Remembering MARIN MAZZIE in Next to Normal and BERNADETTE PETERS in A Little Night Music

[binau]

Posted: 9/24/11 at 7:55pm

I miss, miss these performances so much.

Some people described Mazzie as a more "subtle" Diana than Ripley (e.g. hannah_bway described Marin's performance as "subtle but still affecting" and this guy on everythingmusicals.com said Marin's performance was "particularly" subtle, both suggesting Ripley was over the top, and Brantley described her performance less positively than subtle, but "calmly self-aware").

Not to suggest that subtle acting isn't a good thing, but when I saw her (early December) I wouldn't describe her performance as subtle. Yes, she didn't do the mugging (I don't know if I've used that term correctly) in "My Psychopharmacologist and I" that I saw Ripley do on the tour, but there was nothing subtle about Mazzie's painfully emotional "I Miss the Mountains". It was really a slap across the face of emotion.

I agree with Brantley that she had a "sardonic quality" to her line readings especially with her interactions with the doctor (which I have no problem with), and her gushing streams of tears (also not quite subtle) certainly made her seem "depressed" – But not just. I was particularly surprised at how intense her "You Don't Know", with her angry screeching/shouting, was. (Before seeing her, that isolated clip of her singing the end of "I Am The One" had me to believe her voice made her unsuitable for this). And obviously the novelty of seeing her Husband responding to her in this state made it more intense. Judging by clips of her first performance Mazzie made her emotions much more extreme by the end of the run.

SPOILER

My favourite part of her performance was in "There's a world", where Diana was deeply upset by the thought of losing her son/Mazzie was crying intensely. Gabe approaches her and she touches his face, and the crying seems to change tone from intense sadness to happiness. It really seemed like there was no other way for her to move forward but to commit suicide to 'be with him'.

At a 'talk-back' session on the tour an audience member interestingly claimed that they didn't think there was enough depression in the show. The response from the host was that they need to make liberties etc.. because depression is less interesting than mania. Although I would disagree that there wasn't "enough depression", and this is something that can be especially subtle (cf. 'NIGHT, MOTHER), I don't think audience members would have that concern with Mazzie.


----


And then there is Bernadette Peters in A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, another performance which was anything but subtle. Her desiree was almost an obnoxiously playful teenage girl at times (which was always funny, at least!).

But she really was able to convey how not-glamorous her "Glamorous Life" was, making gestures and facial expressions after every 'glamorous' event (e.g. half-empty houses).

And her "Send in the Clowns" certainly did give me "sense of being present at an indelible moment in the history of musical theatre" (NYtimes). Bernadette Peters is expert at being vulnerable, and this 'moment' was the perfect combination of a great Sondheim song that suited her voice, her acting skills and a very intimate production, which seemed even more sincere coming after a night of ridiculous over-the-topness.


When will we next get replacements as exciting and good as these????

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/24/11 at 7:56pm

Please don't ever start another thread starting with "Remembering Marin Mazzie"...

I almost shlt my jeans.

[BroadwayFan12]

Posted: 9/24/11 at 8:14pm

Ditto Jordan. My heart stopped for a second. I did see both performances and echo everything you said.

[aasjb4ever]

Posted: 9/24/11 at 8:26pm

QUOLBINAU DON'T YOU EVER SCARE YOUR FATHER AND ME LIKE THAT AGAIN.

But those performances still make me weep to this day and I will never forget Marin Mazzie looking me in the eye during 'The Break' and Bernadette Peters singing 'Send in the Clowns' right to me and then recognizing me 2 hours later at the stage door. "Weren't you in the front row?"

[steven22]

Posted: 9/24/11 at 11:34pm

Alice Ripley blew me away as Diana BUT Marin Mazzie...left me speechless. What an amazing performance she gave as Diana.

[zepka102]

Posted: 9/25/11 at 12:03am

I really liked Alice, but Marin had me tearing up and shaking trying not to full-out cry. If she originated, there would have been no question as to who would win the Tony.

[light_in_the_dark2]

Posted: 9/25/11 at 4:56am

I saw marin mazzie and thought she was incredible. When she sang I miss the mountains it hit me like a train.

[3bluenight]

Posted: 9/25/11 at 4:59am

with mazzie the show seemed more integrated. less a star turn. it seemed more cohesive to me.

which is funny because with peters in night music, the show seemed to be focussed on the star turn in a joyous way if that makes sense. with zeta jones the show seemed weighted towards zeta-jones being a star. with peters it seemed like a star turn but in a different way. in a way that served the material not the star.

okay that may have been silly lol.

