50 Favourite Musicals: 10: A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (1973) (Stephen Sondheim)

The 50 shows that have stood out down the years and, as we get up among the paint cards, the shows that have become the cast recording of my life:

First performed: 1973, Shubert Theatre, NY

First seen by me: 1989, Piccadilly Theatre, London

Productions seen: five
  
Score: Stephen Sondheim

Book: Hugh Wheeler

Plot: In 1900 Sweden, actress Desiree and lawyer Fredrik are two former lovers who rekindle their feelings for each other when she visits his town on a theatrical tour; however they are now paired with Anne, Fredrik's teenage bride, and Desiree's jealous lover Count Carl-Magnus.  Matters come to a head during a weekend party at Desiree's haughty mother Madame Armfeldt...

Five memorable numbers: SEND IN THE CLOWNS, THE MILLER'S SON, A WEEKEND IN THE COUNTRY, EVERY DAY A LITTLE DEATH, THE GLAMOROUS LIFE

Well, here are... the Top 10 Musicals; these are the ones whose scores mean the most to me.  We start with yet another Sondheim for a very good reason... he is my favourite musical composer.

After COMPANY and FOLLIES had shaken up the Broadway musical in the early 1970s with explorations into what could be done with the form, composer Stephen Sondheim and producer/director Hal Prince were in no mood to stop. They revisited an idea they had in 1964 when they wanted to create a modern take on an operetta-style romantic musical and decided to do an adaptation of Jean Anouilh's RING AROUND THE MOON but Anouilh said no - and said no again after they told him they had writer Hugh Wheeler on board!  Sondheim suggested two films that had a similar theme: Jean Renoir's THE RULES OF THE GAME and Ingmar Bergman's SMILES ON A SUMMER NIGHT as both feature a weekend country house party with romantic intrigues and jealousies enveloping both guests and servants.  Sondheim decided the Bergman had a subtlety that lent itself more to becoming a musical - and luckily Bergman agreed to the adaptation, his only stipulation being it be given a new title.  Hal Prince once described NIGHT MUSIC as "whipped cream with knives" but Sondheim is of the opinion that Prince was more interested in the former, he the latter.  Indeed what makes it such an interesting show is that all the characters are dissatisfied with something or unhappy at an other - they may be in love but it causes as much pain as pleasure - and Hugh Wheeler's witty book runs deceptively deep, something Sondheim has only grown to appreciate in the fullness of time and over many revivals.  Sondheim later asked Ingmar Bergman if he ever saw the show and was surprised when Bergman said he had and enjoyed it, brushing aside Sondheim's apologies about changing certain characters by saying "We are both eating from the same cake".  Oh and the cherry on that cake?  Soon after it opened, Jean Anouilh's 'people' contacted Hal Prince to say that the rights for RING AROUND THE MOON were now available - too late Jean!

Sondheim went into rehearsals with most of the score written but added - and subtracted - more along the way.  The rousing Act 1 closer A WEEKEND IN THE COUNTRY was written during the rehearsal period when Hal Prince felt all the story lines had to come together to send the audience out on a high; this also gave Sondheim the opportunity to write the song tailoring it to the cast's specific voices, and speaking of which... Sondheim and Prince has assumed they would cast a comedy actress for the lead role of Desiree who probably wouldn't be able to sing too well, and eventually decided on Glynis Johns who, they discovered, was able to sing in a breathy, delicate style.  Sondheim had given Desiree two duets in Act I and nothing in Act II but it was decided Glynis Johns had the musicality to be given a solo in the second act.  Hal Prince re-directed the scene to focus it on her while Sondheim turned up after two days with SEND IN THE CLOWNS.  Knowing her range meant she could not sustain long notes, he devised the song to comprise of short questions "Isn't it rich? Are we a pair?" that would fit on her voice perfectly.... the rest is history!  The show ran on Broadway for 18 months, was nominated for 12 Tony Awards and won 6 including Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book and Best Actress for Glynis Johns.  The London premiere was in 1975 with the dazzling cast of Jean Simmons, Joss Ackland, Hermione Gingold, David Kernan, Maria Aitkin and Diane Langton; the London cast recording remains my favourite with several definitive renditions especially Diane Langton as Petra, the practical maid, tearing the roof off with THE MILLER'S SON.

