Sacrilege to the Sondheim-elite I know but I now find his work too clever by half - a box of lyrical tricks with little 'heart'...and scarcely a real tune to be found. Dazzling technique, but little soul. For me his collaboration with Bernstein on 'West Side Story' was his best work. He needed Bernstein's fire.
She's amazing. I just bought the 2010 revival cast album, and I honestly thought that interpretation of this song in particular didn't hold a candle to Susan Terry's version.
Sondheim might not be the greatest tune-writer in the history of musicals - Bernstein and Rogers top him - but for theatrical impact and sheer technical wizardry, songs like this are in a league of their own. Forget Lloyd Webber (how I wish we could) and marvel. Great performance too.
I saw the original Little Night Music production with Glynis Johns/Len Cariou in the 70s and the revival last year with Bernadette Peters/Elaine Stritch and this is the best version of the Miller's Son of them all. God bless Susan Terry.
OMG. At first I thought the foot was hers during the first verse and I was like...jeez she has a big foot and she's sitting weird. Then I realized it was Frid's.
My name is Jack Woodward. I've spent the past few years churning out music as fast as possible. Most cats record an album a year and call it a day. They deliberate on the shit that they're going to do before hand and deface the initial inspiration of the music into obliteration. I try to capture it at the moment of conception. I don't question what I'm being told, I just write it down. Check out my music videos to hear the songs I conceived in this fashion.
Fantastic, what a gorgeous voice....such control, and great depth...exactly what's needed for this song....
Sondheim's syllabic rhymes are so tricky to sing and articulate, and they are crucial to the song.... I really give Susan Terry credit, every note came thru....
She's delicious but the best version is actually the original. And I am always one who believes that subsequent performers have the benefit of making new choices.
@roccoh21 I agree. D'Jamin Bartlett may be broadway's quintessential one-hit wonder. I can't name anything else she's done, but she still owns this song.
I've always found it to be a nice contrast to Liaisons--Madame Armfeldt's view that romance should always be secondary to bettering one's position, as opposed to Petra's celebration of life and youth and fun.
@AtLastOnTheGround I disagree. Personally, I think that if Leigh Ann's vocals in her rendition of this song were weaker, she had more personality. But that's just my opinion, to each their own
i am not a huge fan of this interpretation. i LOVE Petra, i just dont really like this version. :/ i saw the LA Opera production, and it was simply stunning! although, i was disappointed with that Petra as well.
oh well. i still adore this musical and this role! its my favorite Sondheim show...
oh! you should see the current verison in NYC right now. i work the shows occassionally and that Petra was amazing. she put so much personality into it.
@MelissaXimena I agree with you. took my son down from Boston to see the current revival. Petra was amazing and the understudy to Zeta-Jones was very very good. cast album expected june 2010 I was told.
@bwaybby1 The LA Opera's Petra was awful - in the words of one friend, "some people chew the scenery, she chewed the song." I do like the original NYC Opera version of this song, presented here; this is one of my faves in the show, and when I saw it in LA, I was so disappointed...
I have really fellen in love with this song, now I need to buy the rest of the album, and cant wait for the new broadeway cast album, but should i see it?????/
an excellent presentation of the song....if you didnt like angela lansburys performance you have to be insane...a much more realistic performance full of depth than the hammy , over acted but well sung portyal in the clip of liasons from this production.
She's THE BEST teacher in CT (and probably NY too). She helped my daughter grow from a tiny to a grand voice, which helped her a lot on college auditions. Thank you Susan!
No, he's just asleep after their romp. The whole song is a celebration of promiscuity.
"There are mouths to be kissed before mouths to be fed, and there's many a tryst and there's many a bed to be sampled an seen in the meanwhile. And a girl has to celebrate what passes by..."
What I find most ineresting in this piece visually is the transtion petra goes thru starting from entering the scene horizontal and grows in stature along with the song. She starts singing in a sitting position, then on her kness, till she is finally standing high and confident. its details like this that reinforce the brilliance of Mr. Sondheim.
i thought that mightve been a bit symbolic of the transition through social classes too? i hadnt even thought of the confidence paradigm lol! its clever regardless!
