Gelfling

I know! The rest of the cast is equally excellent. It's a must-see. Unlike Burton's terrible version

Yeah thanks for spoiling fantasy for us, people!

yeah that's the one Joana saw when she was in NYC. SOOOO jealous!

I think the part was good but she feels like she's not into it as much as she usually is. Maybe it was just a day off. Everybody has one. And that's when someone decides to bring a camera

I knooooooooow!! I'm so grateful I hadn't seen her do it before I saw Postcards from the Edge because MacLaine was brilliant doing it but yeah. Elaine was in her own universe. How lucky are we that so many performances remain after her...

nice.

well Paris is one too when it comes to musicals. Seriously, it's alarming. We get the Disney crap and all the old ones that were translated. Oh and Spamalot... in French

poehler-bear

I'm trying to reply on my phone so, if everything goes wrong

I've heard many bad things about the movie but then the person who introduced me to Sondheim likes it (though she said it's an unpopular opinion). And I also read Sondheim approves of it? So I think I'm gonna watch it. After the one with Patti.

!!!!!
I've decided that if Bernadette goes back to broadway stage I'll travel to NYC. I've been meaning to go for forever and I almost went twice last year, so if I have this one extra reason... I'll sleep in the streets and starve but I'll go haha

Yes, exactly. And I'm used to seeing her giving it all... It's not that she does a crappy job, but it's not her best. Maybe that's the case. But that's what's amazing about theater. In the movie you just cut out the bad (unless it's all bad then you cry). In theater if it's bad it's bad but then you can do it again, better, different, in another night. And the audience's energy affects you, how amazing is that?

Yes! I can't believe for years I only watched her on 30 rock (and she was brilliant). I have a lot to catch up on. Oh, that reminds me, I'm excited for the concert honoring her in a couple of weeks. Also, I just found out, there's and into the woods reunion happen?!!!!!!!! I cried a little bit.

Do they ever perform the original? That's the sad thing about theater, you can't have subtitles (which may also be good if you have great people behind the translated production).

poehler-bear

I'm currently freaking out/crying about ITW reunion and there's AUDIO!!!!! This is giving me life.
Oh Aga, have you watched Into the Woods yet? Because I saw that they're gonna release the PBS version on blu-ray (!!!!!!) so maybe you should wait.

Gelfling

Somehow I thought, no, I was convinced I was the last one to post here

YESSS! Thank you!

I probably should have mentioned it

For real or is it a rumour???

well's blame Apple. Got it.

I'm not a Broadway snob and I like(d) Burton so I watched it with an open mind but honestly, it just wasn't any good for me. It's too stagey and the singing is so below par it's hard to find any of the emotion of the musical in the movie. I know some people like it for various reasons and I'm fine with that. I just wish Hollywood would stop making musicals with just any celebrity who's ever had a karaoke night. I love HBC to pieces but she's not a singer and every time she sings, she stops acting or overacts. It's tough for a musical.

I think Sondheim is too much of a mensch to every say something bad about the work of another artist. His approach to his work has always been kind of a "now it's out there for others to do what they will" and it's a commendable perspective. He's also personally given thumbs up to various highschool productions of Into the Woods and I don't think that meant they were brilliant but you know what I mean.
You should watch it though of course. Maybe before the one with Lupone.

well it's an excellent reason to starve and Bernadette is also a great reason to look into budget traveling. Don't sleep in the streets, couch surfing is way more fun and Joana can give you tips. That's what she did when she went to NYC and saw Bernadette in Follies

I agree. I don't know how actors who have been on stage ever do anything else after
Especially with musicals which can go on for a loooong run. Keeping your energy up, whatever else is going on in your life, and letting the audience feed your performance must be both exhausting and exhilarating. And maybe it's your 300th performance of that particular part but that one time, you just hit it out of the park. It must be an amazing feeling.

It all depends on your perspective I guess. I have read somewhere that Barbra Streisand didn't really enjoy her work on stage. She says she like the "net" that movies give. Not because you can cut out the bad but because you can try different things with one scene and keep the one that feels right.
Jodie Foster also said similar things. It's a different approach.

I know! And what a cast!

I know your calendar is full but keep Elaine Stritch at Liberty on your watchlist. She's just amazing and she does talk about working with Sondheim a bit.



