RainbowJude
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A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC: 2008 London RevivalCasting for the Menier Chocolate Factory's production of A Little Night Music, to be directed by Trevor Nunn, has been announced at Playbill:
| Mark Shenton wrote: | | Trevor Nunn will direct a cast that includes Hannah Waddingham as Desiree, Maureen Lipman as her mother Madame Armfeldt, Alex Hanson as her former lover Fredrik, Jessie Buckley as Fredrik's virginal wife Anne, Gabriel Vick as Fredrik's son Henrik, Kaisa Hammarlund as the maid Petra and Alistair Robins as Count Carl-Magnus. They will be joined by John Addison, Florence Andrews, Laura Armstrong, Lynden Edwards, Charlotte Page and Nicola Sloane. |
Some further details - brief bios and so forth - are available in the article.
Later days
David
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Salome
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apart for Maureen Lipman who seems miscast..all are unknowns.
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dolbinau
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Re: A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC: 2008 London Revival | RainbowJude wrote: | Casting for the Menier Chocolate Factory's production of A Little Night Music, to be directed by Trevor Nunn, has been announced at Playbill:
| Mark Shenton wrote: | | Trevor Nunn will direct a cast that includes Hannah Waddingham as Desiree, Maureen Lipman as her mother Madame Armfeldt, Alex Hanson as her former lover Fredrik, Jessie Buckley as Fredrik's virginal wife Anne, Gabriel Vick as Fredrik's son Henrik, Kaisa Hammarlund as the maid Petra and Alistair Robins as Count Carl-Magnus. They will be joined by John Addison, Florence Andrews, Laura Armstrong, Lynden Edwards, Charlotte Page and Nicola Sloane. |
Some further details - brief bios and so forth - are available in the article.
Later days
David |
Won't be seeing it but hopefully they'll be a cast recording!
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High-baritonne
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If it runs when I am in London this winter, I will attend.
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RainbowJude
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Cast of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC | Salome wrote: | | Apart for Maureen Lipman who seems miscast, all are unknowns. |
I wouldn't say they're all complete unknowns - at least not in the UK.
Hannah Waddingham - who is 33 and looks a bit too young for Desireé - was the original Lady of the Lake in the West End Spamalot, subsequently playing the role on Broadway.
Alex Hanson was the Captain Von Trapp who opened opposite Connie Fisher in the most recent West End The Sound of Music after Simon Shepherd was fired during previews.
Alistair Robins has appeared in Man of La Mancha, The Secret Garden and done some work for the RSC.
Jessie Buckley was the runner-up Nancy in the Oliver reality show I'd Do Anything. Gabriel Vick and Kaisa Hammarlund both have a few West End credits collected since 2006 [including, respectively, Avenue Q (Vick), Cabaret (both) and Sunday in the Park with George (Hammarlund)].
Later days
David
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Sweeney Hyde
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*PRAYS FOR BROADWAY TRANSFER*
...with a slightly different cast maybe... (EBERSOLE AND LANSBURY!!!!)
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RainbowJude
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Trevor Nunn | Sweeney Hyde wrote: | *PRAYS FOR BROADWAY TRANSFER*
...with a slightly different cast maybe... (EBERSOLE AND LANSBURY!!!!) |
Well, let's not jump our guns. Much as I'd love to see a production with Ebersole and Lansbury, we don't yet know what Trevor Nunn is going to do with the show. And although some of his work has been brilliant, some has been - shall we say - uneven.... That said, when working with a great text, Nunn tends to achieve great things - so I have fairly high hopes.
Later days
David
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dolbinau
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Will this feature a scaled down orchestra a la "Sunday"?
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kozafluitmusique
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oh
my
frickin
gosh
I WANT TO SEE THIS.
i don't care if i don't know any of the names.
it's in london and it's a little night music.
end of story.
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RainbowJude
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Revival NewsSo it seems that "Silly People" has been reinstated for this revival, which apparently shows heavy influences from the original film from which the show was adapted. Some rehearsal pictures are available at The Stephen Sondheim Society website.
Later days
David
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Salome
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I'd love to see
Christine Ebersole as Desiree
John Lithgow as Frederick
Angela lansbury as Mme Armfeldt
and
Beth Leavel as Charlotte.
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Sweeney Hyde
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UGH! It better not have a small orchestra!