This is by far the very best performance of this song I've ever heard. Ms. Terry is THE perfect Petra. This production (NYC Opera, 1990) had the ideal cast and is unsurpassed in my book. The revival at NYC Opera a few years ago was a disaster, as they cast non-singing big-name actors. This production stands as the best, IMO.
We'll see! I just a ticket for the Broadway revival for this Friday! I lined up for tickets yesterday a few hours the first preview. I could hear some actors going over a number in the lobby just on the other side of the door!
@rabbitfish63 I saw the revival last night too! Liked it a good deal - thought C Z-J was an excellent Desiree - Lansbury, alas, perhaps may be past her prime - my only real quibble were the severely condensed orchestrations!
This song is really really nice, it perfectly captures the emotion of the moment, the lyrics have alot more depth than it first appears, and plus its got a fantastic actress/singer singing/acting it ;)
For some reason, when the Boston PBS station broadcast this back in 1990 the sound was out of sync. Me and all my friends taped it but we can't watch the copies because it's always a few seconds off and drives us crazy.
I saw this production at Lincoln Centre, I had forgotten how brilliant susan Terry was..........Wow! beautiful to look at, terrific acting and seemingingly effortless singing of a far from easy song, absolutely beautiful!
wow this is awesome! ive loved this version of this show since i was 9 yrs old. Thats when i was introduced to sondheim and ALNM is still my favorite. Is there anyone who has this on VHS or burned this to DVD and could make me a copy PLEASE?!!?? If so please msg me, lets talk
Susan came into our Stephen Sondheim class and talked about her experience with working on this production and hearing about all of the tension and nerves that were involved was reall amazing.
This woman is just extraordinary! I've had a scratchy VHS for years and now I can watch this anywhere. By far the best "Miller's Son" I've heard. Earthy and sexy and well-balanced. Brava!
If you want to upgrade that scratchy VHS to a slightly better quality (but of course more durable) DVD, check out the website of House of Opera - they have it for sale, and cheap at that.
A great performance! I couldn't tell why Susan Terry was cast in this until I saw this number. Unlike some of the rest of this cast (Anne, Carl-Magnus and Henrik), she didn't sacrifice great singing for great acting (or vice versa)- this was a fresh and exciting take on a classic.
Thank you so much for posting this one......as well as all of the other ones from this engagments of ALNM! IMO, she is better than all of the Petra's on recording, save the Original Broadway Petra, D'Jamin Bartlet.
I also believe that eliding the two words is fairly common practice for most singers, especially considering the "S" sound is so easily elided in regular speech. Can you imagine how much more distracting it would be if she separated each individual "S"?
As a proffessional singer I have to give my two cents on this issue. Though it may very well be that this particular song is meant to be sung with one "s" between "miller's" and "son," it IS one of the basic rules of singing NEVER to ellide words ESPECIALLY with "s"s. It is considered to be unproffessional, UNLESS a certain piece calls for it, such as this one (which by the way is an amazing masterpiece from and even more amazing composer).
But you know now that I think of it you are right; I never elide other words except, for some reason, the s"s", and that has been at the request of several different musical directors.
In my opinion (of course im wrong but ill just say :D)
is that it depends on the style of the whole musical/opera/whatever, when in conversation most people do Ellide S's and as a song is basically a sung moment/thought/thing then i think it makes it more "real" if they ellide the S's. although i can understand in someplaces it would sound completely unprofessional, here it sounds in character etc.
Ooh i feel well happy, thats my first ever opinionated comment about something technical ;)
As much as I love this song and this show in general--this is the second consecutive number where the woman on stage gets to own the audience, and the man on stage has to either just sit there ("Send in the Clowns") or lie there ("Miller's Son"). How fair is that? :D
Sondheim is the only composer I know that consistently writes complex male parts. The best one in this show is most likely Henrick. Ignoring Sondheim, almost all lead male roles are flat and altogether boring. It's rather a shame.
Well, remember that Sondheim doesn't really create characters (he said so himself in an interview), but he takes the characters that George Furth or Hugh Wheeler or James Lapine (or whoever else) think of and he builds so richly on them with perfectly lyricized and composed music.
I agree, most of the non-Sondheim male characters are boring. Robert, Fredrik, Sweeney, and all the others -- they're just so complex and interesting.
