steve's notebook

(Aug. 1, 2010)

7:08            The Women’s Gala, of course.  These pants are going to be so grass-stained, but that’s what I get for abandoning my blanket so I could see the jumbotron.  And, being a bad brother.

7:09            Paul Gemignani!  Oh yeah, he’s conducting this.

7:10            Overture: Forum fanfare, Free, Merrily drum rolls, Now You Know, Rich and Happy, Old Friend, Poor Baby, Side by Side By Side. [This is the same overture as the Lincoln Center birthday concert.]

7:14            Patti, Audra, Michael Cerveris, George Hearn, “Together.”  All four, alternating lines.  (Audra looks so busty! Great white dress.)  Patti is really hitting her Ps.  “sleeP”  “steeP”  George: “Whatever the row I hoe, you hoe.” Patti: “Who ya callin’ a ho?” 

7:16            Patti: “…birthday celebration for Steven Schwartz… … Sondheim.”

7:19            Audra mentions they’ll be singing a few new songs.  She’s doing Epiphany. “There’s a hole in the world that is filled with shit, and it’s filled with people who are. Well, no. ”

7:20            Michael Cerveris, “Finishing the Hat.”  Plays the “and no reason that they should,” very forgiving, understanding.  I feel sorry for the employee who’s being made to walk around with a large sign reading “SHHHHHHHHHH.”  I think Cerveris’s voice has gotten better.  The high notes are much more well supported, instead of half-floated.

7:22            Audra and Cerveris, “Move On.” (!!!) Audra’s voice is so creamy and rich. Love.  More soul than Bernadette?  Can I say that?  Yeah, Cerveris’s high notes are better.  “Give us more to see,” the “see” comes in a quarter-tone flat (like Donna Murphy), then on the vibrato, makes the pitch.

7:26            A Little Night Music segment.  George Hearn and Patti, “You Must Meet My Wife.”  Patti is playing almost girly at the start.  These fucking cicadas.  George Hearn’s physical presence is kind of meek and nerdy.  Not like his voice.  Yes, Patti is playing girly.  That’s a really unflattering dress. 

7:31            Patti and Audra, “Everyday [sic] a Little Death.”  Patti: “Audra plays Anne. The eighteen-year old virgin.”  (Audience laughs.)  It’s really only the last ten years that LuPone became a Sondheim specialist (specialist?), isn’t it?  Role-wise, anyway.   She was doing songs in concert, but I don’t think she’d done a role before those 2000 Sweeney concerts.  The tempi are really fast tonight.  These two women love each other. 

7:34            Audra, “Glamorous Life” (film version).  More anxious than how she played in her tv concerts.  Wow, she’s actually playing it as a teen, and succeeding.  I first heard her do this in 2006.  She’s grown so much since then.

7:39            Patti, “Send in the Clowns.”  Playing resigned from the start.  [Bernadette doesn’t know it’s not going to happen for sure when she starts.]  “Don’t you love farce,” this verse if played a little patronizingly.  Last verse, she looks old, resigned.

7:42            Cerveris, Hearn, “It Would Have Been Wonderful.”  Michael: “If I never had gone to the theatre, than I’d never have gone to Ravinia.”  Bells from the train going by. They’re in key.  Cerveris is overdoing it.  Hm, “or bruised,” another Carl-Magnus violent line. [See also: “Had to knock a little sense into my wife.”]  I still don’t really like this song.

7:47            Patti, “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.”  Spontaneous applause at the end of the first verse.  Patti’s going great.  She waves her own cut-off two beats before Gemignani does.

7:50            Audra, Cerveris, “Happiness.”  Sitting on stools.  Not quite as sexy as in their underwear à la Lincoln Center.  Her Clara is even more of a pretty, childish [naïve?] thing than LC.  Sidenote: Wow, has it really been five years since I went to that performance?  I keep forgetting about Cerveris during this song because Audra’s just blowing him away. 

7:54            Patti, “I Wish I Could Forget You.”  She’s standing like she’s going to conjure a storm.  Really defined triplets on “For now I’m seeing,” “implacable,” “I wanted,” “one I can’t”, really everywhere.  Wonder if those are in the score.  Her placement of the notes, especially higher ones, has improved over the last five years.  Such a fast tempo! Purple shoes, Patti?!

7:57            Anyone Can Whistle segment.  Cerveris, “Everybody Says Don’t.”  Fucks up entrance.  Rhythm and lyric.  “Everybody says don’t start a song like that.”  Before I realized he’d messed up, I thought he was just doing it as the Godfather.  He’s ok, but Raul Esparza is the one to beat these days.  So fast!  I don’t think I can say I really truly like Michael Cerveris anymore.  It’s all surfacey, affected, and labored whenever he hits a line that’s supposed to be Meaningful.

8:00            Audra, “Anyone Can Whistle.”  Goddess.  Suck it, Sutton.  Was her last original role Marie Christine?  If so, this is a crime.   Holds the last note gently past the button.  Kills. (!)

8:03            Patti goes off on prepared intro remarks for repeating something.  Yup, they’re doing the Lincoln Center birthday concert version of Sweeney.

8:04            George Hearn, Cerveris, “Pretty Women.”  Can we have George Hearn play the judge in a full concert?  Please?  I’m a sucker for that kind of tradition and history. [Likewise, Bernadette in Dear World, and Danielle Ferland as Jack’s Mother.]  But whose Sweeney still needs to be heard (cause I’m not coming up with any that need to be heard again)?  Hearn’s nerdiness is coming from the glasses!  Hearn is perfect. Rhythm, lyrics, voice, intensity. 

LuPone’s dress.  Black. Deep V-neck.  Long sleeves.  Weird drapery.  It’s giving her football shoulders.

8:06            Patti, George Hearn, Cerveris, “A Little Priest.”  It’s the back-and-forth version.  Starts the first verse of song proper to GH.  “Order something else though to follow [trips over tongue] since no one should…”  Oops.  That was fun.

8:14            Audra: “That was okay.  I still think I should have done ‘Epiphany.’”

8:15            Everyone, “Side x Side x Side.”  2 verses.

8:19            Encore?  They’re giving each other uncertain looks.

8:20            Nope.