Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's "Follies"
Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's "Follies"
#1Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's "Follies"
Posted: 3/21/15 at 3:32pm
Royal Albert Hall in London on April 28, 2015 (2 performances). Thoughts?
Betty Buckley
"Noel [Coward] and I were in Paris once. Adjoining rooms, of course. One night, I felt mischievous, so I knocked on Noel's door, and he asked, 'Who is it?' I lowered my voice and said 'Hotel detective. Have you got a gentleman in your room?' He answered, 'Just a minute, I'll ask him.'" (Beatrice Lillie)
Updated On: 3/21/15 at 03:32 PM
Showface
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/25/14
#2Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 3/21/15 at 3:45pmMeanwhile, Jennifer Coolidge has disappeared from the poster...
Phyllis Rogers Stone
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/16/07
#2Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 3/21/15 at 3:48pmI love Betty Buckley, though she wouldn't have crossed my mind as a Carlotta. But in a concert full of weird casting, I don't think hers is all that weird.
#3Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 3/21/15 at 4:08pmWho was Jennifer Coolidge going to play??
Showface
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/25/14
#5Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 3/21/15 at 8:48pm
Why can't they ever get people the right age for this role?
"Some nights he wants the works and some nights he gets it". Blech.
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#6Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 3/21/15 at 9:06pm
Carolotta? Buckley is many things, but not to my thinking a natural Carlotta. It's only a concert, but there, if anything, a more obvious shorthand is needed without opportunities to developed character (and Carlotta is rather narrowly set forth in the text anyway). It's unfair to to state that the lyrics aren't easily in sync with her persona. She's an actor, she can of course play many people unlike herself. But Carlotta's rue, her innate world-weariness is at odds with Buckley's neurotic edge. And I've often thought that Carlotta has to be almost ... no other way to put it ... a little tacky. I've seen many (including DeCarlo, twice), but the role still has DeCarlo's stamp, and when it's done best it leans in that direction (i.e. Ann Miller, Polly Bergen, Elaine Paige; not Carol Burnette, Christine Baranski.) Just my two cents, but I don't think there's actually a role for Betty Buckley in "Follies."
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
Updated On: 3/21/15 at 09:06 PM
indytallguy
Broadway Star Joined: 7/13/08
#7Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 3/21/15 at 9:30pmI'll take Betty Buckley singing Sondheim live in just about any role for a concert version. And I can see her playing Carlotta somewhat similar to how Hollis Resnik did in the Chicago Shakespeare Theater production a couple of years back.
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#8Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 3/21/15 at 9:47pm"Singing Sondheim live" is a little generic to me as an artistic expectation. It's a concert version of a show about very specific people looking back, this role possesses a POV and and sensibility that's show-biz specific and very focused. I don't see the Buckley of 2015 matching the necessary fading but still palpable glamour. It's not about her vocal or acting chops (expertise in both areas a given) but sensibilities. I admit I could be very wrong. I'd take Shirley Bassey.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
#9Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 3/21/15 at 10:33pmShe could sing a helluva "Who's That Woman."
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#10Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 3/22/15 at 7:28amVery true. Of course, what she might do with "...that woman is ME!" scares the hell outta me.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
#11Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 3/22/15 at 8:15am
Who was Jennifer Coolidge going to play??
Well, if her entire career is any indication, she'll be playing Jennifer Coolidge.
indytallguy
Broadway Star Joined: 7/13/08
#12Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 3/22/15 at 8:57am
"I don't see the Buckley of 2015 matching the necessary fading but still palpable glamour."
Fair point. I think I might see it in her more than you do, but can't argue with your assertion.
#13Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 3/22/15 at 11:30amBetty Buckley is great, but Betty Buckley is not Carlotta.
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#14Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 3/22/15 at 12:12pm
Those of you who see Buckley's breadth being limited by her famous neurotic edge:
Were Martha Jefferson (1776), Abby Bradford (Eight is Enough) and Miss Collins (Carrie) neurotic and edgy women?
Or did you find those Buckley performances somehow unconvincing because those characters weren't neurotic and edgy? (I ask because I don't recall anyone finding Buckley's work in those roles being subjected to widespread criticism... far from it).
I ask because one thing I have learned from bww's myriad casting discussions is that it is in our nature - and I include myself here at times - to be prone, with selective memory and a lack of imagination, by fixating only on certain experiences we've had of that performer and concluding that there's a limitation that may or may not be true.
Exhibit A: "Audra McDonald as Billie HolIday! WTF are they thinking!"