Yes, I am aware that Sondheim "inteprets" his characters rather than "writing them." Nevertheless, his lyrics and musical composition create complex facets of their identity, which even influence the edits to the book. He's a very modest person, so he won't admit to all the influence that he has in the creative proccess.
Very true, and that's another thing I love about him -- he's not some vain idiot whose shows are all for big bucks (cough cough Webber) but he just does what he does and is (in my humble opinion) the best composer/lyricist ever.
haha don't event get me started about ALW; he is as much of an artist as brittney spears. ALW doesn't even admit that he's a pop composer, but instead claims that because he wrote a show "based" on something by T.S. Elliot, THAT makes him an intellectual! He doesn't even write his own lyrics. Sondheim is unique. He and Kander and Ebb are the only writers I know who have continually produced intellectual material for muscial theatre(and of course by musical theatre, I am excluding opera)
Are you leaving Rodgers and Hammerstein out of the equation? I would argue that their things have a lot of intellectual bite to them. Just to clarify, I'm not saying Sondheim isn't a complete genius. Just pointing out that there are\were other intelligent composers.
Oh R+H were most definitely intelligent composers of their time, but I'm unclear as to how intellECTUAL they were. I think that Carousel is brilliant, along with many others of theirs, but I think that Sondheim surpassed Hammerstein(his mentor) in his intellectual endeavor. That's not to say R+H's work isn't amazing, it just doesn't strike me particularily as art, but more classy entertainment. But that's just me.
We'll see! I just got a ticket for the Broadway revival for this Friday! I lined up for tickets yesterday a few hours before the first preview. I could hear some actors going over a number in the lobby just on the other side of the door!
Actually, doxma33, Sondheim did come in and meet with each cast member for supervision. He loved Susan Terry's earthiness and belt. In fact he was quite pleased with this production.
I love her sassiness and her voice. But Sondheim must have gone nuts when she elided "Miller's" and "Son." He'd have told her to separate the two words. Check out his master classes; he's very particular about diction.
I like her, but I much prefer Leigh Ann Larkin. Everything else is pale in comparison.
emmadilemmasings 1 month ago
Sacrilege to the Sondheim-elite I know but I now find his work too clever by half - a box of lyrical tricks with little 'heart'...and scarcely a real tune to be found. Dazzling technique, but little soul. For me his collaboration with Bernstein on 'West Side Story' was his best work. He needed Bernstein's fire.
jimdivax 3 months ago
She's amazing. I just bought the 2010 revival cast album, and I honestly thought that interpretation of this song in particular didn't hold a candle to Susan Terry's version.
coffeeavenger 4 months ago
I just really love her take on the song, and I can't quite articulate why. But she's lovely. :)
louisawhat 4 months ago
Susan has an official website, susanterrystudiodotcom
westportmom1 5 months ago
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westportmom1 5 months ago
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westportmom1 5 months ago
Sondheim might not be the greatest tune-writer in the history of musicals - Bernstein and Rogers top him - but for theatrical impact and sheer technical wizardry, songs like this are in a league of their own. Forget Lloyd Webber (how I wish we could) and marvel. Great performance too.
1234cottagedoor 8 months ago 12
Sondheim is the master of the universe
Guitarwizard 10 months ago 6
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Ah the poor play button, I have raped you one to many times...
Cheezluvr12 11 months ago
She's just extraordinary.
seanpatrickdoyle 11 months ago
Love her impish face at 4:26!
FlowersInHisHair 1 year ago
I saw the original Little Night Music production with Glynis Johns/Len Cariou in the 70s and the revival last year with Bernadette Peters/Elaine Stritch and this is the best version of the Miller's Son of them all. God bless Susan Terry.
25thInf69 1 year ago
OMG. At first I thought the foot was hers during the first verse and I was like...jeez she has a big foot and she's sitting weird. Then I realized it was Frid's.
polarqueen 1 year ago
@polarqueen hey! who are you calling 'bigfoot' ! ? ;-)
1yawn2many 9 months ago
No idea how many times I've watched this now... phenomenal.
autopolydidact 1 year ago
Love the song...and she's perfect as Petra...This is brilliant!!
juliaagordon 1 year ago
@juliaagordon amen, she is my favorite petra by far.
sweeney60 10 months ago
wow she's amazing!!!!!!!
