I can't help thinking how bad she sounds. It's as if she were constipated the day they recorded it. Too bad.

Donna will always be the one true Fosca, no doubt.

BTW~Your avatar is stunning!

[BwayLover]

Posted: 10/10/05 at 8:37am

MEF, I must admit, I am basing my opinion upon the cast recording only. It is really, really bad... I'm glad she was better live, though - I kinda figured she had to have been, but still, the cast recording does not present her in the best light. I literally laughed out loud at times when I should have been moved...Too bad, indeed. I wonder what happened during the recording, maybe she was misdirected or something. I've read so many good things about her as a performer, and I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, even though she did not impress me in this recording.

Oh and thanks.

[bdwybelle]

Posted: 10/10/05 at 9:07am

Isabella 2,
I saw the concert version with Donna Murphy, Marin Mazzie and Michael Cerveris LIVE, and the concert version with Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald and Michael Cerveris LIVE. I've seen the Passion DVD with the original cast several times.
I agree with ray-andallthatjazz86 about Patti LuPone playing Fosca. I didn't think she was bad, I just didn't end up feeling any sympathy or any empathy for her at the end of the play. I felt that some of the moments were awkward (and not in the way that they should have been between Fosca and Giorgio). And no matter how good Michael Cerveris is as an actor, I could not believe that he was in love with Fosca at the end.
I feel that in the original production, you want him to love Fosca at the end, because Donna Murphy is so amazing being Fosca. I didn't feel that way with Patti LuPone.

But on another note, I do like Patti LuPone and am excited about Sweeney Todd.

[gwalke4]

Posted: 10/10/05 at 9:49am

The one thing I REALLY enjoyed about the LuPone concert was this weird playing-up of the differences in age between LuPone and McDonald. I felt like Fosca being so much older than Giorgio/Clara informed her desperation in a way that was not seen on the OBCDVD. Even though, as has probably been discussed before, LuPone's age is not textually appropriate. Fosca's only supposed to be, what, 28?

At any rate, props to Audra McDonald. I felt like her acting performance was so much brighter than Mazzie's. It just registered more strongly, she was Clara, a real person, not just the other woman. I really do adore Marin Mazzie and think she gives a fantastic perf on the DVD, but Audra just took it from her. Perhaps that also had something to do with the slight cutting for the concert, which really brought the few-and-far-between dialogue scenes into greater focus.

Does anyone else notice these things?
1994: Audra wins Tony over Mazzie, who was then playing Clara
1998: Audra wins Tony for Ragtime, which costars Mazzie, who is only nommed
2000: Both lose to Heather Headley, proclaimed then (not now) the new Audra in many ways
Now: Audra's playing the role whose originator lost the Tony to her

I hope, after all this, they're still friends...

[bdwybelle]

Posted: 10/10/05 at 9:58am

gwalke4,
I completely agree with you with Audra McDonald really flying with Clara. Marin Mazzie is a great actress, but Audra McDonald really took off with this part.

[BwayLover]

Posted: 10/10/05 at 10:05am

Wow, gwalke4, that age difference and the subsequent change of Fosca's desparation is the thing I didn't like in the LuPone concert! To each his own, though.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 6:00pm

I didn't see LuPone but seriously, she is not appropriate for Fosca at all, I think one of the reasons you feel so much for Murphy's Fosca is because she was innocent enough to fall for a man that tricked her and that her youth and beauty have been stolen from her by this disease, it helps that the performer herself is young and beautiful but hidden behind the make-up and yes, LuPone is beautiful in her own very particular way but she's nto as young as Fosca should be. I think Clara and Fosca should be played by actresses of around the same age just so it's clear that Giorgio is not rejecting Fosca based on age issues and also so people understand that Fosca's lack of beauty and obsessive nature have nothing to do with aging factors.
And I have to say it one more time, lol, Fosca and Donna Murphy are one and the same on the stage.

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 6:09pm

Lupone was fantastic as Fosca - a totally different take on a well-written character. My only problem with the concert (other than the totally miscast Cerveris) is that Lupone looked too "healthy" to be Fosca - but otherwise - her performance was as brilliant as usual - and I wouldn't have expected anything less.

