BERNADETTE WAS ROBBED- Page 4

[jayinchelsea]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 11:37pm

No, Bernadette was not robbed. Neither her performance nor her singing of those amazing songs worked. I've been watching FOLLIES since 1971 at its Boston tryout, and Dorothy Collins, followed by Julia McKenzie and Victoria Clark were the outstanding Sallys. And Susan Moniz in Chicago sang the score so beautifully.

[binau]

Posted: 5/29/13 at 10:31pm

Cross-posting, but I am too funny for it not to have a wider audience. And it seems that it's ripe to revive this thread today, too.

[FishermanBob]

Posted: 5/29/13 at 11:32pm

That's comedy gold right there. Let me tell ya! Ugh!

[lovebwy]

Posted: 5/29/13 at 11:49pm

I saw Bernadete Peters as Sally many times, maybe 5, and to me she was wonderful.

Then I moved to LA and saw Victoria Clark on her first performance. Clearly there was some "star quality" missing from the show for Peters absence.

However, by the end of the LA run Vicky Clark was soaring. Ron Raines let go- he and Clark were MAGIC together. It was only then that I understood what the people who called Peters miscast were talking about.

Though, ultimately, I was too young to see Dottie Collins in the role- from what I've seen on youtube she was the best Sally, now and forever.

I was so angry I could SPIT when Jan Maxwell lost, though. SHE was robbed!

[lovebwy]

Posted: 5/30/13 at 12:20am

This is not to say that Bernadette wasn't wonderful. I loved watching her in Follies.

And when I was a kid I saw her sing Not a Day Goes By at the 1992 Sondheim celebration at Carnegie Hall. I'm a big fan and have great respect for her place in Broadway history.

[Visceral_Fella]

Posted: 5/30/13 at 12:49am

I'm also on the Jan Maxwell was robbed boat lovebwy

[binau]

Posted: 8/4/20 at 6:27pm

I know this probably makes me as pathological as Sally herself given it has almost been 10 years but I am still not over this. Like a fine wine, it feels that Bernadette's performance and the 2011 cast recording in general just gets better over the years - especially to reflect on some of the amazing cast members that have passed, Jan Maxwell & Rosalind Elias. 

In particular, I still cannot get over how amazing Bernadette's final verse of "In Buddy's Eyes" is - with that carefully controlled vibrato with her classic and unique timbre, especially on those final notes "to seeeeee, in buddy's eyessssssss". It's just so, so beautiful and heartbreaking. I have listened to the recording over 1,000 times and it never gets old. And her vocal strength is even more obvious now comparing to Staunton in the generally awfully sung London revival (by most of the cast), including or ESPECIALLY in "Too Many Mornings".  

Bernadette's voice itself sounds even stronger here (or even on the Gypsy cast recording) in hindsight to me when I think about the state of her voice currently from "Hello, Dolly". 

 

 

[darreyl102]

Posted: 8/4/20 at 11:14pm

There are SOOO how many terrible things that are going on in this world right now to be upset about, and this is what you're STILL harping about almost a decade later? Lolzz.

[Owen22]

Posted: 8/4/20 at 11:28pm

The quality of the performances in that production, especially Bernadette, is quite remarkable when you take into account how badly directed this revival was. The Imelda Staunton revival was stunningly directed. And I think with a musical life Follies direction is key. Which is why I enjoying the London Revival so much more.

Plus the American revival was directed by someone who wasn't just a mediocre director, but a terrible, sexual harassing person as well.

[DAME]

Posted: 8/4/20 at 11:37pm

Owen22 said: "The quality of the performances in that production, especially Bernadette, is quite remarkable when you take into account how badly directed this revival was. The Imelda Staunton revival was stunningly directed. And I think with a musical life Follies direction is key. Which is why I enjoying the London Revival so much more.

Plus the American revival was directed by someone who wasn't just a mediocre director, but a terrible, sexual harassing person as well."

And THAT’S why Bernadette was robbed.  GURL!

 Fun to read this thread again.

[bear88]

Posted: 8/5/20 at 3:34am

This thread is funny, and I get a kick out of the fact that qoIbinau is still bugged by this. But I get it, especially as a fan of Peters myself. And it's not like we have a bunch of new theater to discuss, so why not this? I haven't the slightest idea whether Bernadette Peters was "robbed," as I didn't see any of the performances live - though I did see a lousy YouTube version of the Washington, D.C. tryout of Follies. I know people had issues with inconsistency, which I can't address, and others just didn't like her take on Sally. 

But I will make this comment because I can assess the cast recording. Peters' vocal performances of the two big Sally ballads are wonderful. And her delivery in Follies of the conclusion of "Losing My Mind," singing lower than ending on a pure soprano, seems pretty unique to her and works both musically and as an acting choice that illustrates Sally's vulnerability. 

As for A Little Night Music, her performance of "Send in The Clowns" feels like the definitive version of that song for me, especially as it's performed in the musical - not as a standalone song divorced from the show.

[binau]

Posted: 8/5/20 at 8:11am

Owen22 said: "The quality of the performances in that production, especially Bernadette, is quite remarkable when you take into account how badly directed this revival was. The Imelda Staunton revival was stunningly directed. And I think with a musical life Follies direction is key. Which is why I enjoying the London Revival so much more."