TracyInChicago 1 year ago
im in this play . . on january 8th
GahoolienFlyte208 1 year ago
@GahoolienFlyte208
Good luck!!!!!
tonywrestles2 1 year ago
Poor Frid--just gets to lie there and do nothing... :-D
tonywrestles2 1 year ago
This might just be my favourite song in the whiole world - and I think Susan Terry is the perfect Petra.
FlowersInHisHair 1 year ago 2
two blind and deaf people accidentally disliked this video
flicfan416 1 year ago
she's awesome
GreenGoddessofGaia 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
My name is Jack Woodward. I've spent the past few years churning out music as fast as possible. Most cats record an album a year and call it a day. They deliberate on the shit that they're going to do before hand and deface the initial inspiration of the music into obliteration. I try to capture it at the moment of conception. I don't question what I'm being told, I just write it down. Check out my music videos to hear the songs I conceived in this fashion.
bassgod89 1 year ago
I cried when I firs heard this.
:)
I love it!
HelloHiGoodday 1 year ago
what is Susan Terry doing now
kboyer1 1 year ago
@kboyer1 Shes a singing teacher... You can get her if you want. Google it ;)
tj199419941994 1 year ago
Fantastic, what a gorgeous voice....such control, and great depth...exactly what's needed for this song....
Sondheim's syllabic rhymes are so tricky to sing and articulate, and they are crucial to the song.... I really give Susan Terry credit, every note came thru....
jotheodorou 1 year ago 3
this is my favorite version of this song, like ever
MzCharmedFan0214 1 year ago 2
Terry shows great understanding of the song, musically, and from the character's POV. A great performance from a great production!
dprochazka 1 year ago 2
"there's a lot i'll have missed, but i'll not have been dead when i die"
genius, as is ms. Terry (her die was FIERCE!!)
sondheimisGAWD 1 year ago 3
@sondheimisGAWD Which is the inverse parallel of Henrik's "Though I've been born, I've never been..." in 'Later'. Genius, indeed.
nickfox2 11 months ago
Watched it over and over again....Susan is sensational in how she sings this song!
20582853 1 year ago 3
She's delicious but the best version is actually the original. And I am always one who believes that subsequent performers have the benefit of making new choices.
roccoh21 1 year ago
@roccoh21 I agree. D'Jamin Bartlett may be broadway's quintessential one-hit wonder. I can't name anything else she's done, but she still owns this song.
Seasass 1 year ago
I've always thought this song was the undersold highlight of Act II. The servant has her say... and this particular performance is top notch!
uKooKu 1 year ago 5
What's the point of the song? I feel like it's so random and used for filler in act two...
DanielJosephKuhlman 1 year ago
@DanielJosephKuhlman
I've always found it to be a nice contrast to Liaisons--Madame Armfeldt's view that romance should always be secondary to bettering one's position, as opposed to Petra's celebration of life and youth and fun.
tonywrestles2 1 year ago 2
What a gorgeous voice ... She pulls this off wonderfully.
darkbear84 1 year ago 2
This is just SO Sondheim!
I mean, if I was just walking down the street and heard it,
I would know that this is the wonderful work of Sondheim!
SamSkii14 1 year ago 3
Susan Terry was AMAZING in this production!!! It's my favorite version of this song!!
diego9774 1 year ago
I thought Leigh Ann Larkin (who plays Petra in the B'way revival) did very well with the role... until this song.
Susan's performance of "The Miller's Son" remains the best!
AtLastOnTheGround 1 year ago
@AtLastOnTheGround I disagree. Personally, I think that if Leigh Ann's vocals in her rendition of this song were weaker, she had more personality. But that's just my opinion, to each their own
jtTrumpet 1 year ago
@AtLastOnTheGround Jessica Grove (understudy) did amazing with this song.
Kesinji 1 year ago
The current revival is AMAZING
sondheimfan1 1 year ago
Seriously, it's so profound on the character of Petra that I'd want to be her. The only song making me wish to be a girl hahaha
RickvanVeldhuizen 1 year ago 3
i am not a huge fan of this interpretation. i LOVE Petra, i just dont really like this version. :/ i saw the LA Opera production, and it was simply stunning! although, i was disappointed with that Petra as well.
oh well. i still adore this musical and this role! its my favorite Sondheim show...
bwaybby1 2 years ago
oh! you should see the current verison in NYC right now. i work the shows occassionally and that Petra was amazing. she put so much personality into it.
