Bernadette Peters - New York Magazine interview

[ABB2357]

Posted: 8/15/11 at 3:52pm

This seems to be getting a lot of flack on the other board for the writer's perceived inability to ask Peters any "real" questions.

I thought it was a decent piece, not a great one, certainly limited in both length and insight. There's some description of her process, but she doesn't reveal much (I remember her saying in other interviews that she doesn't like to discuss it in too much detail).

Still, I'm interested to hear opinions on this. Does anyone think the writer was too intimidated/respectful of Peters to be more persistent and hard-hitting? Is she so beloved in the community that people are afraid to ask intimate questions, especially after the tragic death of her husband?
Sondheim Baby

[dreaming]

Posted: 8/15/11 at 4:01pm

I would have liked a little more insight into her journey to Sally other than an overview of her career (I can get that on ibdb or any number of sites). I do think that the piece really needed something more humanizing about Ms. Peters. She's really a bright and energetic performer and I'd have liked a lot more about her desire to play this role, especially since I've seen elsewhere that she'd wanted it for ages. (And a brief discussion of her portrayal of Desiree might have been nice.)

I guess it felt like the writer was someone who'd stumbled upon her outside the stage door and followed her in. She could have gently hit on some points-much of acting has to have truth in it and connections with real life can provide a great deal of that. She chose these roles for a reason. (Other than her love of Sondheim.)

[newintown]

Posted: 8/15/11 at 4:15pm

You can't expect more than this from Jesse Green - he's a press-packet-regurgitator.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/15/11 at 5:18pm

He's hardly that. He's the author of the famous, scathing take-down of Arthur Laurents called "When You're a Shark, You're a Shark All the Way":

http://nymag.com/arts/theater/profiles/55341/

He's also the author of a lovely memoir about the baby he and his partner adopted:



The Velveteen Father: An Unexpected Journey to Parenthood

Updated On: 8/15/11 at 05:18 PM

[redmustang]

Posted: 8/15/11 at 5:23pm

How about "Did you see the original Follies?"

[ABB2357]

Posted: 8/15/11 at 6:07pm

Normally I'm a big fan of Jesse Green. He and Scott Brown are both assets to New York Magazine.

I was surprised that there was very little mention of Desiree, too. It's big news for Peters to be back in another Sondheim revival less than a year after her previous one closed. Prior to that, there was a 7-year gap between NIGHT MUSIC and GYPSY.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 8/15/11 at 7:54pm

I thought this article was poignant, its brevity enhancing the portrait in miniature Mr. Green has completed. The piece becomes extremely personal without becoming sentimental.

I felt as though I got to know Ms. Peters somewhat intimately. It is to Mr. Green's credit, in my opinion, that he did not editorialize and simply presented glimpses into some of the pain and emotion from which Ms. Peters draws the dynamics of her FOLLIES character.

A very touching, and subtle, piece.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 8/15/11 at 7:54pm

Oh, and I love the photos.

[EponineAmneris]

Posted: 8/15/11 at 8:18pm

GORGEOUS pictures. LOVED the physical description of the dressing room. Nice piece.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 8/15/11 at 9:45pm

Thanks for the Laurents article, joey! I live in the hinterlands (literally and metaphorically) and hadn't seen it.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 8/15/11 at 9:52pm

Who's giving it flack? I think it's short but lovely. I'm sure Jesse was only given a certain amount of words, and I think he did a wonderful job giving readers a snapshot of Bernadette.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 8/15/11 at 9:53pm

I thought the piece was gorgeous and spare. It didn't need to be in-depth. It was nuanced and presented a very different side of a performer known for her ebullience. I've read the little piece several times and it intrigues me.

I'd prefer this lovely piece to some queen gushing all over her. It's almost as if he was neutral and let her open up into the spaces.

I thought it was brilliant.

[Kad]

Posted: 8/15/11 at 11:33pm

I, too, thought it was a wonderful piece. It was very simple, but revealed a lot about Peters as both a person and performer.

I love this quote, and I imagine any other performer would as well:

“Isn’t it a strange profession? When you have to look for something like that within yourself, it’s scary. And what’s also scary,” she adds, touching the moon at her throat, “is that you find it.”

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 1:21am

Kad, That struck me as the perfect way to end the piece. It certainly resonates with me.

[singtopher]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 1:40am

LOVED that quote.