'A Little Night Music' handsomely produced
2008-10-01
Ask any director to name the most sophisticated and difficult contemporary composer to stage, and the answer will probably be Stephen Sondheim. Ask me to name which local director I think could best meet the Sondheim challenge, and I'd offer the name of musical wunderkind, Brad Blake.
It's no surprise, therefore, to find Blake at the helm of Sondheim's 1973 Tony Award winning "A Little Night Music" at the fearless TheatreWorks in New Milford. If this production is not perfection, it's darn close. There are a few weak voices, some casting inconsistencies, but where the music is concerned -- and music is indeed what makes Sondheim such an exquisite treat for the ears, mind and heart -- this is a lovely show.
Though Sondheim often worked with material that was mainstream musical comedy such as "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," and "Company", witty as they were; he often chose dark and deep subjects to explore with his talents. "A Little Night Music," "Follies," "Passion," and "Pacific Overtures" were among the unlikely works he chose to bring to the stage.
"Night Music" is an adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's 1955 Swedish film "Smiles of a Summer Night," a pungent story about mismatched lovers who come together for a weekend in the country during the summer's bewitching "white nights." The musical's book is by Hugh Wheeler, one of Sondheim's frequent collaborators.
A turn-of-the-century romantic comedy, the characters, who follow their often misdirected passions, emerge as foolish and frenzied as those in less well corseted sex farces. Who knew the Swedes were so hot blooded?
The inventive and seasoned Blake has assembled a cast includes many regulars from area musical productions he has directed, and under the baton of Charles Smith who conducts the six piece orchestra from the keyboard, the songs, albeit with the occasional flat note, supply the wit and wisdom the characters comically lack.
Center to the story is the unconsummated marriage of middle-aged widower Fredrik Egerman (Bruce Tredwell) and 18-year-old Anne (Jessica Stewart). From this chilly relationship, concentric waves of desire emanate starting with Fredrik's 19-year-old son Henrik (Brendan Padgett), who has made a vow of faith to the doctrines of Martin Luther, but secretly lusts for his step-mother.
Emotionally (and sexually) frustrated, Fredrik tries to rekindle an old romance with Desiree Armfeldt (Susan Pettibone), a well-known actress, who currently counts among her paramours, Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm (Mark Feltch), an officer -- but not a gentleman. Just ask his long-suffering wife, the Countess (Priscilla Squiers), who must silently suffer his infidelities.
When the naïve Anne grasps the truth about Fredrik's past and still simmering relationship with Desiree, and joins forces with the vengeful Countess to punish both husbands and the "other woman," the wheels of revenge are set in motion.
As it can only happen in farces, everyone ends up at the country home of Desiree's mother, Madame Armfeldt (Jane Farnol) who is intent on protecting her granddaughter Fredrika (Becca Myhill) from her daughter's wild ways.
The score, which borders on the genre of operetta (don't fret -- that's just code for lots of singing) includes music for a quintet of singers who serve as a Swedish Greek chorus. Dressed elegantly, Ron Dukenski, Greg McMahan, Catherine McCollian, Jessica Smith and Jody Boyernt, weave in and out of the action -- helped occasionally by the well-used stage turntable and unnoticed by the other characters on stage.
The roles are well-balanced though I suppose that of Desiree would have to be considered the plum. After all, she is the center of most of the adult passion, AND she gets to sing the show's signature song, "Send in the Clowns." Pettibone gives an assured performance as the diva and handles "Clowns" with telling sensitivity.
I also admired the wry work of Squires as the woman scorned, especially in the all too sad, "Every Day a Little Death" in which she bemoans her slowly eroding life.
Tredwell and Fletch are amusing as men who think of themselves as the world's greatest lovers, when it is obvious they're just Desiree's playthings.
Farnol, looking and sounding like Ethel Barrymore (on vacation in Sweden?), supplies some sharp humor as the worldly wise Madame who remembers her past with twinkling eyes singing "Liaisons" -- or, as we call them now, affairs. Jackie Decho-Holm also adds some smiles for this summer night as the uninhibited maid, Petra. She delivers a saucy performance topped by a late number in the show, "The Miller's Son," which has echoes of the bitterness of Brecht and Weill.
As servants, Joel Romanelli and Billy Hicks were properly attentive and occasionally rewarded with a kiss or a pat on the rump.
Stewart is a beautiful Anne though she looks older than 18, (forgive me), while Padgett, who gets Henrik's sexual confusion right, looks younger than 19. Oh, well, perhaps it was the "white night" light in my eyes. Some of the other characters don't exactly match what the script suggests but the overall impression is one of reasonableness.
The production IS very easy on the eyes. Scenic design by Paula Anderson is elegant and simple -- a stand of white birch trees on each side of the stage and handsome chairs and benches moved on and off as needed.
Costumes by Lesley Neilson-Bowman are of Masterpiece Theatre quality. Sometimes the stage looks like a coat room during winter there is so little space between the handsomely dressed gentlemen and the ladies in their period perfect fashions.
To call "A Little Night Music" an adult musical I suppose could be the kiss of death, but isn't it about time the theater celebrated its real geniuses without apology? I think Sondheim hoped so, and its obvious Brad Blake and TheatreWorks do.