On July 13th, 2010, Trevor Nunn's revival of the Stephen Sondheim-Hugh Wheeler musical, A Little Night Music, originally produced and directed by Harold Prince on Broadway in 1973, re-opened after a two-week hiatus.The production originally opened on Broadway in December, but had begun life a year earlier at London's Menier Chocolate Factory, the 180-seat theatre which also produced the revival of La Cage aux Folles the Broadway-transfer of which recently bested Night Music for the Tony as the season's Best Musical Revival.
The Meiner Night Music which opened in late 2008 and transferred to the West End's Garrick Theatre in March of 2009 for a run of four months, won mostly enthusiastic reviews from the London critics, many of whom praised the production's intimacy and Chekhovian overtones. While some questioned Nunn's decision to cast actors closer to the ages of their counterparts in Ingmar Bergman's film Smiles of a Summer Night, the basis for the musical, than for the musical itself, the cast, headed by 34-year-old Hannah Waddingham (fifteen years younger than Glynis Johns was when she created the role on Broadway), won mostly strong reviews, particularly for Waddingahm's "truly gorgeous" (Daily Mail) rendition of the musical's famous song, "Send In the Clowns."
When the same production moved to Broadway this winter, only Alexander Hanson as lawyer Frederik Egerman was brought over to recreate his role from the UK cast. Broadway and Sondheim legend Angela Lansbury, fresh from her fifth Tony win the previous season took on the role of Madame Armfeldt, originated by Hermione Gingold in 1973 and created for this production at the Menier by Maureen Lipman. Taking over for Waddingham was screen star, Catherine Zeta-Jones.
The production opened to mixed reviews. While Ben Brantley was cool in his enthusiasm for the production as a whole in The New York Times, he admitted that Zeta-Jones brought "a decent voice, a supple dancer’s body and a vulpine self-possession to her first appearance on Broadway" though he also felt "Ms. Zeta-Jones delivers her big ballad, 'Send In the Clowns,' with an all-out emotionalism that I suppose makes sense but doesn’t jibe with the character’s amused urbanity. And swapping arch banter, sung or spoken, doesn’t come naturally to Ms. Zeta-Jones."
Variety's David Rooney felt "Director Trevor Nunn brings a blunt, heavy hand where a glissando touch is required, but the wit and sophistication of the material are sufficient to withstand even this phlegmatic staging." Several critics complained that the small eight-piece orchestration created for the tiny Menier staging was inadequate for Broadway, while others logged disappointment with the spare set and monochromatic costumes.
Positive response to Lansbury's performance was almost unanimous, but while Zeta-Jones had champions including New York Magazine and Time Out New York, most critics, while praising the star's presence and beauty, had reservations about her performance, many noting that the star seemed to be pushing, with a resulting "overdone" quality. (For more, see Leo Benedictus's round-up of critical appraisal of Zeta-Jones's performance in The Guardian.)
Despite her somewhat mixed reviews, Zeta-Jones when on to win a Tony for her role as Best Actress in a Musical. The win was seen by some as part of a break-down in Tony credibility, with some claiming that the decision to excise the New York critics from the Tony voting pool had compromised the Tonys which would now be forced to champion commercial merits over artistic ones. (Read gossipy Michael Riedel's take on the situation here.) Zeta-Jones was only one of many Hollywood stars to be nominated for Tonys in the 2009-2010 season. Combined with the wins of Scarlett Johansson and Denzel Washington, Zeta-Jones's award helped prompt a Facebook campaign to "Give the Tonys Back to Broadway" which was begun following the awards. (Read Johansson's response here).
However, though Zeta-Jones won over lesser-known stage actresses in her category, both Kate Baldwin and Christiane Noll had appeared in musical revivals that had closed in January after short runs in the fall. Sherie Rene Scott, whose one-woman show was a late-season replacement, was essentially playing herself, which may not have seemed like a particularly strong accomplishment to voters. Some had predicted that Zeta-Jones's most noteworthy competition would come from Broadway newcomer Montego Glover in the Tony-winning Best Musical of the season, Memphis. While it could be argued that opened or closed, Baldwin and Noll's contributions should have been equally considered, Glover suffered from an underwitten role, and of all the roles for which the actresses were in competition this year, Zeta-Jones's, though the role with the least singing, is also the strongest, richest, and most complex character which may have impressed voters.
Zeta-Jones's performance of "Send In the Clowns" on the awards show itself met with criticisms similar to her performance on stage, perhaps with some of the problems being magnified by the camera and also by several months of playing the show repeatedly, a feat to which the actress was not accustomed. In their live blog of the performance at The New York Times website, Charles Isherwood complained, "She’s overacting it as she did in the show. So unnecessary. And vulgar." Dave Itzkoff quipped, “Swing your razor high, Catherine.”
Judge the performance for yourself here:
A month prior to the Tonys, the production had announced a closing date of June 20th, at the end of Lansbury and Zeta-Jones's contracts. There had been rumors in the preceding months that real-life mother and daughter Gwyneth Paltrow and Blythe Danner had considered taking over, and Debbie Reynolds also announced that she had been approached to take over for Lansbury. Evidently suitable agreements were not reached with these or any other stars and the production was slated to close a week after the Tonys.
Ten days after the closing was announced, however, it was reported that Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch might be taking on the Zeta-Jones and Lansbury roles and that the production might not close after all. The official announcement that the pair had, in fact been cast, came on June 7th, along with the news that the production would actually shut down after Zeta-Jones and Lansbury's final performance on June 20th, re-opening with the new stars on July 13th.
Like Lansbury, Stritch has had a long-lasting association with Sondheim, having first performed his work forty years ago in the original production of Company. Peters, of course is also a Sondheim and Broadway veteran, unlike Zeta-Jones who was a Sondheim novice and unused to the stage. In addition, Peters is one of few remaining Broadway stars who has been able to carry a show on the strength of her name in the last fifteen years.
Critics are expected to begin attending performances by the end of the month, with reviews of the new stars appearing in early August. It remains to be seen whether the casting of Peters, who many already view as an effortless improvement on her predecessor, along with co-star Stritch will improve the production in the minds of critics who previously gave it a luke-warm reception.
Initial reports in the first days of performances after the re-opening indicated that 85-year old Stritch was having trouble with the lines, but that Peters was in excellent form. Now a little over a week into their run, word that Stritch has gained confidence and shed her difficulties with the words indicate that with Peters and Stritch, this may indeed be the ticket of the summer.
