Sorry to start a new thread.... didnt see that anyone had posted that show will be aired (here in the Metro area anyway) today at noon on chan 13.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
WHOSE DUMB IDEA WAS IT TO HAVE LESLIE STAHL INTRODUCE IT? I can think of 100 more interesting people to do it.
Could SOMEONE, ANYONE record it? It's not showing in my area. I'm willing to pay for a copy of the tape!
Please please please!
Me too...they won't show it here again, either!
Ahh!!!!!!!!!!
What a great production ! The score is haunting !!!!
Leading Actor Joined: 3/6/05
I see no reason that at least a CD cannot be issued of this.
It has to do with contracts. I would love a CD and DVD, but what can you do?
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/14/04
Oh my God, I wish there was a cd of this. I would never stop listening to it.
Not to start a Patti vs. Donna debate, but did anyone else who saw the original find himself more connected and more moved? Lupone's work here was so simple and unfettered -- and frankly, the age/life experience she brought to the role gave us added depth. I didn't miss the legato in the phrasing that some critics found in Murphy but lacking in Lupone. Also, Cerveris is not traditionally beautiful man, so it added to the undercurrents about physical beauty and soul. For me, this incarnation had an immediacy that b'way production did not. I felt as if I heard it anew.
Sondheim fans: did anyone else finish watching it, and rather than hear "Happiness" start singing "Too Many Mornings" from FOLLIES? The latter is like PASSION lite! I'll take them both.
Patti's Fosca was more sincere, to be sure, which made the character easier to sympathize with. But what Murphy did so well was make every move seem sincere but calculated, from the heart but manipulative as well. That's why I prefer Donna's take over Patti's, although LuPone was fantastic.
And about Happiness/Too Many Mornings -- it's funny, at Wall to Wall Sondheim a few weeks ago, Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley sang both of those together.
Auggie, I agree. It's some of the best work I've ever seen from Patti Lupone, and I don't know if it's the presentation and camerawork, but as much as I admired the original production and the filming of it, this version had an immediacy I didn't feel from the original production.
Suspension of disbelief is, as always, key in every tale. I'm wondering about the impact of the chemistry. Our "chemistry" with Lupone and Cerveris's evolution as a "couple."
Not to be overly concerned with appearances, but the bald, open-faced Cerveris Giorgio didn't have the chocolate soldier handsomeness of Jere Shea (and is considerably older); so for mysterious reasons therefore it makes the turn in the story in this man far more belieable. Even though the story is ultimately about getting past the physical, I find myself thinking of Cerveris and Lupone as "a couple" of sorts, emotionally believable in ways I could not with Shea. It's about the Cerveris Giorgio turning that critical corner in the story. (Perhaps I'm going there today, because I just saw the pug-faced John C. Reilly mange to find a compelling Stanley who cannot remotely trade on his looks..)
That's something I mentioned in my review of the concert, that Giorgio is the main character and should be the focus, not Fosca. In that sense, Cerveris served the character much better than Shea, which makes this production perhaps a little more successful and believable than the original.
Swing Joined: 8/24/04
YES, PLEASE! i too am desperate for a tape of PASSION, and will pay if need be. Please let me know. It aired ONCE in my viewing area, at 1AM!!! PBS told me it will not be repeated in 2005, and no DVD is planned. Thanks!!!
I finally got to see it last night, yes, at 1am. it was funny because although it was only two hours it began at 1 and ended at 4. This was my first experience with the show so I can't really compare, but the music was gorgeous so I did run to amazon and bought a used copy of the OBC for six bucks. I was very impressed with the performances last night I thought they all did an amazing job and it's a shame that this was only a concert and not a mounted Broadway revival because if it were to be revived I'd like to see Patti, Michael and Audra recreate those performances for the Broadway stage.
So, is anyone taping it for those of us missing out?
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
Auggie - I gotta say, I have always loved this show - saw it on Broadway and own the DVD - but have never been as moved as I was while watching it today - I found myself crying repeatedly (big surprise!),..and couldn't figure out why...but I think you're right - its the depth Lupone brought to the role. And I believe Audra was far superior to Marin in the role of Clara. Cerveris lost me occasionally - but overall, it was a great production.
I saw it on Broadway,in London, and at the Kennedy Center. I have the cast recordings for both the NY and London productions and the Broadway DVD. The PBS concert is now one of my favorite productions. Patti was so, so brilliant, even if she is a little long in the tooth (Fosca is, after all, supposed to be in her late twenties). Nobody will ever top Donna, but Patti comes pretty damn close.
Swing Joined: 8/24/04
Did ANYONE tape the show, so those of us who live in the middle of nowhere, where they did not re-air it, can experience it? Thanks in advance to anyone willing to help.
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