I first saw NIGHT MUSIC through Hal Prince's misguided film version starring a miscast Elizabeth Taylor; Sondheim had advised against it but Prince wanted to prove he was as good a film director as he was on stage - he wasn't.  I first saw it on stage in 1989 when Ian Judge's Chichester production transferred to the Piccadilly with Dorothy Tutin's unforgettable Desiree, Susan Hampshire's excellent Countess Charlotte and Sara Weymouth again mining gold with THE MILLER'S SON.  I saw Judi Dench's magnificent Desiree at the Olivier Theatre in 1995 which won her an Olivier Award in an otherwise over-directed production by Sean Mathias.  The Menier production in 2008 was a delightful chamber version, let down by Trevor Nunn's rather languorous pacing, not helped by his inclusion of the previously cut song SILLY PEOPLE but with winning lead performances from Hannah Waddington and Alexander Hanson.  Hanson transferred with the production to Broadway where I finally saw Angela Lansbury onstage as Madame Armfeldt; Catherine Zeta-Jones was an oddly lascivious Desiree but she reined in the Swansea barmaid interpretation to deliver a heartfelt SEND IN THE CLOWNS.  In 2015 we saw a concert version at the Palace Theatre with Janie Dee as Desiree, Joanna Riding as Charlotte, Jamie Parker as Carl-Magnus, Laura Pitt-Pulford as Petra (delivering yet another fiery THE MILLER'S SON) and Anne Reid as Madame Armfeldt.  It's a show I would happily see again but sadly the one that got away was a fundraising concert version in January 2009 for the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York with Natasha Richardson as Desiree, Victor Garber as Fredrik, Christine Baranski as Charlotte and Vanessa Redgrave as Madame Armfeldt; two months later Richardson was injured in a skiing accident and later died.

So which SEND IN THE CLOWNS will it be?  Despite memorable versions by Glynis Johns, Bernadette Peters, Barbara Cook and Angela Lansbury, for me it's Judi Dench in the 1995 NT production, seen here over the end credits of a South Bank Show profile.  It's not a good transfer but Dench delivers a nigh-on definitive rendition where every word comes straight from Desiree's broken heart...

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC: 40th Anniversary Concert

...sort of.

The show premiered in New York in 1973 but the semi-staged concert we saw at the Palace Theatre on Monday was to celebrate 40 years since it's first London production.  It opened at the Adelphi with the deliciously characterful cast of Jean Simmons, Joss Ackland, Hermione Gingold, David Kernan, Maria Aitkin and Diane Langton and their cast recording is still my favourite version.

Owen took great delight in pointing out that, for all my ranting about the current trend of adapting films into stage shows, that A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC was based on Ingmar Bergman's "Smiles On A Summer Night".  Indeed Sondheim also did the screen-to-stage PASSION and is said to be working on a stage amalgamation of Luis Bunuel's THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE and THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL.  A subtle but important difference to MADE IN DAGENHAM and KINKY BOOTS. 

Meanwhile, back to the Palace (sounds like INTO THE WOODS eh?)  The Palace really is a frightful barn with a particularly gloomy auditorium but it was good to see it so busy for this one-off event.  By the end of it I was aching to see a full revival of the show!

We were treated to a cast that most producer's would chew their leg off to have - namely Janie Dee as Desiree Armfeldt, Anne Reid as Mme. Armfeldt, Jamie Parker as Count Carl-Magnus, Joanna Riding as Countess Charlotte and Laura Pitt-Pulford as Petra.

