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| Author | Topic: Sondheim Etc. Etc. |
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 Jean
Registered User
Registered:
6/7/2003 | posted: 7/29/2005 at 2:12:38 PM ET
http://www.broadway.com/gen/Buzz_Story.aspx?ci=515851
"Bernadette Peters stands as the foremost musical-theatre diva of her generation, one who continues to appear in substantial runs of Broadway musicals..."
A nice bouquet from Ken Mandelbaum @broadway.com.
| PTM
Registered User
Registered:
6/26/2003 | posted: 8/2/2005 at 12:22:15 AM ET
Here's the text of Mandelbaum's review of the actual concert which appeared in the Dec. 30, 1996 issue of Theater Week:
"Whenever I'm in the presence of Bernadette Peters, I'm conviced that she is the most talented and irresistible musical theater lady of her generation. Without a dishonest bone in her body, she is incapable of a false gesture or phony mannerism. She remains unbelievable looking at an age when stars used to (and sometimes still do) begin to show their age. And her skills as singer, actress, and all-around performer seem to me pretty much impeccable.
Her eveing at Carnegie Hall on December 9 - a benefit for GMHC - saw her in adventurous and triumphant form. The first half of her very generous program included many of her standards ("We're in the the Money," Broadway Baby," "If You Were the Only Boy in the World," "Unexpected Song"), which she manages to keep fresh and smart. She happily included the legendary "Making Love Alone" which she introduced a decade or two ago on Saturday Night Live, and closed Act One with three stunners from musicals in which she has appeared: "Time Heals Everything" from Mack and Mabel was as potent as ever, but more unexpected was her reprise of Dames at Sea's Raining in My Heart," joined in the latter by four men in raincoasts and sporting umbrellas. The bow-off was an electrifying "Some People," a number she said she watched every night from the wings when she was a child touring in the national company of Gypsy.
Although Act One included "Sooner or Later" and "No One is Alone," the second act was devoted entirely to the work of Stephen Sondehim, who stood for a bow and quick mutual love fest with the star. There were songs she had already sung at Carnegie Hall:"There Won't Be Trumpets" and "With So Little To Be Sure Of" reprised from the GMHC Anyone Can Whistle concert, and "Not a Day Goes By" from the Sondehim Tribute. There were highly imaginative arrangements of "Happiness," "Johanna," "Later," "Hello Little Girl," and "You Could Drive a Person Crazy." The last Sondheim number was "Move On," thrilling as always, but the penultimate one, "Being Alive," was the evening's biggest surprise, a very familiar song in an overhwelming rendition that merited the standing ovation it received.
Peters closed by sitting over the edge of the stage to sing a song introduced by a star famous for doing likewise at Carnegie, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," and Peters even saw to it that everyone received a Christmas ornament bearing the inscription "Love, Bernadette" on the way out. There were no guest stars, but guests are not necessary when your star is plain perfection.
PTM
| PTM
Registered User
Registered:
6/26/2003 | posted: 8/2/2005 at 1:09:25 AM ET
For those who want to put their two CDs together to recreate the evening, here was the running order that night:
Overture
Money / Pennies
If You Were the Only Boy
Broadway Baby
No One Is Alone
Sooner or Later
Unexpected Song
Making Love Alone
I Never Thought I'd Break
Faithless Love
Other Lady
Time Heals Everything
Raining in My Heart
Some People
Intermission
They Ask Me Why
Johanna
Happiness
Hello Little Girl / Any Moment
There Won't Be Trumpets
Later
You Could Drive a Person Crazy
Not a Day Goes By
With So Little To Be Sure Of
Children Will Listen
Being Alive
Move On
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
PTM
| Jean
Registered User
Registered:
6/7/2003 | posted: 8/2/2005 at 6:43:02 AM ET
playbill.com article (Dec. 10, 1996) on the 1996 Carnegie Hall concert:
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/32624.html
Thanks, PTM, very interesting to read the Mandelbaum piece. And maybe when I get the time (and the CD) I'll make a new one in the actual running order.