MelissaXimena 1 year ago
@MelissaXimena I agree with you. took my son down from Boston to see the current revival. Petra was amazing and the understudy to Zeta-Jones was very very good. cast album expected june 2010 I was told.
bristolstomp 1 year ago
@bristolstomp Cast album was just released!
gypsymal56 1 year ago
@bristolstomp its out now, in borders everywhere and itunes.
KaraokeKid22 1 year ago
@bwaybby1 The LA Opera's Petra was awful - in the words of one friend, "some people chew the scenery, she chewed the song." I do like the original NYC Opera version of this song, presented here; this is one of my faves in the show, and when I saw it in LA, I was so disappointed...
RalphWiggum08 1 year ago
Love it! Susan Terry performs this perfectly.
FlowersInHisHair 2 years ago 3
I have really fellen in love with this song, now I need to buy the rest of the album, and cant wait for the new broadeway cast album, but should i see it?????/
WWEQAF 2 years ago
Oh man. When she says "die" it's AMAZING.
This is a great performance.
LiLyHeArTsYoU 2 years ago
an excellent presentation of the song....if you didnt like angela lansburys performance you have to be insane...a much more realistic performance full of depth than the hammy , over acted but well sung portyal in the clip of liasons from this production.
afboyfw 2 years ago
Susan Terry ROCKS! She's great in the "Weekend in the Country" clip on here too...
runnerman64 2 years ago 2
Phenomenal song. Sondheim is a genius.
bloomingdedalus 2 years ago 49
SO much better than Andrew Loyd Webber.
TheSabrinaFairchild 2 years ago 7
Goes without flipping saying really doesn't it xDD
EyeballHighballHand 2 years ago
I adore this musical....and this song in particular :)
Clayzy13 2 years ago
in every show of sondhiems there seems to be one bizarre song at the end that could really be done without.....
Selendomono 2 years ago
that came out wrong. I still like the song. but I just think it is crazy
Selendomono 2 years ago
She's THE BEST teacher in CT (and probably NY too). She helped my daughter grow from a tiny to a grand voice, which helped her a lot on college auditions. Thank you Susan!
westportmom1 2 years ago
she's my voice teacher!!! i'm so lucky! :)
jamieyarmoff 2 years ago
I love this video, she has the most adorable facial expressions ever.
phantomactress 2 years ago
Omg, this is amazing!
PhilipWunelle 2 years ago
Is she so happy, because her lover is dead? ))
USABOYMAN 2 years ago
No, he's just asleep after their romp. The whole song is a celebration of promiscuity.
"There are mouths to be kissed before mouths to be fed, and there's many a tryst and there's many a bed to be sampled an seen in the meanwhile. And a girl has to celebrate what passes by..."
RalphWiggum08 2 years ago
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i Love this song!
CV4EVA87 2 years ago
third time today i've watched this :S
NeonLoveChicken1 2 years ago 4
Susan Terry does a great job! Does anyone else see a resemblence to Linda Blair?
RunzN2Walls 2 years ago 2
I was thinking more Barbara Hershey.
algernonandarthur 2 years ago
What I find most ineresting in this piece visually is the transtion petra goes thru starting from entering the scene horizontal and grows in stature along with the song. She starts singing in a sitting position, then on her kness, till she is finally standing high and confident. its details like this that reinforce the brilliance of Mr. Sondheim.
hobomonky 2 years ago 2
i thought that mightve been a bit symbolic of the transition through social classes too? i hadnt even thought of the confidence paradigm lol! its clever regardless!
fifibella00 2 years ago
she is great but is a little too long in the tooth for this role. petra is supposed to be younger....but still great performance!
jbactr 2 years ago
Divine.
roccoh21 2 years ago 2
susan is my voice teacher
this is like whoaaa
suhnshyn 2 years ago 58
Lucky you. She was amazing in this, and if she's even half as good a teacher as she is a singer, you've got it made.