I felt David Birrell as Frederick Egerman sang well but was a bit anonymous when acting opposite Dee or Parker while Fra Fee as Henrik made the oddest noise when singing in his higher register (which his character does), he sounded like a gurgling drain.

What was enjoyable was getting reacquainted with Hugh Wheeler's exquisite book, the perfect setting for the jewel of Sondheim's score.  A great book should give you the impression that, stripped of it's songs, it can stand alone as a play and when original director Hal Prince described the show as being like "whipped cream with knives" that is exactly what Hugh Wheeler wrote, he mixes comedy and drama to perfection.

Even in the semi-staged setting, the best performers sparkled.  Janie Dee was a lustrous Desiree with her trademark champagne-dry wit and she sang SEND IN THE CLOWNS with a resigned sadness.  Yes, she muffed the final moments during the CLOWNS reprise but by then she had won us over.

Jamie Parker and Joanna Riding were marvellously paired as Count and Countess Malcolm, both finding their laughs with ease.  In his solo number IN PRAISE OF WOMEN, Parker showed off his considerable singing skills as he had in last year's GUYS AND DOLLS at Chichester and was huge fun too in the duet IT WOULD HAVE BEEN WONDERFUL with Birrell. 

Joanna Riding had the audience in her hand with her cutting lines and also duetted well in EVERYDAY A LITTLE DEATH with Anna O'Byrne's Anne.  It would be a lovely change for Anne not to be played as a hysteric but O'Byrne was on firmer territory when singing.

As the all-knowing Madame Armfeldt Anne Reid was enormously enjoyable, her withering put-downs were as dry as dust and apart from a tiny stumble during her solo number LIAISONS she sang it well and it would be great to see her in a proper production, if only for her to have a proper setting for her performance.  Madame Armfeldt actually has the very last moment of the action which was lost in a concert setting.

However the best performance was Laura Pitt-Pulford's Petra, the sly and sexy maid who knows exactly what she wants out of life and love.  What is interesting is how her solo number THE MILLER'S SON comes straight after SEND IN THE CLOUDS, two songs of great self-awareness, but the latter gives a supporting actress a real moment to shine.  Diane Langton's titanic version lives on through the London cast recording and I have seen Sara Weymouth and Kaisa Hammarlund seize that moment to shine and now I can add Laura Pitt-Pulford to that list. She was quite electrifying.

The onstage orchestra sounded great under the musical direction of the curiously-bouncy Alex Parker and although Alastair Knights' direction kept the show moving along nicely, Andrew Wright's choreography was a trifle redundant.

When one thinks of how often theatres are dark it would be nice to think that they could be utilised for similar semi-staged productions or for a seasons of them such as Broadway's acclaimed Encores productions where classic or little-seen musicals are presented.

Well done Duncan Bell for the photographs that capture the event.

This week Stephen Sondheim's A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC reopened at the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway after the departure of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury with the new leads Bernadette Peters as Desiree and Elaine Stritch as Mme Armfeldt.Now I would give my eye-teeth to see them in it but, I don't know, they just look odd on stage...

In other Broadway news, Halle Berry and Samuel L. Jackson have been signed to appear in THE MOUNTAINTOP by Katori Hall which was the surprise winner of the Olivier Award last year for Best New Play.

Mindful that Denzil Washington has just had such a Tony award-winning smash hit with FENCES on the Great White (ahem) Way, there appears to be a scramble to get black film actors on stage.

The latest gossip is that the same producer who blacked up Tennessee Williams' CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF has approached Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith to co-star in a production of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE! The thought of those two pissing all over one of the greatest plays of the 20th Century is really a step too far.

Oh and on the subject of black actors and productions I would give eye-teeth to see....

The box-office opens tonight!

Bloo-dy HELL!

Recently the producers of the New York production of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC announced that it's run at the Walter Kerr Theatre would end when the contracts were up for it's stars, Angela Lansbury and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Whoa chile... it has now been announced that au contraire, after a closure of a month the production will reopen with the jaw-dropping killer-diller double-divadom of Bernadette Peters as Desiree and Elaine Stritch as her mother Mme. Armfelt.

