Fredrik Egerman is very happy in his marriage to a seventeen-year-old virgin, Anne. Only she's been a virgin for the whole eleven months of the marriage, and being a bit restless, Fredrik ...
Director: Harold Prince
Stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Rigg, Len Cariou, Lesley-Anne Down, Hermione Gingold.
Watched online, ok print; color seems washed out.
10 songs in the Soundtracks, all Written by Stephen Sondheim. Most familiar: A Weekend in the Country and Send in the Clowns. Everyone seems to be doing their own singing,
Originated on B'way (2'73-8'74) with LC & HG in their film roles, but Glynis Johns instead of ET. I don't recognize any other names.
I like the songs better than the story or the casting. This is signature Sondheim, with rapid fire syllables, and music that supports the lyrics, not music for the sake of vocalizing. The songs are essential to the furtherance of the story.
ET (b. '32) looks her age with the weathering she's had by now (her 2nd divorce from Burton is final before filming begins, and she'll marry for the 7th time, John Warner, a couple of months after filming wraps).
She is single in the story, matched with LC (b. '39) and another, but it feels a bit strange for LC to gravitate to her, even though she plays a successful stage actress, even after his young wife runs off with his adult son. But they had a prior relationship, even suggesting that her pre-teen daughter out of wedlock might be his.
(I thought LC had done a lot of Sondheim. I only find Sweeney Todd in IBDb, where he originated the title role.)
LD (b. '54) is well-cast as the young wife. Her stepson seems an unlikely character to sweep her away, especially given her 11-month resistance to husband LC, who seems attractive enough.
600+ IMDb users rated this 5.7. I'm feeling 6.5ish about it. Not recommended unless you want to see the show, if only to place Clowns in its original context. Then again, I just found a 3h Live from Lincoln Center performance in 1990 online, with a rating of 8.6 and 115+ votes.
distr. New World Pictures, dir. Prince; 6
