I started talking about this on another thread, but I think it deserves its own thread. (And yes I know this is pure speculation, but that's what BWW is for).
The question: Will they film the Broadway revival of A Little Night Music?
I say yes they will, but it all depends on getting Catherine Zeta-Jones to agree to it.
Here are the reasons why I think they will do it:
1) Lack of availability of the show. The film version is next to impossible to get and is not a good representation of the show.
2) Sondheim has allowed "Sweeney Todd" "Sunday in the Park..." "Into the Woods" "Company" and "Passion" all to be filmed. I'm sure he'll be on board for having this filmed.
3) I know there are questions about someone stepping up to finance the filming, but I think someone will because with Catherine Zeta-Jones' name on it, it has more potential to sell to a wider audience.
4) Send in the Clowns. Everyone knows this song and it will be a selling point to see it in the context of the show.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
It's possible. But, I have seen a recording of some production in a class, so if that exists, they might not.
"I don't want the pretty lights to come and get me."-Homecoming 2005
"You can't pray away the gay."-Callie Torres on Grey's Anatomy.
Ignored Users: suestorm, N2N Nate., Owen22, master bates
This is unlikely, but if the revival works on Broadway i wouldnt rule out another film version. Zeta Jones could do with a hit film and this might just be the vehicle.
"Wouldn't they want to, you know, wait for it to open and see if it's any good first?"
Good doesn't matter. They filmed Passion didn't they?
With Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury it will be a good production. It's 90% fail proof.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
I don't think the material is enough for a full fledged film. The music doesn't interest the 18-35 demographic.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
I guess my college professor recorded the Live from Lincoln Center thing then. It had Danielle Ferland from "Into the Woods," right? I remember watching that and thinking Little Red Riding Hood looked very familiar, and I guess that's why.
"I don't want the pretty lights to come and get me."-Homecoming 2005
"You can't pray away the gay."-Callie Torres on Grey's Anatomy.
Ignored Users: suestorm, N2N Nate., Owen22, master bates
I have a feeling this actually may get a television/dvd broadcast unless Zeta Jones objects to it. A NIGHT MUSIC film remake is extremely unlikely. The stage musical is just not cinematic and we saw what happened when they tried to define it by conventional film standards last time they attempted a movie of it...
"Good doesn't matter. They filmed Passion didn't they? "
Cringe, though I disagree strongly that Passion isn't 'Good', can we agree that elements of it - such as Donna Murphy's performance especially - were worth recording :)?
"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
I have the Live from Lincoln Center burned onto a DVD from a good-quality VHS tape of the broadcast. It's a very good representation of the show. I believe most of the songs are on YouTube.
Seeing the Weekend in the Country can make me happy when I'm depressed.
Watching the Elizabeth Taylor film can make me suicidal, even when I'm happy.
Pauline Kael's infamous review of the film in The New Yorker:
"Harold Prince directs as if he had never even seen a film before."
Kael HATED Sondheim though and wondered several times why anyone would enjoy his "sour" songs. I love reading her reviews, even when I disagree, but... The film isn't as bad as it's made out to be (before its DVD release it had the rep for being perhaps THE worse film of a musical ever--over such worse transfers like Chorus Line, etc)--it's well cast, has great tweaks to the score (I LOVE Hermione's new bit in Weekend in the COuntry, which is actually well filmed as a number), and... well maybe that's it. Its main fault IMHO is just a lack of energy.
I am mixed on Ellis' production filmed for Live at Lincoln Center with NYCOpera. It's a decent production. But the huge stage is filled with an oddly empty set (how I wish someone would bring back Aronson's gorgeous sliding birch trees set), the cast is just so so, I dunno there's a vibe about it that leaves me off. But again, Weekend in the Country is an almost perfect staging (it's performed by the same cast on the Sondheim Carnegie Hall DVD)
I would love any version of Night Music to get a DVD release. Though Sondheim's score is divine, Hugh Wheeler's book is one of the best ever written and deserves live preservation (I used to read the book over and over as a teenager).
The DVD came out in 2007 and is still very much in print (it's out on the budget/art house label Hen's Tooth and they did nothing to try to remaster the pretty ****ty quality print they could find, but it's all we'll ever get I'm sure).
Sorry, I just think Passion is a dreary, boring show.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.