Bernadette Peters & Martin Short To Team Up For I DO, I DO?

[Jordan Catalano]

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/RIALTO-CHATTER-I-DO-Bernadette-Peters-Martin-Short-to-Team-up-for-I-DO-I-DO-Revival-20111117

[ljay889]

I know nothing about this show. Is it a good role for Bernadette? She can't be stopped lately!

[Jordan Catalano]

I'm not 100% sold on Martin Short in the role, but I think Bernadette would be just lovely in this.

[iluvtheatertrash]

I think they're both way too old. (Bernadette -- pregnant? Really?) But it's a lovely little gem of musical theater that I'd love to see again. It's been years since I've seen a decent production. But I'll see it with these two for sure...

Personally, I would've loved to have seen Santino Fontana and Kate Baldwin star in a production of this together.

[Gaveston2]

It's a perfect role for Peters, I should think. Martin Short could be equally terrific or appallingly awful. His choice.

I wonder if a director today would feel compelled to "jazz up" what is essentially a very simple piece. Why the "coup de theatre" in the original was that the actors played musical instruments for part of one number! Hard to believe, I know...

[SondheimFan5]

Rob Ashford? Ha.

I can't imagine who the music director will be if Peters is involved.... *cough* Marvin *cough*

[hushpuppy]

The show is covers a 50-year span of a marriage, so no matter who they cast, as the old song goes, 'They're either too young or too old'

FWIW, Mary Martin was 53 and Robert Preston was 48 when the original production opened, and IIRC, alternates performed matinees.

[dreaming]

I hope, I hope! I think it would be a great role for Bernadette.

[emilyfaye48]

yes please, BP Flaming Agnes!

[Gaveston2]

hushpuppy, IBDB doesn't seem to reflect this, but my memory is that not only were there alternates for matinees (at least eventually if not at first), the alternates were stars in their own rights: Carol Lawrence and Gordon MacRae.

I think Mary Martin mentions them in her autobiography.

(IBDB shows Lawrence and MacRae as replacements, but not as matinee performers.)

****

ETA THE PLOT THICKENS: in her autobiography, (MY HEART BELONGS, p. 287), Mary Martin says they had no alternates and no standbys, that David Merrick thought audiences would want refunds if either star were out.

She says their original agreement was that there would be no Wed. matinee and that they would play Sat. matinees only as long as their strengths permitted. They did 7 shows per week with Sat. mats for six months and then 6 shows per week with no matinees thereafter.

On the other hand, IMDB shows Lawrence and MacRae as alternates beginning with the tenth month and replacements after a year. So maybe they DID do matinees for a couple of months before Martin and Preston left.

As one would expect of a highly competitive star (see Kirkwood's LEGENDS), Martin makes no mention of anyone else ever playing her part.

[bjh2114]

NOOOOOOO!!!!! They are both WAY too old. Kate Baldwin and Lewis Cleale just did this at Westport, and it was perfection. Yet it spans for 50 years of marriage, but NEITHER Bernadette nor Martin CAN PLAY mid-20s!!! It's easier to cast the show young and put the stars in age makeup for the end (the way Westport did this was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen on stage).

[Gaveston2]

I'm not that bothered by the age issue. (It seems to me that professional productions usually star older actors who play younger in Act I, rather than younger actors who play older in Act II. I think this is appropriate since the first act is more comic and the second more serious.)

But if it's true that Peters is having vocal problems with Sally in FOLLIES, how will she handle Agnes, who sings three times as many songs (even if most of those songs are easier to sing)?

[Overkill]

I don't care what show it is or if they're right for the roles or not - I want Martin back on Broadway more than anything, and to star with Bernadette again? Perfection. I hope this happens!!!

[ljay889]

I don't think Bernadette has had vocal issues in FOLLIES since previews. She's been sounding great.

[Michael Bennett]

I think its good casting, though I'm not sure there is much of an audience for this show. Would be cute at MTC or Roundabout.

Peters certainly wouldn't have any trouble with the score; I don't think she's missed any performances at FOLLIES and lately seems to be in strong vocal shape.

I think Patti and Mandy should do the matinees.

[Jordan Catalano]

I saw it again yesterday and besides some of the bizarre dialogue choices she still makes, she sounded fantastic.

[Gaveston2]

Thanks for the update on Peters' singing. I'm so glad to hear it!

I DO! I DO! is a show that can be tight or an exercise in endless actor indulgences. I think this production would depend heavily on how willing Short would be to go easy on the shtick. Despite the theatricality of a bed as the entire set, the actual text is fairly realistic for a musical. And its realism is its charm.

[Michael Bennett]

Bernadette isn't immune to schmacting either - they definitely would need a strong director.

[Gaveston2]

^^^^

Yes. What Michael Bennett (appropriate hat at this moment) said.

[sskeats2]

I'm not bothered by the age issue either (suspension of disbelief) In fact, I think it makes better sense for Bernie than Follies which IMHO she's been miscast.

[PalJoey]

Bernadette and Martin Short would be EXQUISITE in this.

Watch Julie Andrews and Robert Goulet here, singing "My Cup Runneth Over" from I Do, Do, and imagine Bernadette and Martin:

http://youtu.be/_WFpohCw3x8

In only a moment
We both will be old.
We won't even notice
The world turning cold.
And so, in this moment,
With sunlight above,
My cup runneth over with love.

[Dollypop]

The song "What is a Woman?" might pprovide a challenge if it is to seem politically correct. I mean the lyric, "That's why a woman is only alive when in love" is bound to irritate many in the audience.

[givesmevoice]

I think Patti and Mandy should do the matinees.

I love the way you think, MB.

[Gaveston2]

Dollypop, it's been awhile since I've seen the show, but I think the political problem you point out is all through the text (even if not always so literally). I think you either accept I DO! I DO! (or THE FOURPOSTER) as a period piece or leave it in the drawer.

I suspect an "updating" would only lead to WTF? threads like the current, CLEAR DAY thread.

[Jon]

The lyric for "What is a Woman" was changed for the 1996 revival:

To be a woman
Can be so lonely
That doesn't mean she
Is only alive when in love.

The new version also moves "My Cup Runneth Over" to Act 2 (after "When the Kids Get Married")and adds a new mini-song for Michael called "The Waiting Room", leading into "Love Isn't Everything".