I saw the SitPwG revival...small pit...wasn't great...wasn't bad...it was just. You need the grand, sweeping orchestra for this show.
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dolbinau
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Ok, there is a good review:
http://www.musicalcriticism.com/opera/night-music-1108.shtml
And an interview with the director:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/arts/2008/11/24/btnunn124.xml
Scaled down to a 7 piece 'orchestra' (I don't think they can be called that when they are that small, can they?). But it's a little bigger than the Sunday one.
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RainbowJude
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Reviews are in...Here are some more reviews. Firstly, Newsnight Review on BBC reviewed the show and there is a brief clip of "Send in the Clowns". You have to sit through the review of Australia first though. In the clip, they praise the intimacy of the production, but criticise the staging and the musical direction.
Things have been mixed to good in the print media:
| Charles Spencer at The Telegraph wrote: | | (Trevor) Nunn's production, on one of those hermetic sets largely consisting of doors and tarnished mirrors that have become such a cliché in recent years, never penetrates the work's subtly erotic heart. And as is often the case with this director's work, the pace is so slow and the mood so reverent, that initial enchantment gives way to bored fidgeting. The show's original director Hal Prince memorably described A Little Night Music (1973) as being like "whipped cream with knives". There's plenty of cream in Nunn's production, but not nearly enough sharpness. And the casting is downright odd. |
| Benedict Nightingale at The Times wrote: | | There’s something about the overall tone that subverts anything upbeat. Minor-key numbers merge into songs, and sometimes patter-songs, which largely consist of wry reverie and ravelled internal debate. Add ruefully sardonic lyrics and wickedly adroit rhymes and you’ve as sharply sophisticated a musical as even Sondheim has written or, indeed, Nunn has staged. That means it’s well worth seeing, despite some uneven acting. |
| Michael Coveney at The Independent wrote: | | The sinuous, bittersweet score is Sondheim’s Rosenkavalier full of trios and duets, Mozartian grace notes in a storyline full of mishaps and mistresses, syncopated rhythms and of course “Send in the Clowns”, that 11 o’clock number (and it was not far short of that hour on opening night) sung by Desiree Armfeldt, the touring actress, to her old flame the married lawyer Fredrick Egerman.... This is another small-scale triumph for the Menier. And you begin to wonder what Nunn might have achieved with something like Lloyd Webber’s Aspects of Love, had he gone down this route with musical theatre a little earlier. |
| Nicholas de Jongh at The Standard wrote: | | Sondheim’s lyrics, such as "Every Day A Little Death" and "It Would Have Been Wonderful", characteristically keep heart-felt emotions under wraps. Discovery and self-discovery change everything, even for the more clear-eyed servants, and precipitate the melting down of those sexual triangles. The crucial "Send In The Clowns" finally forces closure: the beautiful pathos of Waddingham’s rendition is limited by her being too young to sing of being “so late in my career”. Other qualifications apply to some weakly characterised performances. Never mind. A Little Night Music, with its wonderful music of repressed desire, ranks as a rare, serious delight — obviously West End bound. |
| Ian Shuttleworth at The Financial Times wrote: | | Indeed, the one perfect marriage here, amid the tangle of wed and unwed couples, is that of Bergman and Sondheim. The composer's sensibility may often seem Upper West Side Manhattan to the bone, but it meshes beautifully with the Nordic fatalism of the story. |
| Paul Vale at The Stage wrote: | | The inclusion of the number "Silly People" is a mistake that adds nothing to the show except length. Otherwise, A Little Night Music can be considered yet another jewel in the Menier’s decidedly glittering crown, offering those weary of these December blues a reason to smile on a winter’s night. |
| Michael Billington at The Guardian wrote: | | Everyone knows Sondheim musicals benefit from chamber productions, not least because you can hear all the lyrics. But Trevor Nunn's exquisite revival of this 1973 show, with a book by Hugh Wheeler based on Ingmar Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night, exploits the space's intimacy to great effect.... This is typical of the attention to detail in a musical made up of sex, death, memory and midsummer magic. I could have lived without the rescue, from Sondheim's bottom drawer, of a number called "Silly People". |
At times, it seems that the casting and some of the performances take a bit of a knock. While each of the cast is praised in at least one review, only Lipman seems to get away with unanimous praise. I also found it interesting - though unsurprising - that nobody's warmed to the inclusion of "Silly People".
Later days
David
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