Both are of course are well versed in Sondheim's work - apart from singing his songs in their solo shows Bernadette originated roles in SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE and INTO THE WOODS and in a revival of GYPSY while Stritch originated the role of Joanne in COMPANY and stopped the 1985 FOLLIES concert dead with her version of "Broadway Baby".

Here they are at Sondheim's birthday gala in March separated by David Hyde Pierce...

Looks like the couch is going to be burrowed into one more time for the odd penny...

Congratulations to the Menier Chocolate Factory which has received two New York Drama League Award nominations for Best Musical Revival with their exported productions of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC and LA CAGE AUX FOLLES (which has just opened to excellent reviews)


It's odd to think I saw both in the tiny 180-seater before they launched out into the world!

The Drama League Performance Award is a bit idiosyncratic - they nominate for a single performance award and once you have won it you cannot win it again although you can be nominated. This year quite a few favorite names are on the list:

Barbara Cook for SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM
Douglas Hodge for LA CAGE AUX FOLLES
Angela Lansbury for A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
Laura Linney for TIME STOOD STILL

This Award has been awarded since 1935, how strange that Cook and Lansbury, two of Broadway's great names, have never won the performance award. Angela Lansbury however did win a Unique Contribution Award last year.

For that matter the three living English Queens of the stage - Maggie Smith, Vanessa Redgrave and Judi Dench - haven't won either!

One thing that has been rattling around my head since our recent exposure to the NY theatre scene is the actual theatres themselves.

We visited the following theatres -
Booth Theatre which opened in 1913
Al Hirschfeld Theatre which opened in 1924
Eugene O'Neill which opened in 1925
Walter Kerr Theatre which opened in 1921
Vivian Beaumont Theatre which opened in 1973

Can you spot the odd one out there? I am wondering whether one of the reasons we so enjoyed SOUTH PACIFIC at the Beaumont might have been because it was in the most recently-built auditorium? What baffled me was this: why is going to a Broadway theatre, one of the alleged jewels in New York's crown, such an uncomfortable experience?

More often than not the theatre's seemed to be - well - dingy, under-lit and with the strangest atmosphere of neglect and lacking in atmosphere.

It's hard to know where to begin to chronicle the oddness of buying drinks in a Broadway house. In what can only be a throwback to prohibition, the bar seems to be there as some token gesture - it was an odd feeling to be the ONLY people to order interval drinks in two separate theatres! We then had the bizarre occurrence at the Booth Theatre in being told by one of the Lilliputian ushers that we could not take our tiny plastic glasses a) to our seats b) to the bench against the back wall of the theatre behind the back row - and to then stand there and watch us in case we dare move from the one patch of the corridor carpet.

Another peculiarity to that theatre was that the loos were in the basement. I trotted down the stairs to be greeted by a large 'lounge' designed to look like a low-ceilinged Versailles salon that any west end theatre would give it's life to have as a bar - and here it was - quiet as the grave and probably only used for opening or closing night parties.

The Al Hirschfeld has the welcome relief of having a nice permanent exhibition of Hirschfeld's theatrical pen-and-ink caricatures around the circle's foyer but again the auditorium's Moroccan-style interiors seemed to be crying out for some better lighting or at best a steam-clean.

Imagine our joy when we walked into the Eugene O'Neill theatre to find the rather grey auditorium festooned with colour and light thanks to FELA's extended set design. Our happiness was made all the better when the bar-tender told us that we could take our drinks TO OUR SEATS! I nearly kissed her on both cheeks.

The next night saw us in the charming Walter Kerr Theatre with it's lovely auditorium murals of Pan and Harlequin. But again, the 'bar' was in fact a hostess trolley in the already narrow passage behind the back row so the interval was a total bedlam of people either queuing, trying to get away from the queue, trying to get to the loos that were situated on the lower landings of the two narrow staircases on each side of said corridor or people just trying to stretch their legs.