=========
Bernadette gets the final word--from playbill.com article:
"Lastly, here's the note BP inserted in the program:
"Dear Friends:
Thank you for coming this evening and supporting GMHC.
When I was originally asked to do this concert, it didn't take me very long to say yes, because I really wanted to do it for all our friends who are both here and no longer with us.
As we enter the holiday season, we must also celebrate our loves and lives and the sheer joy of giving.
And remember...there are only 15 more shopping days left 'til Christmas!
Warmest Love,
Bernadette"
| Jean
Registered User
Registered:
6/7/2003 | posted: 8/2/2005 at 7:29:48 AM ET
"Bernadette Peters, Sweet With Sondheim":
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E4D6113FF932A25751C1A960958260
The opening paragraph of Stephen Holden's review of the Carnegie Hall concert in the NY Times, Dec 11, 1996:
"Genuine sweetness, not the saccharine regality dispensed by the average show business diva, is such a rarity on the pop concert stage that it is difficult to believe when it stares you in the face. But Bernadette Peters, who made her New York solo concert debut on Monday evening at Carnegie Hall as a benefit for Gay Men's Health Crisis, effuses sweetness as naturally as she breathes."
and it gets better
|  mrbig
Registered User
Registered:
6/16/2003
From:
Dallas, Texas
Fav. BP Song: Not a Day Goes By
Fav. BP Show: Sunday in the Park...
Fav. BP Character: Dot in SITPWG
Fav. BP CD: Sondheim, Etc.
| posted: 8/2/2005 at 10:23:06 PM ET
Hello all! I love this CD! I got up early in the morning to purchase it, and I have been listening all day! I have a question that I am sure someone can answer. Can someone give me a list of the songs included in the overture? I have identified the snippets from Gypsy, Move on, Broadway Baby, Look What Happened to Mabel, Night Waltz from A Little Night Music (I think?). There is one little piece that I don't recognize. Help!
mrbig
"No matter what you say, Children Will Listen..."
| PTM
Registered User
Registered:
6/26/2003 | posted: 8/2/2005 at 11:58:15 PM ET
I think you have all the songs except the last one which is "When Mabel Comes in the Room."
PTM
|  SingOutAnnie
Registered User
Registered:
8/23/2003
From:
Bradenton/Sarasota, FLA | posted: 8/3/2005 at 11:53:23 AM ET
Listened this morning for the first time.
"Faithless Love" is just gorgeous.
And "With So Little to be Sure Of" is my favorite.
Gonna make a tape -- in concert order (Thanks, PTM) -- for the car tonight for my trip to the beach tomorrow.
Thank you, Bernadette.
(I'm counting it as a b'day present!)
|  Carmen
Temporarily Disabled Account
Registered:
7/26/2005
From:
Boston | posted: 8/3/2005 at 2:01:25 PM ET
Boy, I can't wait to get mine! Enjoy the beach SingOutAnnie!
~Carmen~
| jmslsu01
Registered User
Registered:
6/9/2003
From:
northern VA | posted: 8/3/2005 at 6:57:06 PM ET
And liner notes by Bernadette!
Jenn
| Carmen
Temporarily Disabled Account
Registered:
7/26/2005
From:
Boston | posted: 8/3/2005 at 7:56:23 PM ET
quote:
And liner notes by Bernadette!
Jenn
YAY!!!!!!!! Thanks Jenn!
~Carmen~
|  Bernadette-Fanatic
Registered User
Registered:
6/11/2002 | posted: 8/3/2005 at 11:04:12 PM ET
Just adding my two cents:
I was so so pleased they included the Overture on this disc. An Overture is crucial in setting the mood for an evening's events, and this set the tone perfectly. I had always wondered how the one part of the Overture on her London DVD (where the opening credits are playing) fit into the grand scheme of things... Now I know!
I was surprised and ultimately elated that she did not hold back her giddiness about performing at Carnegie Hall! ("I'm here at Carnegie Hall! I can't believe it!") It's honest moments like those that made this recording so special.