Nope. In fact, the only musicals they ever perform here are French (which barely qualify as musicals honestly except for Les Miz), made from movies, like Sister Act or Spamalot, or have been translated before for movies, like An American in Paris, Singing in the Rain etc.

They can actually! When I saw The Tempest (with Stannis of the House Baratheon, First of His Name, King of the Andals and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm... I mean Stephen Dillane ), it was in English with "subtitles". There was a display at the bottom of the stage that had the text of the play in French. Ok, it's not perfect if you're sitting up close and you are losing some of the performance but it works just like movie subs I guess.

poehler-bear

For real! I even saw some people with it on twitter. This one:

It goes on sale for us (well in the US at least) unfortunate people on Dec 2nd.

Yeah... that's not gonna happen. Did you like Depp? I'm so worried about his Wolf. Even if I think no one can top Bernadette, I think Meryl Streep will do the Witch well, but Depp seems to be doing the thing he always does...

Right? I always remember Emma Thompson saying she was clinically depressed when she did Me and My Girl.

Yes, that too. And you can be more subtle. These, ofc, are only the major things I keep seeing actors mention. There's a lot you can do with the different platforms (and there's TV too). It sounds exciting to be able to experience both.

I haven't watched that yet, but I watched the Ladies Who Lunch bit. I love that she wears barely anything I love, love her personality from the things I love and I'm so grateful this thing exists:

It's one of those things I should watch often...

Ohh! That's interesting! Though I'm not sure how much I'd like to watch a play in a language I didn't know, having to read the subtitles. Idk... I'd try it though.

About the other half of this thread, I finally read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and loved it! I just wish I didn't know the story already, the revelation. But one thing was a surprise (besides his beautiful, dual prose), I always thought Jekyll was a good guy. Maybe not Jesus coming to Earth, but human good. That's the idea I've heard through the years (and obviously on the movie with Barrymore), the dichotomy of good and evil. He doesn't even have the courage to live with his own impulses, and then I got this feeling that the good deeds he does are often to make up for his evil thoughts/doings? Oh and I loved that at some point he suggested that maybe man is not just dual, he has infinite parts inside him but he, Jekyll, was capable of only discerning two (which somewhats mirrors societies expectations of others, you're either good or bad, saint or whore etc). Anyway, it was a quick but very pleasant read.

ITW reunion is a thing that happened!! I chose such a great moment to get into this :')
And I was listening to Follies and I'm loving it more and more. I think it's my third fave out of the ones I've seen? Though it seems rather futile to rank Sondheim musicals. Each I've seen is so special and unique

Oh, have you seen this?

Gelfling

This cover tries very hard to make money off stupid people who are going to think the movie is on bluray already

Well, I still don't have a player but I think I'll buy it anyway for later

He was so over the top, I wonder if he understood that it wasn't a comedy. He's doing Chaplin on crack or some Vincent Prince/Ed Wood musical, I don't know. I'm really worried about the wolf. My only consolation is that it's not a prime character so

and the physical exhaustion doesn't help.


I think it makes them all the better, the real stage actors, because once they manage to bring it in for the screen, they have so much to bring because they are used to really being in the shoes of the characters. There's no way around it on stage. You can't refocus in your trailer for a couple hours before the next scene.

She was a hurricane and a true lady of the stage.

aren't we lucky? So much was lost but these still exist somewhere.

ah yes. The trouble with classics. It's the way movies have interpreted it over and over, mostly because it makes it simpler, I guess.

and the only reasons he doesn't do what Hyde does is fear of getting caught, or of shame and embarrassment. Whatever drives him not to commit evil acts is not moral or ethics but fear and weakness.

he's not trying to be manichean or to reduce things simplistically.

you really did! And you were just about getting bored of classics too

Yeah it's a headache waiting to happen but I agree, it's one of my faves as well.
i hadn't! Ah Sondheim

poehler-bear

Oh no. I wonder if Marshall can make a better use of him them. And that's the other thing that worries me, is the Wolf part gonna be as small as it is in the show or bigger because of Depp?