Updated On: 3/22/15 at 12:12 PM
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#15Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 3/22/15 at 12:25pm
You want to look at the dates on those performances? And then run through several since then? Using Martha Jefferson and Miss Collins as indicators of her body of work since provides an rarefied yardstick past a shelf life. I have infinite respect for Buckley. I'm even a fan. But to me, she's not Carlotta.
Of course, this is almost a prototypical BWW thread, parsing this into oblivion (and I'm the guiltiest parser here). Does anyone think Buckley will do a bad job? Not I. Doe anyone believe she won't in some way land the song? Not I. She's a consummate professional, a gifted interpreter of lyrics with a remarkable, distinctive voice. This is about a pair of performances, when sensibilities ideal for the characters might best serve. My quibble is: why choose this particular artist for this role. It's a rarefied quibble at that.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
Updated On: 3/22/15 at 12:25 PM
indytallguy
Broadway Star Joined: 7/13/08
#16Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 3/22/15 at 1:46pmThe Rarefied Quibbler would make a great autobiography title. :)
#17Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 3/22/15 at 4:30pm
Ruthie singing "Losing My Mind" and "In Buddy's Eyes"
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Ruthie-Henshall-Sings-Two-Sondheim-Showstoppers-Live-To-Preview-Royal-Albert-Hall-FOLLIES-20150322
Maybe it's something that has to be seen but, like so many others on record for me, the subtext of "In Buddy's Eyes" is lost during this vocal performance (for me, at least).
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
#18Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 3/22/15 at 4:51pmActually, I think Betty could be a hell of a Sally. She'd nail the pathos and sing the hell out of Losing My Mind. She plays unstable well.
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#19Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 3/22/15 at 4:52pm
But Auggie, why expect that because she's been so convincingly something particularized for so long that that's all she's capable of at this stage of her career? And why assume because her successes in roles that vary from that particularized something were so long ago that she's not capable of delivering now what she could so ably deliver back then?
There's a great irony. People often complain that performers are limited to a certain kind of typecasting, i.e. that "they are always the same." (see the claim about Ms. Coolidge, above). Then these same folks, it seems, often turn around and complain when they find someone cast in something that defies a well-worn mold of portrayals.
That's nonsensically having it both ways.
Isn't trying to keep an open mind, isn't having the imagination of a savvy theatergoer, far more appropriate than, contradictorily, mocking typecasting, on the one hand, and against type casting, on the other?
There's a difference between acknowledging that someone might not be a "natural fit" for something based on what she's been delivering for quite some time - which is merely stating a fact - and assuming that she won't be a great success in a role that's a stretch from that well-worn mold.
Especially since, quite often, casting that conforms to such a held "natural fit" can prove obvious, boring and too "on the nose" as well as perpetuating the complaint that the performer is "always the same."
I do agree that casting someone as Carlota who resonates with a trooper who's been around a great many rough blocks and not shied away from the trashy in her resume is the way to go. And for that reason Carol Burnett certainly struck many of us as not ideal casting.
But, Buckley has indeed careered from career to career, been someone's mother and stepmother, and certainly not shied away from camp (Margaret White)) or vamp (Grizabella) in a career that's had many highs, disappointments and outright oddities. And I wouldn't for a second doubt if she hasn't sometimes been asked "hey lady aren't you Whositz?
Updated On: 3/22/15 at 04:52 PM
#20Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 3/22/15 at 5:09pmAll that being said, I still view Carlotta as a vamp, still sexual. Buckley doesn't convey that in any of her incarnations. And Im a huge Buckley fan.
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
#21Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 3/22/15 at 6:02pmI just had a fleeting thought of Betty Buckley and Alice Ripley working together in something. Now, that would be something.
"Noel [Coward] and I were in Paris once. Adjoining rooms, of course. One night, I felt mischievous, so I knocked on Noel's door, and he asked, 'Who is it?' I lowered my voice and said 'Hotel detective. Have you got a gentleman in your room?' He answered, 'Just a minute, I'll ask him.'" (Beatrice Lillie)
#22Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 3/23/15 at 12:30pmAnd Lorna Luft is in the cast as well!
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#23Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 4/2/15 at 12:43pm
Who is Lorna Luft playing?
#24Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's
Posted: 4/2/15 at 1:07pm
Lorna is playing Hattie. I wish I could be there just to hear her sing "Broadway Baby."
Anyone know much about Anita Dobson, who is playing Stella?