There were some stunning things about the London revival I thought - the staging in Act One was so beautiful, much more elaborate than the Broadway revival. And there was a lot more going on compared to the 2011 revival. I also thought the London staging helped clear up some of the constant ambiguous discussion points that have been discussed on this board in the past (e.g., is "I'm Still Here" a Follies number or book number, in "Lucy & Jesse" clarifying who Lucy and Jesse were). That said, I found that "Loveland" in the 2011 revival was much more striking visually and in general the colour contrasts (e.g. costumes & lights) seemed to 'pop' more, which I loved, whereas I thought the London revival felt more pastelle pallette that were likely more appropriate for the period but less striking. 

The 2011 revival had this drab, drab drab feeling in Act One to me - which made the show seem a lot creepier and more mysterious to me (including the broken wooden floor panels across the stage), but at the same time maybe a little more boring. I can see why people seem to resonate towards the London revival - but for me the performances always come first.

"There are SOOO how many terrible things that are going on in this world right now to be upset about, and this is what you're STILL harping about almost a decade later? Lolzz."

I always find posts like this funny. This is a theatre discussion board - I come here and post about these things for exactly the reason you suggest - there ARE so many terrible things happening in the world right now. I want more from life than that. There are very few pursuits that I consider more important and meaningful than the pursuits of hobbies, interests & art - I certainly do not find much meaning in life to ruminate in world events longer than absolutely necessary.

"I know people had issues with inconsistency, which I can't address, and others just didn't like her take on Sally."

Mmmm this was one of the challenging things. I only saw her once (the first Broadway preview), my observation from this performance, the cast recording + bootlegs is that:

* The core interpretation of her performance did not vary greatly 
* In Buddy's Eyes was always quite consistent in interpretation + quality, perhaps slightly slower and more induldgent towards the end of the run but I always found this as a strength (the score clearly shows this is a slow song, much slower than sung on the OBC so I never understood why sometimes people criticise the tempo of this song. It was performed as written). 
* Her ability to pull off "Too Many Mornings" varied a little - she cracked at the first preview and I think found it hard to transition to the high Soprano notes sometimes (but once she hit them it was fine). In general though, she was never able to get that powerful pure effortless soprano sound here that Victoria Clark, Marin Mazzie or someone like Kelli O'Hara would
* The most inconsistent song performance was probably "Losing My Mind". It seemed to get a bit more teery and wobally as time went on. But her performance on the cast recording was very solid and for the most part, a rather 'straight' reading (I wonder if Sondheim actually whipped her a little bit in the recording session on this point. If I recall, Victoria Clark publically noted that Sondheim gave her a note about the intention of the song that suggests a straight reading is more appropriate).
* In general, the cast recording is a very very good record of her performance in my opinion - I don't think she sounded better in a theatre and she was in strong voice. The only difference between the recording and seeing it live I would say is that when she sang it in the theatre with a lot of open space and sound blending from the orchestra etc. her voice might have sounded a TINY bit less raggy. Whereas when you are standing 5cm from the mic and everything in terms of sound layers is so carefully segmented it does exaggerate and highlight flaws a little I think. 

 

 

[Broadway61004]

Posted: 8/5/20 at 9:06am

I don't know if I agree she was robbed (she was good, although comparing to the other nominees that year, I would say was weaker than Audra and Jan and on about the same page as Kelli (I didn't see the other two, so I can't really comment on who was the most deserving of the nods)), however I will 100% say she (and this revival for that matter) were a thousand times better than Judith Ivey and the 2001 revival.  So there's at least that.

[Jarethan]

Posted: 8/5/20 at 3:09pm

That production of Follies was the only one ever where I thought the male leads excelled in a way that the female leads did not.  I never saw it in NYC, but I saw it first in an early performance and again at the last Saturday night in DC..  I thought that Jan Maxwell's performance was well-acted, but her Lucy and Jessie was an embarrassment...both times.  BP was in very fine voice the second time, a little worrisome the first, (i.e., when you held your breath wondering whether she was going to hit the note).  

My issue with BP's performance was tin her acting choices...I thought she started out a little too overwrought right out of the gate and went downhill from there; it was a serious mistake.  Whether that was adjusted for NYC, I do not know; I do recall that she received mixed reviews, which makes me assume she did not adjust her approach much.  She is normally a very fine actress, so it was a shame IMO.

Overall, I have to admit that I was greatly disappointed by just about all of that production, although I still enjoyed most of it.  Follies is capable of greatness in the right hands, at least in Harold Prince and Michael Bennett's hands, and this production was just reasonably entertaining, perhaps more so if you had no other production with which to compare it.  The cast was generally fine, but for me NO ONE was memorable.  I thought the Loveland set was about as hideous as it could have been.  I was reminded of those 'flowers' we used to make in elementary school a thousand years ago by folding up tissue papers and sticking them through a bobby pin. and ply around with to create a flower effect.  

[LovesBway!]

Posted: 8/5/20 at 4:28pm

Was she in Palm Desert as well?

[ArtMan]

Posted: 8/5/20 at 7:52pm

darreyl102 said: "There are SOOO how many terrible things that are going on in this world right now to be upset about, and this is what you're STILL harping about almost a decade later? Lolzz."

And this affects you how????