Sondheim Birthday Concert on PBS tonight! — Page 3

Was anyone else confused by the Sweeney performance? Since when is George Hearn the first Sweeney Todd? What? Does Great Performances continuity overrule actual theater continuity? And is it just me, or was Patti singing Mrs. Lovett with a Japanese accent towards the end of the performance?

Agreed, qolbinau.

It was a great concert. The only person I didn't like was Patti LuPone. George and Michael outshone her in A Little Priest. She came across as vulgar with no humor. Her "Ladies Who Lunch' was just Patti being loud. There was nothing behind the words and I didn't enjoy seeing the effort it took her to sing the song. The other five women outshone her because there was something behind the words and the songs flowed out of them.

Donna Murphy was amazing. I can't call it a revelation because I've always thought she was amazing but it did feel like that. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Marin was heartbreaking. Victoria Clark and Elaine Stritch felt perfect in their performances to me.

LOVE LOVE LOVED this!

Chip Zien and Joanna Gleason were absolutely adorable!

And I thought Patti's "Ladies Who Lunch" was fantastic...I loved her interpretation, and I loved the little moment with Elaine Stritch afterwards.

While I loved hearing Patti's full voice on "Ladies," I did have some reservations about her interp and at what levels the ironies registered. I'm also pretty much never a fan of the orchestra or singer following through to a soaring final note. It seems so antithetical to the character's mental state. But that's only after one viewing. My opinion may modulate with after seeing it 1,000 more times.

Also, since we're criticizing just a little... while it's always nice to have more great (live) renditions of wonderful songs... this was just *so* FOLLIES-heavy. Now, I love FOLLIES. But whenever these concerts/tributes/et cetera are put together, PACIFIC OVERTURES is totally left out in the cold. How amazing would the concert have been with all the guys coming together for "Please, Hello" or "Someone in a Tree" (Sondheim's own personal pick for his best song! It was his birthday, for God's sake!) Or just a little snippet of ASSASSINS or ACW or PASSION or FORUM, even a medley in place of the one or two of the *six* FOLLIES songs or the "Reds" ballet?

Obviously, they're never going to please everyone all of the time, but since these kinds of concerts come so few and far between and since Sondheim's brilliance is pretty well-represented in every single one of his shows, for once, a truly all-inclusive concert would be spectacular.

Okay. I'm finished. It was still amazing.

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I did think it was weird that the took the time to talk about how different his scores from the 70s were from each other, but only sang songs from Follies and Sweeney. Really weird. I really want a Sondheim concert that features at least one song from each of his musicals, as well as a representation of his screen work.

It was in the NYC broadcast, Jordan.

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My favorite part was when the company came onstage and through the aisles to sing Sunday. I kept thinking of how Sondheim was feeling. Very very emotional. WONDERFUL concert!

The original wouldn't work as well on its own as a solo (without considerable editing).

Re: the Hearn/Cerveris "You First" - besides being the replacement Sweeney int he original, Hearn also performed the role opposite LuPone in a concert version, before she did the Doyle stging with Cerveris. So, he was LuPone's "first" Sweeney.