Ramona Mallory in A Little Night Music

[MrMidwest]

Did anybody actually like her in it? I know a lot of people had a problem with her belting a lot of her part.
A Weekend in the Country

[It's a fine life!]

I LOVED her!

[MrMidwest]

I think she's funny, but I'm not sure that she succeeds in creating a real, flesh and blood person.

[Kad]

She improved as the run went on, but I found her terribly annoying both times I saw it. Her vocals weren't the issue for me, just her characterization. It was like all she knew about Anne was that she was young, and so just decided to be petulant and stupid.

[It's a fine life!]

In the performance I saw, her comedic timing was great, and I loved her "squeaky" rendition. Not quite like her mother, but still good.

[After Eight]

I thought she was very good.

[Marianne2]

I saw the show near the end of the run and thought she was good.

[wickedfan]

Saw her three times, first in December about a month into the run and then again in July with Bernadette Peters. She definitely improved during the run, starting as an over the top caricature and eventually grounding herself into a young lady baffled and scared on how to approach womanhood. However Ms. Mallory was not the problem. Trevor Nunn was.

Having spoken to quite a few people who were involved with this production, I can attest that very few people in the cast (the exceptions being Catherine Zeta Jones and Angela Lansbury) were allowed to make any character choices. Nunn had it set in his mind what the characters should be, with a few notes from Sondheim, which Nunn then hammered into the ground. It wasn't until Nunn left the production after it opened that cast members started incorporating hints of what they initially wanted to do with their roles and allowing themselves to stray from Nunn's initial direction.

[Mildred Plotka]

At the performance I saw she performed Anne as if she was a horny horse.

[It's a fine life!]

LOL

[Kad]

"It wasn't until Nunn left the production after it opened that cast members started incorporating hints of what they initially wanted to do with their roles and allowing themselves to stray from Nunn's initial direction."

This is really evident once Bernadette and Stritch took over, I think.

[ljay889]

I saw this revival 12 times. Ramona definitely improved as the run went on, but I did always hope to catch an understudy at least once for Anne, but never did. Actually, she, Davie, Herdlicka, and Larkin all improved as the run went on.
It's very true that once Peters and Stritch took over, the production almost completely changed. They all started letting loose and having fun. It was a "stuffier" production with CZJ and Lansbury, but I really enjoyed both casts.

Anybody know what Leigh Ann Larkin is up to? She seemed to be getting steady work for a while there. She had to choose between coming to Broadway with Ragtime or Night Music. Obviously, she chose wisely. But we haven't heard from her in a while.

[somethingbypuccini]

What role was she offered in Ragtime? She seems awful young for Mother, and Evelyn Nesbit seems such a small role for someone who had just been getting such good work.

[ljay889]

She played Evelyn Nesbit in the DC production, and was offered to continue with it to Broadway.

[somethingwicked]

ljay, I'm not entirely sure what she's up to, but I do know that Larkin left New York and moved out to LA some time ago. Last I heard, she was teaching in an arts program there as a sort of day job while still auditioning regularly.

[ljay889]

Oh, wow. That's interesting. Hopefully we'll see her performing again.

[CalebMeyer]

I also really enjoyed Ramona Mallory. There's something about her voice that I just love...maybe it's the fast vibrato. I did find her performance to be a little whiny at some times, which is arguably part of playing such a young woman, but overall I thought she was charming and very funny!

[It's a fine life!]

She's supposed to be so young as Anne. Maybe that's why she *was* whiney the way she was. Trying to portray the youth of the situation?

[ljay889]

^ Yes, that's certainly part of it. Nunn was very insistent on casting the production younger than usual. It was great not having a 25-year-old Fredrika.

[It's a fine life!]

^^^^ I completely agree.

[CalebMeyer]

Don't get me wrong...whiny werks!

[wickedfan]

No, there's a difference between playing young and playing a caricature. In the Menier production, Anne was played not whiney at all but constantly crying and practically on the brink of suicide. Then in New York, Nunn changed it to her whining and jumping all over the place. There was no truth to his direction of the role. It didn't make Anne funny or amusing, it made her annoying and irritating. You're not supposed to exactly root for Anne, but you're not supposed to hate her either.

Anne is less Veruca Salt and more Cher in Clueless. She means well, but she's just so oblivious that she isn't aware of how ridiculous she is.

[It's a fine life!]

I think she was very funny and amusing.

[bwaylvsong]

I loved her performance, as well! Her acting was excellent all four times I saw her, and I actually prefer her vocals to her mother's.

[GlindatheGood22]

Her voice annoyed me. It sounded to me that she was always on the verge of choking. As for her acting, that revival was my first encounter with Night Music so I had no idea how Anne was usually portrayed, so I didn't have a problem with it. But looking back, she was a little...I think the word coming to mind is "hysterical." Not in a funny way, just shrieky and hysterical.

[MrMidwest]

Maybe it was a tribute to Betsy Joslyn?