Exactly. Stevenson paints a scary picture of what society rules and expectations can produce. And I loved that that sort of reflects on his style, the writing embellishments of Victorian era containing such vivid violence.
One last thing, again something I find scary, Jekyll always seemed to feel Hyde in him, wanting to get out, to fulfill his impulses. While Jekyll (whoever that is) is never in Hyde - his actions, his thoughts (does he have any?). He's simply his facade, hiding place. Is it reason, a conscious that makes Hyde so present for Jekyll? Or is it the denial of the self (Hyde) and a cry for freedom? I don't know if I want to have a pessimistic reading of it, and conclude that he's truly a savage who's been controlled and ornamented with society, after all he was strong enough to put a stop to it.

happens all the time. My fandom life (actually interests in general) seems to happen in phases. But yes, great timing. I don't even know what led me to watch it

There's video!! Crappy but it's something, the finale!

Gelfling

I don't really see how they could extend it and they're very "and also with Johnny Depp" everywhere so it must be a "cameo".

I love his prose throughout.

Good question. I'd go for the second one. Even though men were generally more free than women in the Victorian era, there was a lot of things that were bottled up and self-denial was the default position.
well I'm there with you on the pessimistic reading.

Maybe someone sent you good karma?

There's video!! Crappy but it's something, the finale!

and I'm sure there will be better video

Oh btw, did you end up seeing Emma Thompson in Sweeney Todd? My sister was just watching it

poehler-bear

I hope so. It helps that it's mostly an all-star cast.

I believe so! I don't know if I've been reading/watching/listening to the right things or/and I've been more open to art lately -not that I was closed off to it before, but it feels it's getting to me in a way it hardly did before. I'm reading "The Secret Garden" and I keep thinking I should have read it younger, but then I think I would have been able to get it the way I do now. Anyway, isn't art incredible?

I saw somebody selling the bootleg but so expensive for me, poor person on the wrong side of monetary exchange. Plus I still hope they will release it an official version on DVD (Blu-ray too?)

Not yet! But I was just watching the one with Patti LuPone last night! But my internet died and I haven't finished it yet. I watched a bit more than the first act. Holy crap! A Little Priest was already a fave, but I'm getting chills thinking of The Ballad of Sweeney Todd. The music is so so so good! I really like the cast too. But I'm too amazed with the music to pay the attention they deserve. I love, love the chorus. And on that, I was listening to A Little Night Music I'm in love. How I wish there was a recording of the replacement cast (what changed? Bernadette and Elaine Stritch?). And for a Sondheim musical, it's so happy! Everybody ends up alive, with their loved ones, the music sounds very romantic throughout... I'm still surprised

I already have Les Mis on my non-Sondheim musicals list, I should probably add something by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Any recs? And I wanna check out stage versions of Rogers & Hammerstein but I don't know where to start, there are so many shows and so many productions.

ETA:
Idk, I'm starting to think Bernadette's choices for Sally weren't the best ones. Because this broke me in a thousand pieces, much more than the Follies performance

Aga_darkside

Nah, I'm still waiting for Fluff to send it to me

Same here. I wanted to like the movie, but casting celebrities in musicals doesn't work most of the time. But people who don't know a thing about how it should sound think that we're snobs and just bitching for the sake of it

J&H has become such a classic over the years but also changed a lot, that's why I was actually surprised when I read the original story.

Speaking of J&H, second time's the charm I've booked the right show this time, so I'm going to see it on Feb. 7th, can't wait!

Ooh, definitely The Phantom of the Opera, I'm obsessed about it almost as much as I'm obsessed about Les Mis after I saw it on stage in March, it was epic You should watch the 25th Anniversary in the Royal Albert Hall. It's great and there's really no alternative if you want to watch it, just stay away from the 2004 movie

Can't help there, but to stay on topic I saw The Sound of Music on Sunday and it was so good! I didn' expect it to be so good, because it's a small local theatre, but evidently they are expanding, so I'm definitely going back there for future productions.

poehler-bear

Oh good! So wait until the BD comes out. It will probably be super easy to find it then. Just a couple of weeks away.

Too late. I watched it years ago (probably soon after it was released). I didn't like it but I'd watch another version, since everybody says the movie is crap. I just have the feeling I did the wrong thing starting with Sondheim. I don't think anything can come close (if it does, life is better than I thought).

Oh! Exciting! I'm really curious about the stage version, since I've heard the movie changed a lot from the original. Also, I really, really want to see a musical live. But nothing that interests me show up but I'm watching an opera! Madame Butterfly, I can't wait (I'm pretty unfamiliar with operas, except from recordings I've heard over the years, but it seems like something I might enjoy)

Aga_darkside

So I'll wait then!

