The NEW Night Music at The Kerr Thread- Page 6

[Scripps2]

Posted: 7/25/09 at 9:46am

Why do you all care so much who is going to be in this production when most of you are going to hate it anyway?

[matineeidol2013]

Posted: 7/25/09 at 10:27am

I heard that too, broadwaybound....(;

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 7/25/09 at 12:36pm

McGillin was announced to be leaving PHANTOM months ago, well before they even started seeing people for NIGHT MUSIC.

[BroadwayBound062]

Posted: 7/25/09 at 3:06pm

matineeidol2013 I have a feeling we have the same source

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/25/09 at 3:10pm

If Howard was really cast, I imagine it's as a Lieb singer, and possibly the Fredrik understudy.
Updated On: 7/25/09 at 03:10 PM

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 7/25/09 at 3:20pm

^ really? I don't know if I think he'd be cast, but I would've guessed he'd be Fredrik. although I do remember reading that they were having some slightly more well known actors as the Lieb singers, since they'd be getting understudies from that group.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 7/25/09 at 9:19pm

I heard that they were in negotiations with Elizabeth Taylor to re-create her legendary performance as Desiree.

[Byron Abens]

Posted: 7/25/09 at 9:30pm

I'm not willing to place all of the blame for the film on Elizabeth Taylor. She had turned in numerous amazing performances prior to this movie and should have been able to do so here if the film had been in surer, more competent hands. The whole tone of the movie is wrong, dark and brooding where it should be light and romantic, and Desiree is played/directed as a clutching and desperate instead of the strong, confident Desiree that Sondheim & Wheeler wrote for the stage.

I view the film of Night Music in much the same vein as the film of The Producers; a movie that had a great amount of potential that was limited by a theatrical director making their first foray into film directing without a strong hand to guide them as to the differences between film and theatre.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 7/26/09 at 1:35pm

Just to clarify - Harold Prince had directed the film, Something for Everyone, prior to A Little Night Music.

[Byron Abens]

Posted: 7/26/09 at 1:47pm

Thanks for catching that, Smaxie. I had completely forgotten about it.

Though I still feel he needed a surer hand guiding him, as well as a less restrictive budget. There are some moments in the film that I really did enjoy. I think "The Glamorous Life" sequence serves as both a treat and a disappointment in that it shows how good the film could have been if the rest had been done as well as it had.

I'll still also lay some of the blame for Taylor's performance on him. There are plenty of actors out there who consistently give dreadful performances, no matter who they are working with. Elizabeth Taylor was not one of them. With a steady hand she could have been, and should have been, a great Desiree back in her day.

[BroadwayBound062]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 2:03am

Bump any news?

[humbugfoto]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 11:31pm

[beewai]

Posted: 7/30/09 at 12:48am

I know I'm new here but I heard some pretty credible information on casting, so don't throw pies (Unless they are Mrs Lovett's). I've been lurking through the countless posts on night music and never saw her name come up, and while it's not for desiree -- Erin Davie who played Act I Little Edie in Grey Gardens seems to have been cast. Which I personally think is inspired.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 7/30/09 at 12:51am

Davie is playing Charlotte.

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/30/09 at 12:53am

Yikes. I do not see her as Charlotte. I know she just played Anne regionally, obviously she wouldn't be Anne on Broadway.

[TalkinLoud]

Posted: 7/30/09 at 1:07am

Well if Kudisch is too old for Carl-Magnus, how about getting him in there as Fredrik?

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 7/30/09 at 1:11am

I've noticed something about your "inside info" somethingwicked. You seem to echo something someone posts, but rarely solicit the info on your own without someone's assistance on the tread. Why don't you just post the entire cast list and we'll see when the press release comes out if your a fraud or the real thing.

[beewai]

Posted: 7/30/09 at 1:16am

"oooo, took his dolla"

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 7/30/09 at 1:30am

I don't feel the need to engage in any sort of game to "prove" the legitimacy of my information, Bobby.

People can make their own assertions.

I have no problem confirming any casting introduced by someone else because that's the extent of what I was told I'm allowed to do.

Of what's been mentioned in this thread, Erin Davie is playing Charlotte, Hunter Herdlicka is playing Henrik, Ramona Mallory is playing Anne, Aaron Lazar is playing Carl-Magnus, and Leigh Ann Larkin is playing Petra. Any other purported casting (like that of Desiree and Frederick) is either false, speculative, or as yet unfinalized.

Take it or leave it. No one is forcing you to accept anything as accurate.

Updated On: 7/30/09 at 01:30 AM

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 7/30/09 at 1:32am

Again, info any poster could have confirmed by reading this thread (or pumping people for information until they get sick of you and tell you out of frustration).

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 7/30/09 at 1:35am

I had heard Davie's name before and wasn't trying to get excited. I think she's fantastic and I can actually see her as Charlotte. She's not as natural a fit as say Jenny Powers is, but I think she'll still would be fabulous. Can't wait to see her in this.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 7/30/09 at 1:39am

From what I've heard, Nunn, at least in London, isn't directing his Charlotte to get laughs. Odd choice.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/30/09 at 10:08am

That's because Nunn is a crappy director, more often than not.

Charlotte's appeal is her humor. Otherwise, she would be just a colorless, bitter, jilted wife. Boo-hoo.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 7/30/09 at 10:30am

hmmm. I agree that Erin Davie isn't as natural a fit as I'd imagine Jenny Powers would be, but I loved her in both Grey Gardens and Applause, so it could be great.

and...what? not directing his Charlotte for laughs? the one thing I always liked about A Little Night Music is that I feel like even though all these people scheme and cheat on their significant others...they're all sympathetic characters. taking away Charlotte's humor just makes her, like besty said, colorless and bitter.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/30/09 at 10:58am

A Little Night Music is a Romantic COMEDY, Trevor. A comedy. So was the original source material that it's based on. Even more emphasis on the humor there.

I can't imagine anything more leaden than watching Charlotte feel sorry for herself without the perspective of humor for the entire evening. Ugh.

I've seen so-called "experts" direct shows before. Edward Albee directing his own masterpiece, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" in Los Angeles, with Glenda Jackson, John Lithgow, and Cynthia Nixon. And it was horrible. Totally played for laughs (in this case), because Albee said previous versions weren't "funny" enough, and they got too serious with his material. The result? He turned his own play into a lightweight sitcom. It was depressing to watch a pillar of the American Theatre become an ordinary episode of "Soap."

So ... these "experts" don't always know what they're doing. Especially the ones with shaky track records at best.

The more I hear about Nunn's "artistic vision" for this show, the less I like it. "Different" doesn't mean good or better. Sometimes (more often than not lately) it means it's crap.

So now we'll have a bunch of fetuses running around the stage reading lines meant for more mature characters, missing all the laughs.

Pass! So sad that a long-awaited Night Music revival will end up the yawn of the coming season. I was really looking forward to the possibilities. But I haven't heard one promising thing yet. Not one.

Updated On: 7/30/09 at 10:58 AM