[Marguerite Chauvelin]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 6:22pm

Hmmm... I always thought that Fosca was never beautiful, even before the disease. Her parents just thought she was beautiful (like all parents believe of their children), and her husband married her only for money. Is that right or just how it seemed in the LuPone version?

[Isabella2]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 8:46pm

No, Fosca never was beautiful. The flashback just shows how Fosca thought she was beautiful because her parents thought she was. Fosca does say:

"I thought that I was beautiful, until I reached the age where being beautiful becomes the most important thing a woman can be."

What I don't get is whether Fosca was always suffering from a fatal disease or just dying from the grief of a horrible life and self-deprcation(mainly cuz of ludovic?). They never really made that clear. Anybody know?

[buffyactsing]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 11:16pm

It's tough. I'm just starting rehearsals for Passion right now as Fosca and I'm trying to figure out what is wrong with her besides being a hysteric...in my research I read a quote somewhere, from some female victorian writer...I don't have my notes with me...about how you can't die from obsessive love but it came be enough to push you over the brink.

It's hard to know. She had her first convultions because of Ludovic...but I can't tell if those are hysterical or not. Donna Murphy's version of Fosca's spells do not match up from what I've read of hystericaly-induced epileptic fits so maybe, in Donna's mind her failing health had to do with some real epilepsy. Donna really believed that Fosca was sick physically..it's just hard to figure out how. Patti's fits are closer to how they seemed to be described but I find Donna's more compelling and more sympathetic.

I thought Patti Lupone looked more ill than Donna Murphy in terms of her facial appearence (the paleness and sweatiness), though Donna physicalized it much better.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 11:29pm

Hehe, that's because Murphy is gorgeous and Sondheim said that no matter how ugly they tried to make her look, she'd look plain and not ugly. I guess it was easier to make an uglier version LuPone... sorry, had to say it, everyone's soo going to kill me for it.

[buffyactsing]

Posted: 10/11/05 at 11:40pm

Very true. Short of major prosthetics, it's hard to make a beauty look repulsive.

[Isabella2]

Posted: 10/12/05 at 3:55pm

HEY! Patti has an excuse, she was somewhat older than donna murphy when doing that role plus it ten years ahead of the original production. I think Patti Lupone is beautiful at 54 but have you guys seen her when she was younger? She must have caused car crashes, she was so beautiful. Just look on her website.

Also I think they could have done plenty o things to make donna murphy look uglier. Like put dark circles under her eyes, make her paler, make her lips thinner, anything like that.
Updated On: 10/12/05 at 03:55 PM

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 10/12/05 at 6:18pm

Isabella, I have not seen LuPone when she was young, but yeah I know that was a mean comment,hehe. But honestly, they could have done all those things to Murphy and she still would only have looked less gorgeous, never ugly.

[Tenorific2]

Posted: 10/12/05 at 6:30pm

Since discussion of Murphy, LuPone, and Friedman have come about, did anyone see Judy Kuhn's interpretation at the Kennedy Center?

[jacco]

Posted: 10/12/05 at 7:38pm

Maria Friedman was certainly NOT pretty, but her performance made me write MY ONLY FAN LETTER EVER! But I also love Murphy and am hitting myself at this moment for having missed LuPone....

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 10/12/05 at 8:04pm

I didn't know Judy Kuhn had tackled this role, I don't like the way she performs but I do see her in this role unlike LuPone. How was she?

[Isabella2]

Posted: 10/13/05 at 1:23am

Don't worry ray, I was just joking with the "HEY!"

i dion't take things that seriously :)
But yeah i dissagree, if they had made Donna look plain looking with out her having make-up on, I think they could have made her ugly with make-up, because I definately wouldn't describe Donna as gorgeous while in the role.

[buffyactsing]

Posted: 10/13/05 at 1:35am

I only saw pictures of Judy Kuhn, but she looked the closest to Fosca yet in those...there's one picture in which she looks almost like the woman in Passione D'Amour...something she did with her eyes...