Well not everybody, only those who happen to know the stage version. Whenever I read comments that Gerard Butler is the best Phantom I want to murder someone Not that he's the only problem the movie has...

I don't remember the movie that well and the stage version was slightly different, but I don't think there were any major changes :shrug

Ah that's too bad I've been catching up this year, the musical theatre here's been getting really good in the last decade or so, but I missed some musicals and there's really a small chance of revivals anytime soon. I'm crying about Les Mis, because it was a fantastic production and it closed only a few months before I got obsessed

Gelfling

I was so sure I sent it to you as a CC

**** them

one of us is seeing live theatre at least

The two of you are making me jealous!

I keep thinking the same about some books and movies. Sometimes I look back on movies or books I hated and think "what was wrong with me?" but I guess I wasn't mature enough or my vision was limited by a lack of perspective.

When I think about all the a-holes selling other people's bootlegs, it makes me crazy! Don't pay for anything, if it's been filmed, it'll be traded and I got your back

I KNOOOOOOW! I get goosebumps just discussing it!!

Heh I thought you'd enjoy this one. I mean... the cast, the music, the story... it's perfection.

Not to be mean to the opening cast, yeah they were keeping the heavy duty cast for later

I had the exact same thought when I saw it for the first time

I'd recommend the Phantom of the Opera. It's not flawless and it's not Sondheim but it's ALW's best work I think. After that, Jesus Christ Superstar probably.

or keep it for a rainy day if you want to have a laugh. Like a parody.

****.

I'll ask my sister for that but I'm sure she'll have recs for other things as well.



yep. It can't get much better than this, I'm afraid.

poehler-bear

It's been a while since I looked into this so I might be exaggerating. But I definitely remember something about the Baroness. And ofc, they would make it more Hollywood friendly.

Nooooo!

Exactly. Or maybe you liked it, but you only got parts of it. Or you got it as you should at the moment of your life, and later you have another interpretation. Quite amazing how these things work.

Oh, I wouldn't. I get people not sharing because they wanna trade, but selling is just wrong.

And based on one of my favorite Bergman's! For some strange reason, before I had seen it, I kept thinking of The Red Shoes. I'd picture the show in my mind and images of The Red Shoes would come up anyway, random info.
Can we talk about Send in the Clowns? What a fantastic song! I also love that version of The Glamorous Life that Audra McDonald sang at the Birthday celebration.

I was googling whether replacements can be up for Tonys or not and I ended up finding a Times article exactly on that. It's a shame. Both Bernadette and Elaine were excellent. Well, stupid award rules in this case are the least of my worries. I'll have to accept the quality bootleg audio
(I love this:

+ their admiration for each other and Sondheim )

I just realized the happiness is even better when I think it's not just Sondheim, but Sondheim and Bergman! Who would have thought a material that originated from these two could have such a bright, happy ending? Maybe I'm missing something... hmmmm

Noted! Thanks, I'll check it out.
I started listening to the Song & Dance recording but it was so 80s, I couldn't go on.

Thanks!

More video!!!


ETA:
I can't get enough of Bernadette in this

Gelfling

we keep growing long after we finished growing
And our appreciation of art is intimately linked to who we are.

Oh well, a-holes will be a-holes.

I know! When you told me how much you loved the movie, I thought you'd have to watch the musical!

that's random indeed. I think there was an attempt at a musical about The Red Shoes but it flopped.

It's so Sondheim, that song. It's so bittersweet and reflective and it seems so personal to that character and that situation and yet... if you listen to the lyrics, you'll find something in there that seems to be written just for you.

Yeah they tried to have a "replacement" Tony for a few years, to be awarded IF there was a "worthy" replacement (meaning someone who made the part theirs enough to deserve it) but there were a bunch of extra rules (couldn't be a revival for example) and well, they never found anyone worthy and gave it up.
yeah that was a match made in heaven from all angles


of ALL people!

yeah 80ies. Unfortunately that's true of most of his stuff, including the good ones but at least PoTO is more "timeless" because it was written in a more "operatic" way.


I looooove that version! Well, I love that song, period but it's rarely given the talent of someone of Bernadette's caliber