By Melissa Rose Bernardo
"She can't understand why her daughter never learned to lead the kind of existence that she did," says Lansbury. Sex is simply "a pleasurable means to a measurable end" for famed former courtesan Madame Armfeldt.
"The problem is that she never found true love, whereas her daughter does," says Lansbury.
"It's about love — the broad church of love," says Hanson, who's played Fredrik since this revival's 2008 premiere at London's Menier Chocolate Factory (home of the recent revival of Sunday in the Park With George). "You've got the sweetness and the innocence of young love, but at the other end of love, there is a darker side — which is not necessarily a bad thing."
Incidentally, her casting session went a little something like this: "I'm hitting golf balls and my phone rings and it's Trevor Nunn.… I put the phone down, then ring! ring! ring! It's Stephen Sondheim.… I died and went to heaven."
Nunn spent a lot longer trying to connect with Sondheim: "Having spent a life doing the plays of Shakespeare and various other musicals, what could be a greater treat — highly-wrought language and the joy of music, together, in one project?"
19 Dec 2009
The fun really begins when everybody assembles for what Nunn calls "a great big house party" at the estate of Madame Armfeldt (five-time Tony winner Angela Lansbury), Desirée's mother, who dispenses vintage champagne and sage advice ("Never marry — or even dally with — a Scandinavian").
Angela Lansbury and Catherine Zeta-Jones photo by Joan Marcus
The Stars Align at Night
Just as the characters display their emotions on their respective sleeves, so does Nunn's production: His pared-down vision reflects the smaller-is-better philosophy behind Broadway's latest Sondheim restagings (Sunday, Company, Sweeney Todd). It was even a selling point for Zeta-Jones. "Not that I didn't want to do…high kicks and jazz hands," says the actress, who won an Oscar for doing both in 2002's "Chicago." "I just love the fact that this — and the way Trevor is working it — is an intimate piece. It's more of a chamber musical."