And is it just me or was anyone else especially touched in "...Merry Little Christmas" when they audience so willingly joined in for the second half of the song! It's amazing how something as simple as a hall filled with people, all singing together, can create something so touching and pure.
(Call me a loser, but I'm a sucker for curtain call music and was SO happy they included her bows at the end of this disc.)
All in all, a very surprising album capturing this historic evening. Now if we could only see the home video Michael shot that Bernadette mentioned in the liner notes...
|  moljul
Registered User
Registered:
4/2/2001
From:
New York
Fav. BP CD: I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
Fav. BP Song: Dublin Lady
| posted: 8/3/2005 at 11:56:29 PM ET
I didn't catch that Michael was the one who shot the home movie but yes wouldn't that be wonderful.
On this past Sunday's radio interview she mentioned that some people who attended the concert told her that after the Christmas ending and everyone getting ornaments from "Santa's Helpers" that when they went outside it was starting to snow and it was just a perfect and magical way to end the evening.
Why or why did I not "discover" Bernadette until 1999? 
|  Sister Rose
Registered User
Registered:
5/4/2004
From:
NYC | posted: 8/4/2005 at 8:16:08 AM ET
I love it when she said "Oh I'm going to sit on the edge...do you remember who else did this?" Wonderful!
And Moljul - I think about why didn't I didscover Bernadette sooner all the time - I didn't see Gypsy and become enthralled until 2004 - but I guess everything happens for a reason when its supposed to happen. 
| PTM
Registered User
Registered:
6/26/2003 | posted: 8/7/2005 at 12:27:26 AM ET
I'm so happy that after almost 9 years, I can hear the rest of this concert again. Of all the Bernadette concerts (probably all the concerts period) I've been lucky enough to attend, this is still my favorite, and they did such a fantastic job of recording it and capturing the mood. As a fan, it was a thrill to be there with that adoring supportive crowd, in that historic venue, the sound of the orchestra and her voice in that hall was so warm and full, she seemed so relaxed, and the program was surprising and triumphantly delivered.
I'm very glad as well that they included the exit music. There really is something about that music that brings back all the emotions of that night for me. Kinda makes me want to cry too for some reason.
In case anyone was wondering, right after Bernadette launches into "Pennies from Heaven" you can hear her kissing someone and I think it was Joel Grey who was sitting on the aisle toward the front. I love that they include some of the patter and think it's smart that they kept it with the preceeding number so that the songs just basically start at the beginning of each track. Some of the cute things left off that I remember her saying that night:
During her intro to "I Never Thought I'd Break" where she talks about recording the album, she said it was in the 70s and it really was an album because they didn't have CDs back then, it was "14 years ago" which made people kinda giggle as her math was slightly off.
After "Other Lady" she asks if anyone knew who wrote that song and someone responded correctly and she said "Yeah you know . . . . Are you part of my family?"
At the end where she's thanking people and talking about Marvin, she mentioned a new musical he was working on called "It's Beshert" and she said you know "fate" and someone in the crowd yelled out the proper pronunciation and she was like oh no wonder you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm not saying it correctly.
And finally when she put the red shoes on (the sparkly red shoes), she said that a girlfriend had given them to her and she had thought at the time where am I ever going to wear these.
When Broadway Beat did the two part interview with her in 1997, they talked about the concert and how BBeat had taped some of it (not all of it, Bernadette emphasized because you're not allowed to) and Bernadette said how glad or grateful she was that they had taped her family. The interviewer said something about pulling Michael out of a corner to get comments from him and how proud he was of her. So maybe that's the home movies she's referring to.
PTM
|  GraceAnne
Registered User
Registered:
5/20/2004
From:
New York, NY | posted: 8/7/2005 at 12:45:51 AM ET
PTM, fantastic comments. thank you!
what else was said in the 1997 bwaybeat interview? is it worth ordering (if it is available off their website?)
thanks
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