[ahhrealmonsters]

Posted: 9/25/11 at 11:20am

*SPOILER*

My absolute favorite part of Marin's Next to Normal was Dreamed a Dance/Come With Me. Unlike Alice's Diana, there was a turning point in Marin's Diana that you knew she was 1) hallucinating and 2) going to attempt suicide. You saw the decision.

[inlovewithjerryherman]

Posted: 9/25/11 at 7:26pm

both were ideal replacements for the productions they were in.

Mazzie followed up Ripley's bravura performance with one just as layered and brilliant.

Peters followed up Zeta Jones' uneven performance with a similarly uneven one, but for VERY different reasons. both had moments of sheer brilliance (Peters' moments, clearly, resonated far more deeply).

It's seasons like that that make you wish the best replacement tony had worked out.

[AC126748]

Posted: 9/25/11 at 7:34pm

Saw both performances within a night of each other last July--what an embarrassment of riches for me! I was never the biggest N2N fan, but I did see it three times: once at 2nd Stage, once on Broadway with the original cast (November 2009), and once with the replacement cast. I was impressed with Alice's intense performance Off-Broadway, but when I saw her again almost two years later, she was walking through the show and her voice was shot. It could have been an off-night, but I was shocked by how weak her acting was. Seeing the show with Mazzie and Danieley was a revelation; I still didn't love the show, but I could finally understand why people had such a personal connection to it. Mazzie WAS Diana, singing tremendously and creating a complex character without overplaying it. I'm sorry I didn't get to see her again.

I did get to see Peters three times as Desiree. I understand why some people had complaints, but what didn't work for some worked extremely well for me. There was a deepness and maturity in her performance that I hadn't seen in her work in a long time.

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 9/25/11 at 7:48pm

Two of the best performances I've ever seen. Granted, the only time I ever saw Mazzie was the final performance in which the heightened emotion changed the performance a bit, but she was absolutely stunning. And getting to see Bernadette's Send in the Clowns live will always be near the very top of list of the best theatrical moments I've witnessed.

[inlovewithjerryherman]

Posted: 9/25/11 at 7:58pm

AC,

it's funny you say that re: Peters' maturity. There were moments in "Night Music" that i felt she was "leaning on her tricks" (i specifically remember this moment where she jumped up and down and I didn't buy it at all). but then again, she sits on that bed and delivers "Send in the Clowns" as if t were written for her - one of the most compelling performances of a song, anywhere, I had ever seen. It was like its own one-act play.

I found her Desiree fascinatingly uneven - intensely vulnerable and compelling one minute, and then in the next, transparent and hidden under a facade of "musical theatre acting" tricks.

and with Zeta Jones, the "diva bravado" I bought more than Peters, but in song, you would think that she had just come out of a college acting program. Two very interestingly uneven performances in an interestingly uneven production.

Updated On: 9/25/11 at 07:58 PM

[AC126748]

Posted: 9/25/11 at 8:03pm

You bring up a lot of very interesting points for interpretation. I agree that CZJ came off as more of a diva, but that didn't work for me. One of the things that I really responded to in Peters' performance was that she played Desiree like who she was--a touring actress who's slightly past her prime and knows it. When she did act somewhat diva-ish, it was clearly a facade.

[Kad]

Posted: 9/25/11 at 8:06pm

Peters' "Send in the Clowns" made up for any other complaints one might have had about her performance. It was the stuff that Broadway legends were made of. And to think- how fleeting the chance to see it actually was! No (official) recording, no awards.

[binau]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 7:38pm

A great audio recording of Marin/Jason's "You Don't Know/I Am The One":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsJ-WeCHzXA

[AC126748]

Posted: 9/26/11 at 9:28pm

Thanks for uploading that.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 9/28/11 at 11:48am

Peters' Desiree is my favorite performance of hers ever. I didn't see it with Jones but the clips I've seen of her have not impressed me at all.

I loved Next o Normal both times I saw it. The show was extremely different. Ripley and Mazzie were very different but utterly committed and vibrant. They are very different and equally remarkable talents. I found both interpretations of Diana indelible. Ripley's was a tour de force but the piece is such that the other performances shone bright as well, revovling around her supernova. There was more of a comic and immediate sense that the mania the Mountains could return at any moment, with her ongoing adjustment being subject to self-reporting at every second. Mazzie had a more lasting sense of the changes going on within her psyche, which made her mourning her past highs equally affecting to me.

Mazzie is a great pure soprano, Ripley, one of the finest rock singers on Broadway. These two women, so different and so vibrant, showed how this remarkable score will last if it continues to be given to really good singers, not screechers.