phoenixnyc 2 years ago 4
Ditto this. How amusing, too. :)
overthemoo 2 years ago 2
@suhnshyn oh dude thats awesome!
dodginraindrops 1 year ago
I dont like the way it sounds like a song from paint your wagon or something I think it's her delivery not the song itself which i love
affzee1971 2 years ago
I love this song. However, I think it's so funny how they kiss and then he passes out. It's like she has magical poison lips of death.
clarklesparkle 2 years ago 2
um, it's because they just had sex. i'd be wore out too. lol
die4meandonlyme 2 years ago
typical. guy rolls over to sleep post-sex. LOL.
ashleyjuddstwin 2 years ago 5
Shit, this is good.
kudos4kkms 2 years ago 7
um, well i havent heard the other girl, but this one is very good.
surfpretzelbsa 3 years ago
Make up your mind. Who are you going to marry? (Or maybe marry all of them. Marry them a little.)
Kevin90028 3 years ago
AHHAHAHAHAH that made me laugh so hard thank you
lavalamp625 2 years ago
This is by far the very best performance of this song I've ever heard. Ms. Terry is THE perfect Petra. This production (NYC Opera, 1990) had the ideal cast and is unsurpassed in my book. The revival at NYC Opera a few years ago was a disaster, as they cast non-singing big-name actors. This production stands as the best, IMO.
MMK9 3 years ago 3
(I put this comment below, by accident).
We'll see! I just a ticket for the Broadway revival for this Friday! I lined up for tickets yesterday a few hours the first preview. I could hear some actors going over a number in the lobby just on the other side of the door!
rabbitfish63 2 years ago 2
@rabbitfish63 I saw the revival last night too! Liked it a good deal - thought C Z-J was an excellent Desiree - Lansbury, alas, perhaps may be past her prime - my only real quibble were the severely condensed orchestrations!
MMK9 2 years ago
Susan is amazing! She's my voice teacher!!
micheleleleo 3 years ago 3
Lucky!!
=)
PottersHallows 3 years ago 3
How has her voice held up, with her aging and not being so active professionally? She sounds great here.
OldieMusicMan 2 years ago 2
She's still fantastic!
She teaches voice to a lot of kids in our town, and that helps our middle and high school programs be as unbelievable as they are.
And she still has that same voice and smile!
westportmom1 3 years ago
very bernadette peters like.
rent907 3 years ago
anyone still have this on vhs or dvd and would be willing to sell me a copy
aaronmichael22 3 years ago
I love this song <3
DuckRabbitTiger 3 years ago
excellent interpretation. this show moved to the LA opera, but the LA Petra was not as earthy and sultry as the actress in this production. bravo.
rbocanegra62 3 years ago 3
This song is really really nice, it perfectly captures the emotion of the moment, the lyrics have alot more depth than it first appears, and plus its got a fantastic actress/singer singing/acting it ;)
BakingAccident 3 years ago 2
For some reason, when the Boston PBS station broadcast this back in 1990 the sound was out of sync. Me and all my friends taped it but we can't watch the copies because it's always a few seconds off and drives us crazy.
Kevin90028 3 years ago
I absolutely love this!!!!!
thegoodcristian 3 years ago 2
Her and Maureen Moore are as Charlotte are my favorites in this cast. Absolutely fantastic.
bohemiawelcumsyou 3 years ago
Very similar to my friend's mum both vocally and in her performance. Many memories here, love the song :D
InsaneSparrow 3 years ago
I love that lil red was the role awesome
TheatreDork18 3 years ago
I saw this production at Lincoln Centre, I had forgotten how brilliant susan Terry was..........Wow! beautiful to look at, terrific acting and seemingingly effortless singing of a far from easy song, absolutely beautiful!
antod11 3 years ago 4
wow this is awesome! ive loved this version of this show since i was 9 yrs old. Thats when i was introduced to sondheim and ALNM is still my favorite. Is there anyone who has this on VHS or burned this to DVD and could make me a copy PLEASE?!!?? If so please msg me, lets talk
aaronmichael22 3 years ago
I'd like this as well!!! does anyone knows where I could buy it?
GreyEyesCrying 3 years ago
One of my favorite songs ever. GREAT VERSION!
sondheimette 3 years ago 6
This song is so dynamic.
