I'm praying ALNM gets a second wind on Broadway! I would LOVE for it to be revived. Patti would be a key choice, and she'd tear the roooooof off (insert theatre here) with "Send in the Clowns" -- I would LOVE to see Michael Cerveris as Fredrik 'cause honestly, that pairing will and forever shall be GOLDEN in my eyes! OR maybe, maybe, maybe Mr. Patinkin? Your thoughts? Updated On: 1/5/07 at 03:27 AM
I don't know if I could see him as Fredick especially since he is suppose to be so much older the Henrick and Anne, I don't think Michael is at that age yet. I believe she did this show on the Festival awhile back she would be amazing with this show. Though I just want to see this show revived period
"Passion can drive you crazy but is there any other way to live"
Patti LuPone has already done the role in concert: at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago. She wouldn't be right for a major revival. The role is not a good fit for her.
I know this will rub the Pattiphiles the wrong way, but I'm tired of seeing her in revivals. I think she desperately needs to find an original role, even if it's not something as grand as Evita.
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
Though I understand she was good in this show at Ravinia, I agree with Bennet that it is not an ideal fit. I think if it does make a return, it will probably be with Glenn Close (as it has been rumored for several seasons). Though I'd love to see this on Bway again, wouldn't you think they'd cut the orchestra WAY back (like the Follies revival)? I can't imagine hearing that score with just a smattering of strings and with synthesizer. Just keep bringing it back to NYCO where it can get a nice full treatment (it was gorgeous there a couple seasons back).
Well Desire is really just suppose to have this quality about her that men can't resist and she is the essential diva just like Patti, but now thinking about it more I would like to see her in an original role as well...
"Passion can drive you crazy but is there any other way to live"
Desiree is a sophisticated European actress and should have a bit of world-weary quality about her. There should even be a fragility to her. LuPone would blast through the role ignoring the nuances of the role. LuPone should stick to the Ethel Merman catalog and do a revival of Call Me Madam.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
But what the role requires is a glamourous, somewhat warm, earthy presence and as one of the original creative team put it: someone with a flair for "light comedy."
Whenever the discussion comes up on BWW - 90 percent of the suggestions wouldn't be right for the role. There is a reason Glynis Johns is considered by most to be the only person completely successful in the part - the role requires a delicate balance that is very rare and hard to find in a leading lady.
And Close isn't going to do it. She's too old at this point (she was first mentioned for a revival over ten years ago). Updated On: 1/5/07 at 09:03 AM
Michael Cerveris is, at this point, 12 years older than Len Cariou was when he opened in "A Little Night Music" in 1973. He is old enough to have a 21 year old son. He'd be a very good Frederick.
Patti LuPone as Desiree? No.
Patti LuPone as Sally Adams? Brilliant suggestion.
Cheyenne Jackson tickled me. AFTER ordering SoMMS a drink but NOT tickling him, and hanging out with Girly in his dressing room (where he DIDN'T tickle her) but BEFORE we got married. To others. And then he tweeted Boobs. He also tweeted he's good friends with some chick on "The Voice" who just happens to be good friends with Tink's ex. And I'm still married. Oh, and this just in: "Pettiness, spite, malice ....Such ugly emotions... So sad." - After Eight, talking about MEEEEEEEE!!! I'm so honored! :-)
But, MB, being too old didn't stop Close when she played Blanche du Bois in London. She'd be closer to an appopriate age for Desiree than she was to an appropriate age for Blanche.
That having been said, I don't think she's ever going to play Desiree, though she's twice been rumored for it.
And thank God, or someone, for that.
I'm told that LuPone did a creditable job, but she is basically wrong for the role. And she's too old as well.
Really, Desiree should read as no more than 45. Unfortunately, we've had a number of 60ish Desirees, and that's just wrong for the character. It's reached the point that people seem to think the character should be 60. No.
