A Little Night Music

Although I love the theater, and studied it during college, I've never fully warmed to the art of the Broadway musical. Those who read this blog know my favorite musical is Hair, which is about as unlike a typical Broadway musical as possible. But I am keenly aware that there are those that are passionate about the subject. I knew kids in college that collected original cast recordings, saw some musicals over and over again, and one who loved Stephen Sondheim so much that she somehow ended up in his apartment.

Sondheim, one of the great figures in American musical theater, is an acquired taste. As a lyricist he is without equal, but I've always found his music challenging. He doesn't write toe-tapping songs. A Little Night Music, which debuted on Broadway in 1973, includes one indelible song, "Send in the Clowns," but after seeing a revival a few nights ago I couldn't hum for you any of the others.

But I am here to admit that I had a grand time. I hadn't expected to see the show--friends had an extra ticket, so I went along for the ride. The revival had originally starred Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury, but they have been replaced by the almost-equally big names of Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch.

I think my enjoyment of the show most stems from the book, written by Hugh Wheeler, which was based on Ingmar Bergman's film, Smiles of a Summer Night. While watching it I also flashed back to Woody Allen's take on the subject, A Midsummer-Night's Sex Comedy.

"Men are stupid, men are vain, love's disgusting, love's insane," a line that is repeated twice, seems to sum it all up. We are in the world of Swedish swells, circa 1900. Frederik (Stephen R. Buntrock), is a lawyer who has taken as his second wife an eighteen-year-old innocent, Anne (Ramona Mallory). They have been married for eleven months, but have yet to consummate the marriage, much to Frederik's dismay. He sees an old flame, the actress Desiree (Peters), and impulsively goes to visit her. Saying "what are old friends for?" she takes him to bed, but they are interrupted by her lover, the pompous Count Magnus (Bradley Dean). They create a cover story, but the Count is suspicious. Of course, the Count is married to the put-upon Charlotte (Erin Davie), who after hearing of all this, decides to let Anne know that her husband is dallying.

Frederik's son, Henrik (Hunter Ryan Herdlicka), tries to be a serious scholar, but is betrayed by his hormones, seduced by the family's maid Petra (Leigh Ann Larkin), unable to admit his love for Anne.

Meanwhile, Peters' mother, Stritch, holds court over her household, talking of her many romantic adventures and doling out advice to her granddaughter. All of them end up invited to Stritch's manor for a weekend in the country, and a rondelet takes place, with most everyone ending up with a partner they hadn't expected to end up with. It's all done with cleverness and charm.

Peters, who has specialized in Sondheim over the years, is delightful, and embraces the spotlight during the "Send in the Clowns" moment. The whole cast is wonderful, though. Mallory, I learned later, is the daughter of Victoria Mallory and Mark Lambert, who met while playing Anne and Henrik back during the show's original run. She looks like Katy Perry, especially when the corset pushes her decolletage up toward her chin, and she adopts an odd but endearing accent that sounds mixes baby-doll with British upper-crust.

Stritch has a fine time on stage as well, and I grew to look forward to her being wheeled out in a chair for her scenes. But I have the sneaking suspicion that she had a hard time remembering her lines. There were several moments when she had a very long pause, with the company staring at her. Her big number, "Liaisons," was spoken rather than sung, perhaps a concession to age.

I was told by one of my friends that all of the music of A Little Night Music was composed in three-quarter time, a challenge that Sondheim set for himself. I would never notice something like that. But I did notice some of the delicious rhymes. I particularly liked "touchy" and "duchy," and "clock turn" and "nocturne." Petra's number, "The Miller's Son," is a tour-de-force of language, and Larkin belts it out of the park. It's interesting that it comes after Peters' solo of "Send in the Clowns."

Given the costs of Broadway these days it's not likely I will head out to see another musical any time soon, but when something falls into one's lap, it's nice that it turns out to be a pleasant surprise.