The year was 1977. Hal Prince was at the helm. Stephen Sondheim's masterpiece was being adapted for the big screen. And right in the middle of it all was Elizabeth Taylor, perhaps the most famous woman on the planet, stepping into a role that many felt she had no business playing.
A Little Night Music Elizabeth Taylor is one of those cinematic intersections that feels inevitable and completely baffling at the same time. On paper, it was a prestige project. You had the lush, waltz-time brilliance of a Broadway hit being translated into a sweeping period film. But the reality? Well, it was a bit of a whirlwind. If you talk to theater purists today, they still get a little twitchy about the casting. They’ll tell you she wasn't a singer. They’ll point out that she lacked the stage-trained precision required for Sondheim’s complex, interlocking lyrics.
They aren't exactly wrong, but they're missing the point of what makes this specific performance so fascinating.
Why Everyone Still Argues About Desiree Armfeldt
When Elizabeth Taylor signed on to play Desiree Armfeldt, she was stepping into shoes originally filled on Broadway by Glynis Johns. Johns had a voice like velvet and gravel mixed together—perfect for the "Send in the Clowns" irony. Taylor, on the other hand, brought a different kind of weight. She brought the weight of being Elizabeth Taylor.
Honestly, the production was a bit of a logistical headache from the jump. Filming moved to Austria. The budget started creeping up. And then there was the matter of the singing. Taylor wasn't a powerhouse vocalist. Everyone knew that. To compensate, the keys were lowered. Some of the more difficult passages were simplified. In a 2003 interview with The New York Times, Hal Prince admitted that the film lacked the "effervescence" of the stage play, partly because the cinematic medium demands a realism that doesn't always play nice with people bursting into song in 19th-century Sweden.
The movie tries so hard to be beautiful. It is beautiful. The costumes by Florence Otway are staggering. But there’s a strange, heavy atmosphere to it. You’ve got Taylor, who looks absolutely radiant, yet she feels like she's in a different movie than some of her co-stars, like the brilliant Diana Rigg or Lesley-Anne Down.
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The "Send in the Clowns" Moment
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. The song.
"Send in the Clowns" is arguably the most famous song Sondheim ever wrote. It’s a song about regret. It’s about realizing the joke is on you. When A Little Night Music Elizabeth Taylor hit the screens, this was the scene everyone waited for.
Is it "good" singing? Not in the classical sense. Her voice is thin. It wavers. But—and this is a big "but"—it is incredibly vulnerable. Taylor understood heartbreak better than almost anyone in Hollywood history. She’d lived it in the tabloids for decades. When she looks at Len Cariou (reprising his role as Fredrik Egerman) and sings those lines, you aren't watching a Broadway star execute a perfect vocal run. You're watching a woman who has actually felt the sting of timing being just a little bit off.
Some critics at the time, like Vincent Canby, were less than kind. They felt the film was "clumsy." They thought the editing was choppy. But if you watch that scene in a vacuum today, away from the 1970s baggage of Taylor's personal life, there's a raw quality to it. It’s a movie star performance, not a musical theater performance. There's a difference.
Production Chaos and the Vienna Set
The shoot wasn't exactly a walk in the park. Working with Taylor meant working with the "Taylor machine." There were delays. There were health issues. Prince later recounted that while Taylor was professional and lovely to work with, the transition from the stage's intimacy to the film's sprawling Austrian locations sucked some of the wit out of the script.
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Sondheim himself was famously involved in his adaptations. He even wrote new lyrics for the film version of "The Glamorous Life" to make it work better as a solo piece for the character of Fredrika. It’s actually a superior version of the song in many ways, more focused and cinematic. Yet, even with Sondheim’s direct input, the movie struggled to find its footing at the box office.
Basically, the film suffered from a bit of an identity crisis. Was it a high-brow musical for the elite? Or was it a star-driven vehicle for the world's biggest celebrity? By trying to be both, it ended up satisfying neither camp entirely.
The Legacy of a "Flop"
It's funny how time changes things. In 1977, A Little Night Music was largely dismissed as a disappointment. It didn't win over the critics, and it didn't set the world on fire. But look at it now. It’s a time capsule.
You get to see Elizabeth Taylor at a specific point in her career—post-Virginia Woolf, post-divorce(s), still holding that incredible magnetic power. You get to see Diana Rigg delivering lines with the sharpness of a razor blade. You get to see the last gasp of the big-budget, traditional studio musical before the genre went into a long hibernation.
The film is currently a bit of a cult classic for Sondheim devotees. We watch it not because it’s a perfect adaptation, but because it’s a fascinating one. It’s a lesson in what happens when you try to bottle lightning—sometimes the bottle breaks, but the light is still pretty bright.
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Why You Should Actually Watch It
If you’re a fan of Taylor, this is essential viewing. Not because it’s her best work—it isn't—but because it shows her range. She wasn't afraid to fail. She wasn't afraid to take on a role that required her to be stripped of her usual "movie star" armor and be a bit pathetic, a bit aging, and a bit lost.
- The New Lyrics: Pay close attention to "The Glamorous Life." It's one of the few times a Sondheim rewrite for a film actually surpasses the original stage intent.
- The Costume Design: Seriously, the hats alone are worth the price of admission.
- Diana Rigg: She steals every single scene she is in. Her delivery of "Every Day a Little Death" is perhaps the highlight of the entire movie.
What Most People Get Wrong
The biggest misconception about A Little Night Music Elizabeth Taylor is that she was "miscast."
While she didn't have the voice, she had the spirit. Desiree is supposed to be a touring actress who is tired. She’s a woman who has seen it all and is ready to come home. Who better to play that than Elizabeth Taylor? The mistake wasn't the casting; it was perhaps the direction. The film tries to be too literal. It lacks the "breath" of the stage. But Taylor? She's doing exactly what she was hired to do: be luminous, be tragic, and be unmistakably herself.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Collectors
If you're looking to dive deeper into this specific era of Taylor's filmography or this Sondheim adaptation, here is how to get the most out of it:
- Seek out the Blu-ray restoration: The color palette of the film is its strongest suit. The older DVD transfers are muddy and don't do justice to the cinematography by Charlie Fisher.
- Compare the Soundtracks: Listen to the Original Broadway Cast recording with Glynis Johns first, then listen to the film soundtrack. Notice how the arrangements changed to accommodate Taylor’s range. It’s a masterclass in musical arranging.
- Read Hal Prince’s Memoirs: He is candid about what worked and what didn't. It provides the necessary context for why the film feels the way it does.
- Watch for the nuance in the "Clowns" scene: Forget the notes. Look at her eyes. That is where the real acting is happening.
The movie serves as a reminder that even when a project doesn't quite hit the mark, the presence of a true icon can make it endure. Elizabeth Taylor didn't need to be a perfect singer to make us feel the regret of a life lived in the spotlight. She just had to show up.
To fully appreciate the context of this film, your next step should be to listen to the 1973 Original Broadway Cast recording of A Little Night Music. By hearing the songs as they were originally intended for the stage, you will gain a much deeper understanding of the specific choices made for Elizabeth Taylor's screen version and why certain tracks were modified so heavily for the cinematic medium.