At the risk of sounding like Addison DeWitt, (and threadjacking) it seems like all "grandes dames" of musical theater are appropriated by women too old to play the parts. Dolly, Mame, Mama Rose, Desiree - people forget that Channing was only in her early 40's when she first played Dolly, Lansbury barely 40 when she played Mame. Merman, at 51, was too old even then for Rose but who's going to quibble with that.
But the ages notwithstanding, these roles are written for characters who are in early middle age - Rose starts the show with two small children, Mame as written starts in her mid-thirties and ages to early fifties. Dolly is in her forties, as is Desiree, another woman with a relatively young (13) child.
As strange as it may seem, of the current leading ladies of the stage it is Kristen Chenowith, Idina Menzel, Brooke Shields, Donna Murphy, Sarah Jessica Parker, etc, who are closing in on being the right age for these parts. All of them hovering around 40.
And IMHO I think Brooke Shields would make a ravishing Desiree. An odd choice perhaps, but she has proven she can handle a major musical.
Cheyenne Jackson tickled me. AFTER ordering SoMMS a drink but NOT tickling him, and hanging out with Girly in his dressing room (where he DIDN'T tickle her) but BEFORE we got married. To others. And then he tweeted Boobs. He also tweeted he's good friends with some chick on "The Voice" who just happens to be good friends with Tink's ex. And I'm still married. Oh, and this just in: "Pettiness, spite, malice ....Such ugly emotions... So sad." - After Eight, talking about MEEEEEEEE!!! I'm so honored! :-)
I think both Donna Murphy and Audra McDonald would make good Desirees if they don't "over-sing" the role. Marc Kudisch as Fredrick, Steven Sutcliffe as Henrik (or is he too old for the role at this point? ), and Marin Mazzie as Charlotte would make a great ensemble. I've always wanted to see Laura Benanti playing Anne (which she has done at least twice, I believe) but at this point the role is too small for her and she is too old for it. Who would make a good Anne?
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
I would love to see Bernadette Peters as Desiree, I really don't know who else is right for the role. Laura Benanti would be my first choice as Anne also, and I don't think she is too old to do it. And I know this would NEVER happen, but I would love to see Kristin Chenoweth as Petra (I really want to hear her sing The Miller's Son).
I agree with earlier sentiments that Ms. LuPone should originate a new role. I know that she was lauded for really re-inventing Mrs. Lovett, but I would love to see her be the first one to tacke a certain role on Broadway.
Cynthia Nixon. She has the sophistication and irony, along with a touch of earthiness that would be perfect. And she's the right age and would look great. And Peter Gallagher as Frederick.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
I wanna hear Lansbury sing Liasons, it'd be divine.
As for Desiree? Lord knows I love Patti LuPone, but I'll echo the other opinions on this board that she's not right for the role (though I think she should have originated Petra in 73, that would have been amazing) and I'd love to see her in something new. Clark would be good, oh... I don't know, someone new.
Theatre is a safe place to do the unsafe things that need to be done.
-John Patrick Shanley
Patti as Desiree? Oh come on folks! DESIREe....key word here. Patti physically desirable? Can we say anteater. A woman whose physical beauty has wives holding on tightly to their husband's sleeves. I believe when Glynis was being troublesome in previews they threatened to replace her with Tammy Grimes. Now THAT would have been a perfect fit. As for the earlier statement.. "Wouldn't she tear the roof off with her "Send in the Clowns"? Tear the roof off?? Can we say "subtlety" here? Since when does one equate the delivery of that song as a tearing the roof off the theatre number? It's a quiet bittersweet tender moment in the musical...not a "Everything's Coming Up Desireeee's". Patti as Desiree is about as close a fit as Elaine Stritch playing the role in her youth.
Patti Lupone is way too strong for Desiree, and I couldn't see her pining away for years after a man. She's much more right for Charlot, but she would never take a supporting role.
How about Christine Ebersole, who is finally starting to come into her own as a Broadway musical diva? She would bring just the right mix of anger and heartbreak to "Send in the Clowns."
I ask in all honesty/What would life be?/Without a song and a dance, what are we?/So I say "Thank you for the music/For giving it to me."