In retrospect, our theatregoing in NY can be split into distinct pairings. HAIR and FELA! can both be grouped as celebratory 'experiences' and our fourth and fifth shows, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC and SOUTH PACIFIC are definitely 'classic' Broadway book musicals. NEXT TO NORMAL stands out as just being naff.
Another pairing that sprung to mind was that we were again seeing a Sondheim production in New York that we had originally seen at the Menier Chocolate Factory back in London - during our last trip we saw SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE at Studio 54.
To be honest the only thing on my mind as I took my seat was that FINALLY I was about to see Angela Lansbury in a musical! I had seen her with Bea Arthur at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 1990 singing "Bosom Buddies" from MAME at an AIDS fundraiser but finally here I was seeing her in a real show... and where better than on Broadway where she has won five Tony Awards - tying with Julie Harris for the most won for performing.
I was mindful that we had yet to see a cast without an understudy on so I was getting nervous - but the only announcement before the lights went down was from Angela herself in a typically amusing warning to turn off our mobile phones and not to unwrap sweets... needless to say 20 minutes into the show, someone's mobile went off.
Trevor Nunn has broadened out his production to fill the Walter Kerr stage - no other additions apart from that - so yes, the lighting is still as murky in places as it was at the Menier.
When I say that he had broadened it, I don't just mean the set - there was a slightly annoying habit by some of the cast to play up the double-entendres in Hugh Wheeler's book - at times it was worryingly like watching CARRY ON NIGHT MUSIC. I can only assume this was down to Nunn but I don't remember it being so marked in London. Needless to say this being a Trevor Nunn show it of course ran for his regulation three hours. A little more pace would not have gone amiss.
This show would have been the best of the trip but for a couple of performances which were akin to being elbowed in the eye. The roles of Ann and Henrik are notoriously difficult to pull off - juvenile roles with a fair amount of stage time that have to be played with respectively just the right amount of girlish enthusiasm and pompous rectitude otherwise they become tiresome. Ramona Mallory and Hunter Ryan Herdlicka - both making their Broadway debuts - became VERY tiresome.
Indeed Mallory so overdid the hysterical squealing and jabbering that one wondered why Fredrik had not had her sectioned. Why Nunn never reined them in during the rehearsal and previews is totally beyond me. What made her performance even more outlandish was that the young Katherine McNamara who played Desiree's young daughter Fredrika was a model of restraint and charm! 
What really annoyed me about Mallory and Herdlicka was that without them it would have been an exemplary supporting cast. Ok, Aaron Lazar as the egotistical Carl-Magnus had the grating habit of singing "wimmin" rather than "women" - which is a worry when his big solo was "In Praise Of Women" - but other than that he was fine and he was perfectly partnered by Erin Davie as his bitter and cynical wife Charlotte - her duet with Mallory on "Every Day A Little Death" was beautifully sung and actually drew the only true moment from her co-star.
A special mention must go to Leigh Ann Larkin as the only realist in the show, Ann's maid Petra. She stole every scene she was in - not difficult as she shared most of them with my two least favorite actors - and her rendition of "The Miller's Son" fully deserved the huge ovation she received. On our last trip we had seen her as the mutinous June in GYPSY so it was good to see her coming on!
But again, there was an irksome trick during her solo which I can only lay at Nunn's door. Larkin and Herdlicka play their roles with American accents while all the others use varying degrees of Received Pronunciation and towards the end of her song, while holding the note on "Meanwhiiiiile..." she suddenly verged into a Bronx accent singing "Meanwhiiiiyell..." that got a cheap laugh but ruined it for me. If it was some attempt to show that Petra was lower-class, it was unnecessary as she had done it through her performance!
Luckily Alexander Hanson has come over with the production to reprise his role as Fredrik and his witty, understated performance was good to see again. I suspect it was this unshowy aspect to his performance that won him the role against his formidable leading ladies.
As Owen suggested there was probably an interesting generational divide in who in the audience had come to see who and of course quite a few would have been there to see Catherine Zeta-Jones as Desiree.
Well she has come a long way since I used to see her clattering about backstage at 42ND STREET at Drury Lane with the show baseball cap welded to her head. As I was there to see my friend Carol Ball who played 'Anytime Annie', I have a good memory of who was in the cast - Catherine, your biog is wrong in the programme - you were chorus, love, not lead.
I'm not a big fan of her as I find her difficult to warm to. She was interesting to watch but again I never really forgot she was Giving A Performance. She gave a very luxurious, almost voluptuous reading of the part and as such, seemed to have her own rhythm against the other actors on stage, she always seemed somehow off the beat, which made her comedy scenes a trifle strained.
However in the odd moment, when she dropped her guard and allowed herself to be vulnerable on stage she showed a warmth that had been missing before. She was at her best in scenes with Hanson and their easy relationship together made it very easy to believe that they had once been intimate.