She's so amazing and handles it well.
tinytimton 3 years ago 15
Fantastic.
movieguy1031 3 years ago 6
I know this is the silliest comment to make, but I'm OBSESSED with her sassy pose at the end!
pete422188 3 years ago 8
Nothing silly about it at all. It's a great pose, and the lighting is just perfect. It's the perfect punctuation to the song.
phoenixnyc 3 years ago 7
she's so sexy.
msumedanthro 3 years ago 5
EXQUISITE
Broadwaymaybe 3 years ago 7
Susan came into our Stephen Sondheim class and talked about her experience with working on this production and hearing about all of the tension and nerves that were involved was reall amazing.
DBon12 4 years ago 7
This has been flagged as spam show
wow Absolutely amazing
tmwilli0916 4 years ago
She's REALLY good in this role! ^_^
JillHill7 4 years ago 3
This woman is just extraordinary! I've had a scratchy VHS for years and now I can watch this anywhere. By far the best "Miller's Son" I've heard. Earthy and sexy and well-balanced. Brava!
yuppers 4 years ago 9
If you want to upgrade that scratchy VHS to a slightly better quality (but of course more durable) DVD, check out the website of House of Opera - they have it for sale, and cheap at that.
MMK9 3 years ago 2
Thanks! My copy arrived today! LOVE IT! I'll be playing Petra. Our first show is April 17th! We have 6! I'm so excited!
die4meandonlyme 2 years ago
You're welcome! BREAK A LEG!!!
MMK9 2 years ago 2
Thanks!! =]
die4meandonlyme 2 years ago
What is their website? Tried googling "House of Opera" and didn't get any results.
Nightingal518 2 years ago
A great performance! I couldn't tell why Susan Terry was cast in this until I saw this number. Unlike some of the rest of this cast (Anne, Carl-Magnus and Henrik), she didn't sacrifice great singing for great acting (or vice versa)- this was a fresh and exciting take on a classic.
cbiswhite 4 years ago 6
Thank you so much for posting this one......as well as all of the other ones from this engagments of ALNM! IMO, she is better than all of the Petra's on recording, save the Original Broadway Petra, D'Jamin Bartlet.
MTVMANN 4 years ago 2
Really? You prefer Bartlett? She's just fine, but I think Terry surpasses her.
MMK9 3 years ago 2
I also believe that eliding the two words is fairly common practice for most singers, especially considering the "S" sound is so easily elided in regular speech. Can you imagine how much more distracting it would be if she separated each individual "S"?
thinggoes 4 years ago
As a proffessional singer I have to give my two cents on this issue. Though it may very well be that this particular song is meant to be sung with one "s" between "miller's" and "son," it IS one of the basic rules of singing NEVER to ellide words ESPECIALLY with "s"s. It is considered to be unproffessional, UNLESS a certain piece calls for it, such as this one (which by the way is an amazing masterpiece from and even more amazing composer).
doomwhatelse 3 years ago 2
I have to admit that that rule is one I've never encountered, and more often than not I have been specifically told to elide the "s".
thinggoes 3 years ago
But you know now that I think of it you are right; I never elide other words except, for some reason, the s"s", and that has been at the request of several different musical directors.
thinggoes 3 years ago
In my opinion (of course im wrong but ill just say :D)
is that it depends on the style of the whole musical/opera/whatever, when in conversation most people do Ellide S's and as a song is basically a sung moment/thought/thing then i think it makes it more "real" if they ellide the S's. although i can understand in someplaces it would sound completely unprofessional, here it sounds in character etc.
Ooh i feel well happy, thats my first ever opinionated comment about something technical ;)
BakingAccident 3 years ago
I laughed with this opening. The rolling thing was in Into The Woods too. It made me smile. Oh, Sondheim!
dreamofthesun737 4 years ago 2
As much as I love this song and this show in general--this is the second consecutive number where the woman on stage gets to own the audience, and the man on stage has to either just sit there ("Send in the Clowns") or lie there ("Miller's Son"). How fair is that? :D
phoenixnyc 4 years ago
yeah and how many women get slaughtered in horror movies? this was her speech to the audience and the man was just not important in the scene.
francie024 4 years ago
phoenixnyc was kidding.
