Leigh Ann Larkin
Leigh Ann Larkin
#1Leigh Ann Larkin
Posted: 12/24/15 at 7:16pm
When will she come back to broadway? She gave stunning performances in "Gypsy" and "A Little Night Music". I could listen to her rendition of "The Miller's Son" for ages. I know she was recently in Violet somewhere, but are there any possibilities she might come back? She's one of my favorites!
#2Leigh Ann Larkin
Posted: 12/24/15 at 8:27pm
I'm sure she'll be back eventually. Possibly in another Sondheim property?
They/them.
"Get up the nerve to be all you deserve to be."
#3Leigh Ann Larkin
Posted: 12/24/15 at 8:46pm
I'm surprised she hasn't been working more on Broadway. After GYPSY she was in demand with two offers from Ragtime and Night Music on Broadway, and she wisely chose Night Music.
#4Leigh Ann Larkin
Posted: 12/24/15 at 9:19pm
I distinctly remember Brantley crucifying her in his Night Music review.
#6Leigh Ann Larkin
Posted: 12/25/15 at 12:06am
God that Brantley review (for the whole production) was more negative than I remember.
"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
#8Leigh Ann Larkin
Posted: 12/25/15 at 12:17pm
She moved to LA to try and make it in film, I believe. She has had some guest spots. I'm sure she will be back on Broadway. She is incredible.
#9Leigh Ann Larkin
Posted: 12/25/15 at 12:25pm
It was a devastating review From Brantley. Even harder to swallow because he gave it a favorable review in London, which helped prompt the transfer. Oh well, the revival was a big hit, and many people grew to appreciate it over time, especially once Peters and Stritch joined.
#10Leigh Ann Larkin
Posted: 12/25/15 at 1:44pm
While I thought Brantley's infamous takedown of her performance in NIGHT MUSIC was vicious, he was absolutely right about the weakness of the performance, which simply didn't work. Obviously "The Miller's Song" is notorious for being one of Sondheim's hardest songs to sing and "get," and Larkin was just lost at sea with it. I blame Nunn's direction which led to soms of the most uneven performances in a revival that I ultimately liked. Imagine a young Bernadette Peters or a GASLIGHT-era Angela Lansbury singing that song...
Anyway, Larkin's June remains one of the most effective and wildly creative reinventions of a character in the canon. A bad performance in a so-so revival hasn't kept our brightest stars from working. I'd love to see her back on Broadway.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#11Leigh Ann Larkin
Posted: 12/25/15 at 3:21pm
The revival was not a "big hit". It was a modest success that recouped its investment in its final week. And Larkin was dreadful in it.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#12Leigh Ann Larkin
Posted: 12/25/15 at 3:57pm
Dreadful is way too harsh a word. She was misdirected but not embarrassing. A few other people in that revival did give dreadful performances but she wasn't one of them.
#13Leigh Ann Larkin
Posted: 12/25/15 at 4:22pm
425 performances, slightly over a year run, and several sold out weeks with the first cast is certainly quite a nice success for a Sondheim revival. It's his second longest running revival (music and lyrics) after Forum. I'm not going to argue whether it was a big or moderate hit, but it was very exciting to see a Sondheim revival do so well.
#14Leigh Ann Larkin
Posted: 12/25/15 at 5:26pm
The sheer star power of the first cast had it practically sold out every week. That's a great achievement I think. And enough people still came with Bernadette to eventually turn a profit (including additional expenses of closing and reopening).
I'm a bit biased because it was my first (and eventually second) trip to NYC, but I loved this revival. Ignoring some (imo mostly minor) quibbles, how great it was to be a Sondheim fan and have the glamorous Zeta Jones/Lansbury pairing and then the Broadway legend Peters/Stritch pairing. It's hard to ask for more.
"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
VintageSnarker
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/30/15
#15Leigh Ann Larkin
Posted: 12/25/15 at 6:10pm
I really enjoyed that revival. I saw it with Catherine Zeta Jones and Angela Lansbury. It's one of the few nights I can remember at the theatre where a comedy was genuinely hilarious throughout. No one was forcing polite laughter. I don't remember Leigh Ann Larkin's performance that specifically but she sounds great on the album. I spoke to her briefly after a concert a while back and who knows if it means anything but she said that some things are in the works and she could be on stage again soon. Even if it was true, things could easily fall through but I'd like to see her in a show again.
#16Leigh Ann Larkin
Posted: 12/25/15 at 6:54pm
Ljay, you have always been a big proponent of the revival so perhaps you can't look at the facts from an unbiased position. But it wasn't a big hit, and it was very lucky to have even made the money it did. The producers made a lot of stupid decisions (who signs a star to a 6-month contract, then allows her to take two vacations?) and Bernadette deserves a lot of credit for putting the show over the edge of recoupment.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#17Leigh Ann Larkin
Posted: 12/25/15 at 11:50pm
I liked the revival but hilarious is certainly not a word I'd ever use to describe it. Nunn, in fact, took a lot of fun out of the proceedings. I agree Larkin herself was incredibly misdirected and gave a bit of a mess of a performance in an incredibly challenging, nearly impossible, role. Not a reason enough not to be excited about her next Broadway role though. I remember her name was often bandied about in GRAND HOTEL dream casting threads (for the Jane Krakowski part), I'd love to see her tackle that.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
teh_pretty
Featured Actor Joined: 4/2/05
#18Leigh Ann Larkin
Posted: 12/26/15 at 7:09am
"...I agree Larkin herself was incredibly misdirected and gave a bit of a mess of a performance in an incredibly challenging, nearly impossible, role."
Forgive my ignorance - I know and enjoy Night Music, but certainly not as well or as deeply as others here. I've always wondered why people speak so direly of the role of Petra. At the risk of being laughed out of this thread, what makes the role so nearly impossible?
#19Leigh Ann Larkin
Posted: 12/26/15 at 8:14pm
For those wondering if she's still pursuing musical theatre, looks like Leigh Ann is just finishing up a run of EMMA the Musical in Silicon Valley. The reviews seem pretty high on her performance.
#20Leigh Ann Larkin
Posted: 12/27/15 at 9:37am
The production became a lot funnier when Peters, Stritch, and Buntrock took over, all of whom played the humor much more broadly than their predecessors. The rest of the cast followed suit. Erin Davie even finally realized that her role was supposed to be funny.