One such scene of course included her singing "Send In The Clowns" - not as heartbreaking as Judi Dench or Dorothy Tutin, not as emotional as Hannah Waddingham at the Menier, but all the more effective for her doing it quietly and ruefully. I happily joined in the large ovation she received for it.
Which of course brings us to Angela Lansbury.
Mme. Armfeldt is the perfect role for her now - a delightful gem of a part that due to it's small stage time makes you treasure each moment she's on stage. You simply couldn't take your eyes off her.She gave a performance of true star quality - every one of her laugh lines knocked out of the park with a deceptive ease, every look and piece of business timed to perfection.
She indeed has the timing of death - she gave a performance that almost revelled in the artificiality of high comedy but that turned on a coin to be breathtakingly poignant. Her scene toward the end with her grand-daughter (all her scenes with Katherine McNamara were charming) where she wistfully remembers a long lost lover who she turned down because he was not wealthy broke your heart simply by the way she timed the line "He could have been the love of my life".
Her solo number "Liaisons" was an object lesson in singing Sondheim. Perfectly sung, you could hear a pin drop as she quietly made the show her own.
Her final moments on stage were quite unforgettable. Slowly playing cards in her wheelchair as her grand-daughter watches for the night to smile, Mme. Armfeldt fell back in her chair with the cards scattering out of her hand as the audience reacted in shock.
By God, she was worth the wait.
This was the sunniest day so far so we took the '1' down to Battery Park so we could get the ferry to Liberty and Ellis islands. I had never felt the urge to go visit them before. I always enjoy visiting Battery Park however for one big obvious reason, it's a central location for DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN! Luckily I didn't get mugged by a murderer and bang my head, waking up to think I was a light-fingered free spirit instead of a quietly desperate New Jersey housewife... so we went to Liberty Island instead!
I'm so glad we did.. it was actually quite an awesome experience, watching the skyline of downtown New York recede and the Statue of Liberty loom closer and closer. What a strange feeling to finally see this iconic statue close up, very much like seeing the pyramids last year. I've seen it so many times in so many different circumstances that it is difficult to come to terms with it being in front of you, quite an experience.
After a while we went across Ellis Island which again conjures up strange feelings. The main entrance into America for mainly European immigrants over the period of 1892 - 1924, more than 12 million people streamed through it's doors to start a new life in America. Although only 2% were refused entry - usually on the grounds of having a contagious illness, because they were found to be a contract worker or having a criminal past - the whole building seems unutterably sad. It's almost like the hopes and fears of those millions of people have soaked into the walls. I bet it's a mighty scary place at night.
In the evening we went to see DOUBT at the Walter Kerr Theatre with Dezur as her birthday treat. DOUBT has been this year's must-see play of the season winning 7 Best Play awards including the Tony and Pulitzer, I must admit I had.. er.. doubts about it as I have seen previous plays of the season which weren't all that. But it was an excellent play, 90 minutes no interval.
Cherry Jones plays Sister Aloysius a stern nun running a Bronx school in the early 1960s who, despite having no evidence, accuses a priest (Brian F. O'Byrne) of abusing a boy pupil. Jones - who won the Tony award for
Best Actress - plays this difficult part with a ramrod back and caustic
wit, making no play for audience sympathy which pays off about half way
through in an extraordinary scene with the suspected boy's mother. The
actress who plays this - and won a Tony award for Best Supporting
Actress - was absent but the understudy Caroline Stephanie Clay was
fine.
Irish actor O'Bryne matched Jones stride for stride, his three speeches to the audience immediatly connecting and making you want to side with him when the nun accuses him. The other role is the seemingly slow Sister James (Heather Goldenhersh) who is torn between the two protagonists.
A richly rewarding night in the theatre with a killer curtain-line which had us debating the play over dinner afterwards. Oh and Brian O'Byrne's BROADWAY CARES curtain speech was very engaging!
More often than not the theatre's seemed to be - well - dingy, under-lit and with the strangest atmosphere of neglect and lacking in atmosphere.
the rather grey auditorium festooned with colour and light thanks to FELA's extended set design. Our happiness was made all the better when the bar-tender told us that we could take our drinks TO OUR SEATS! I nearly kissed her on both cheeks.
either queuing, trying to get away from the queue, trying to get to the loos that were situated on the lower landings of the two narrow staircases on each side of said corridor or people just trying to stretch their legs.
Apart from all the above. there was also the strange response from the audiences - to their surroundings and also to what they were watching.
Now I am happy to say that as Angela Lansbury came on to take her bow I was happy to stand and applaud her effortlessly magical performance - but by then, my fellow-audience members had been on their feet applauding the lowliest supporting cast.