DavidHuxley 4 years ago
Yes, I was......but women DO tend to get the good stuff on Broadway. Men get more roles, but women get more of the memorable numbers than men do.
phoenixnyc 3 years ago 8
I TOTALLY agree with you!
the women roles are much better
I regret being a man!
nrbta18 3 years ago
Sondheim is the only composer I know that consistently writes complex male parts. The best one in this show is most likely Henrick. Ignoring Sondheim, almost all lead male roles are flat and altogether boring. It's rather a shame.
doomwhatelse 3 years ago 2
Well, remember that Sondheim doesn't really create characters (he said so himself in an interview), but he takes the characters that George Furth or Hugh Wheeler or James Lapine (or whoever else) think of and he builds so richly on them with perfectly lyricized and composed music.
I agree, most of the non-Sondheim male characters are boring. Robert, Fredrik, Sweeney, and all the others -- they're just so complex and interesting.
AtLastOnTheGround 3 years ago
Yes, I am aware that Sondheim "inteprets" his characters rather than "writing them." Nevertheless, his lyrics and musical composition create complex facets of their identity, which even influence the edits to the book. He's a very modest person, so he won't admit to all the influence that he has in the creative proccess.
doomwhatelse 3 years ago
Very true, and that's another thing I love about him -- he's not some vain idiot whose shows are all for big bucks (cough cough Webber) but he just does what he does and is (in my humble opinion) the best composer/lyricist ever.
AtLastOnTheGround 3 years ago
haha don't event get me started about ALW; he is as much of an artist as brittney spears. ALW doesn't even admit that he's a pop composer, but instead claims that because he wrote a show "based" on something by T.S. Elliot, THAT makes him an intellectual! He doesn't even write his own lyrics. Sondheim is unique. He and Kander and Ebb are the only writers I know who have continually produced intellectual material for muscial theatre(and of course by musical theatre, I am excluding opera)
doomwhatelse 3 years ago
Are you leaving Rodgers and Hammerstein out of the equation? I would argue that their things have a lot of intellectual bite to them. Just to clarify, I'm not saying Sondheim isn't a complete genius. Just pointing out that there are\were other intelligent composers.
clarklesparkle 3 years ago
Oh R+H were most definitely intelligent composers of their time, but I'm unclear as to how intellECTUAL they were. I think that Carousel is brilliant, along with many others of theirs, but I think that Sondheim surpassed Hammerstein(his mentor) in his intellectual endeavor. That's not to say R+H's work isn't amazing, it just doesn't strike me particularily as art, but more classy entertainment. But that's just me.
doomwhatelse 3 years ago
ALW is a derivative hack, plain and simple. Ycch. Sondheim - well, you just can't SPEAK of them in the same sentence, can you?
MMK9 3 years ago 2
We'll see! I just got a ticket for the Broadway revival for this Friday! I lined up for tickets yesterday a few hours before the first preview. I could hear some actors going over a number in the lobby just on the other side of the door!
rabbitfish63 2 years ago
I saw it last week. It is AMAZING. SOOOOOO SOOOOO GOOD! I loved it. One of the best Broadway shows I have seen.
jmartin18rdb 2 years ago
@doomwhatelse
I say it a lot, but for most of Broadway, men get more stuff, but women get the good stuff.
Even Sondheim occasionally did this--most of the good songs in Follies are for women, after all.
phoenixnyc 2 years ago
...And I was referring to musical roles only. I suppose that is why most male actors turn to opera and core theatre.
doomwhatelse 3 years ago
@DavidHuxley
Thanks. Does :D no longer mean a grin?
phoenixnyc 2 years ago
Actually, doxma33, Sondheim did come in and meet with each cast member for supervision. He loved Susan Terry's earthiness and belt. In fact he was quite pleased with this production.
CCottenMSW 4 years ago
I love her sassiness and her voice. But Sondheim must have gone nuts when she elided "Miller's" and "Son." He'd have told her to separate the two words. Check out his master classes; he's very particular about diction.
doxma33 4 years ago
It's nice to see this little bit. Hope all is well with you.
MissTruly 4 years ago
Amazing.
boinxtdor 4 years ago