Topic Bernadette and Sondheim from the Theatre Chat forum.
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| Author | Topic: Bernadette and Sondheim |
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 Jean
Registered User
Registered:
6/7/2003 | posted: 10/2/2004 at 10:09:38 AM ET
From an interview with Bernadette, Washington Post, Jan. 1999:
"Stephen Sondheim, who wrote the scores for those shows, concurs. 'Like very few others, she sings and acts at the same time,' he says. 'Most performers act and then sing. Bernadette is flawless as far as I'm concerned.'"
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Bernadette toasts Sondheim at the dinner before the Kennedy Center awards in 1993:
"Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters, Scott Bakula and Jason Alexander sang a medley of Sondheim's songs. Peters gave him a heartfelt toast at dinner Saturday [Dec 4, 1993]: 'I love you so much. When I talk about your artistry, I turn to mush. You are a true explorer, a passionate pioneer.' "
From USA Today, 12/6/1993
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Sondheim on Bernadette, from the New York Times interview by Frank Rich, March 2000:
"Sondheim thinks 'stars are great' for the theater, but doesn't believe the theater has any stars now except itinerant visitors from movies and TV. Bernadette Peters comes closest, he says, but when 'she does a show that's a hit like 'Annie Get Your Gun,' she has to stay with it for two years. In the old days, Bernadette would have done at least as many shows as Merman, a couple of dozen. She's done maybe 10 shows.' "
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And, from the thread that started it:
Opening Doors
| Karen
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Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 10/3/2004 at 11:21:04 AM ET
If we're collecting Sondheim quotes about Bernadette, here's one that I don't think has been posted before. It's from the Jan/Feb 1988 issue of Horizon, and was made while he was in final preparations for Into the Woods.
"It never would have occurred to us to have offered Bernadette the part of the Witch, because this is an ensemble show and she is a star. The fact that she offered to do it was stunning to us and, needless to say, thrilling. I want to take full advantage of what Bernadette can do vocally on a stage, to give her as much range as we can in terms of both emotion and color. So her very first entrance is a comic song, and then she has a very intense song, and now she's going to have an even more intense song. One of the only things I've ever taken into account is her range. Bernadette has a chest voice, and one of the things I was working on last night was to make the climax of 'Boom Crunch!' in such a way that it would utilize the top of her range without causing her strain over a period of many performances. But one makes those adaptations for any performer. Bernadette can do anything. I think one of the reasons that she likes to work with Jim and me is that we give her things to do that she's never done before. The kind of arioso singing that was required in the larger ballads in 'Sunday'--as in 'We Do Not Belong Together,' or the kind of extended number like 'Sunday in the Park with George'--the form and the shape of those songs was new to her as was the emotional content. And the same is true of this. Certainly she knows how to play comedy, but this is the first time she's ever played a mother, and the mother-daughter relationship is the strongest in the story."
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