Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
MrMidwest
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/8/05
#1Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 12:59pm
Did anybody actually like her in it? I know a lot of people had a problem with her belting a lot of her part.
A Weekend in the Country
#2Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 1:01pmI LOVED her!
MrMidwest
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/8/05
#2Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 1:03pmI think she's funny, but I'm not sure that she succeeds in creating a real, flesh and blood person.
#3Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 1:04pmShe improved as the run went on, but I found her terribly annoying both times I saw it. Her vocals weren't the issue for me, just her characterization. It was like all she knew about Anne was that she was young, and so just decided to be petulant and stupid.
#4Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 1:08pmIn the performance I saw, her comedic timing was great, and I loved her "squeaky" rendition. Not quite like her mother, but still good.
After Eight
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
#6Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 1:22pmI saw the show near the end of the run and thought she was good.
#7Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 1:31pm
Saw her three times, first in December about a month into the run and then again in July with Bernadette Peters. She definitely improved during the run, starting as an over the top caricature and eventually grounding herself into a young lady baffled and scared on how to approach womanhood. However Ms. Mallory was not the problem. Trevor Nunn was.
Having spoken to quite a few people who were involved with this production, I can attest that very few people in the cast (the exceptions being Catherine Zeta Jones and Angela Lansbury) were allowed to make any character choices. Nunn had it set in his mind what the characters should be, with a few notes from Sondheim, which Nunn then hammered into the ground. It wasn't until Nunn left the production after it opened that cast members started incorporating hints of what they initially wanted to do with their roles and allowing themselves to stray from Nunn's initial direction.
#8Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 1:38pm
At the performance I saw she performed Anne as if she was a horny horse.
#9Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 1:43pmLOL
#10Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 1:45pm
"It wasn't until Nunn left the production after it opened that cast members started incorporating hints of what they initially wanted to do with their roles and allowing themselves to stray from Nunn's initial direction."
This is really evident once Bernadette and Stritch took over, I think.
#11Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 2:27pm
I saw this revival 12 times. Ramona definitely improved as the run went on, but I did always hope to catch an understudy at least once for Anne, but never did. Actually, she, Davie, Herdlicka, and Larkin all improved as the run went on.
It's very true that once Peters and Stritch took over, the production almost completely changed. They all started letting loose and having fun. It was a "stuffier" production with CZJ and Lansbury, but I really enjoyed both casts.
Anybody know what Leigh Ann Larkin is up to? She seemed to be getting steady work for a while there. She had to choose between coming to Broadway with Ragtime or Night Music. Obviously, she chose wisely. But we haven't heard from her in a while.
Updated On: 9/3/12 at 02:27 PM
#12Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 2:32pmWhat role was she offered in Ragtime? She seems awful young for Mother, and Evelyn Nesbit seems such a small role for someone who had just been getting such good work.
#13Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 2:34pmShe played Evelyn Nesbit in the DC production, and was offered to continue with it to Broadway.
#14Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 2:36pm
ljay, I'm not entirely sure what she's up to, but I do know that Larkin left New York and moved out to LA some time ago. Last I heard, she was teaching in an arts program there as a sort of day job while still auditioning regularly.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
#15Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 2:39pm
Oh, wow. That's interesting. Hopefully we'll see her performing again.
Updated On: 9/3/12 at 02:39 PM
CalebMeyer
Understudy Joined: 8/1/12
#16Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 2:39pmI also really enjoyed Ramona Mallory. There's something about her voice that I just love...maybe it's the fast vibrato. I did find her performance to be a little whiny at some times, which is arguably part of playing such a young woman, but overall I thought she was charming and very funny!
#17Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 2:42pm
She's supposed to be so young as Anne. Maybe that's why she *was* whiney the way she was. Trying to portray the youth of the situation?
#18Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 2:45pm
^ Yes, that's certainly part of it. Nunn was very insistent on casting the production younger than usual. It was great not having a 25-year-old Fredrika.
Updated On: 9/3/12 at 02:45 PM
#19Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 2:49pm^^^^ I completely agree.
CalebMeyer
Understudy Joined: 8/1/12
#20Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 2:51pmDon't get me wrong...whiny werks!
#21Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 2:51pm
No, there's a difference between playing young and playing a caricature. In the Menier production, Anne was played not whiney at all but constantly crying and practically on the brink of suicide. Then in New York, Nunn changed it to her whining and jumping all over the place. There was no truth to his direction of the role. It didn't make Anne funny or amusing, it made her annoying and irritating. You're not supposed to exactly root for Anne, but you're not supposed to hate her either.
Anne is less Veruca Salt and more Cher in Clueless. She means well, but she's just so oblivious that she isn't aware of how ridiculous she is.
#22Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 2:56pmI think she was very funny and amusing.
bwaylvsong
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/28/05
#23Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 3:04pmI loved her performance, as well! Her acting was excellent all four times I saw her, and I actually prefer her vocals to her mother's.
#24Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music
Posted: 9/3/12 at 4:43pmHer voice annoyed me. It sounded to me that she was always on the verge of choking. As for her acting, that revival was my first encounter with Night Music so I had no idea how Anne was usually portrayed, so I didn't have a problem with it. But looking back, she was a little...I think the word coming to mind is "hysterical." Not in a funny way, just shrieky and hysterical.
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