And did we EVER need to stretch... the seats in the circle - and we are talking the top price here - afforded no leg room at all! It was difficult to be swept along by Sondheim's waltz score for A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC when you are crippled by the top-edge of the seat in front of you. Again this was a crime against theatregoers that was perpetrated in the four previous theatres visited!

Imagine then the relief to find the wide open spaces of the Vivian Beaumont at Lincoln Center where one could find a neutral corner in the foyer as well as room to cross your legs while in your seat - well apart from the little mare who kept kicking the back of Owen's seat. I was also amazed to see the Gents illustrated by a neon drop of pee falling into a puddle.

Um... until I realised that it was showing you there was a public water fountain underneath it.Apart from all the above. there was also the strange response from the audiences - to their surroundings and also to what they were watching.

By and large - apart from a couple of totally mad cows who assumed we were there to watch their odd antics - the audiences seemed oddly cowed by their surroundings, as if they were over-awed to be in such temples to the arts. I really didn't feel the audiences felt they had any ownership of the space.

Suzanne put us wise to a recent change that has taken over the audiences - which made me think we are starting to suffer with the same malaise... the need to give EVERYONE a standing ovation.
Now I am happy to say that as Angela Lansbury came on to take her bow I was happy to stand and applaud her effortlessly magical performance - but by then, my fellow-audience members had been on their feet applauding the lowliest supporting cast.

I suspect there are two things at play here - the ticket price is so lofty these days that people need to reassure themselves that the performances they are seeing are all of an unmatched brilliance and also I put it down to the Cowallism of culture - where the most common or garden performance is praised as the Second Coming - or First Going.

Mind you... any theatre that gives me a free programme will have me running back for more. Even from the DON'T LOOK NOW dwarfs of the Booth Theatre.

In retrospect, our theatregoing in NY can be split into distinct pairings. HAIR and FELA! can both be grouped as celebratory 'experiences' and our fourth and fifth shows, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC and SOUTH PACIFIC are definitely 'classic' Broadway book musicals. NEXT TO NORMAL stands out as just being naff.

Another pairing that sprung to mind was that we were again seeing a Sondheim production in New York that we had originally seen at the Menier Chocolate Factory back in London - during our last trip we saw SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE at Studio 54.

To be honest the only thing on my mind as I took my seat was that FINALLY I was about to see Angela Lansbury in a musical! I had seen her with Bea Arthur at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 1990 singing "Bosom Buddies" from MAME at an AIDS fundraiser but finally here I was seeing her in a real show... and where better than on Broadway where she has won five Tony Awards - tying with Julie Harris for the most won for performing.

I was mindful that we had yet to see a cast without an understudy on so I was getting nervous - but the only announcement before the lights went down was from Angela herself in a typically amusing warning to turn off our mobile phones and not to unwrap sweets... needless to say 20 minutes into the show, someone's mobile went off.

Trevor Nunn has broadened out his production to fill the Walter Kerr stage - no other additions apart from that - so yes, the lighting is still as murky in places as it was at the Menier.

When I say that he had broadened it, I don't just mean the set - there was a slightly annoying habit by some of the cast to play up the double-entendres in Hugh Wheeler's book - at times it was worryingly like watching CARRY ON NIGHT MUSIC. I can only assume this was down to Nunn but I don't remember it being so marked in London. Needless to say this being a Trevor Nunn show it of course ran for his regulation three hours. A little more pace would not have gone amiss.
 This show would have been the best of the trip but for a couple of performances which were akin to being elbowed in the eye. The roles of Ann and Henrik are notoriously difficult to pull off - juvenile roles with a fair amount of stage time that have to be played with respectively just the right amount of girlish enthusiasm and pompous rectitude otherwise they become tiresome. Ramona Mallory and Hunter Ryan Herdlicka - both making their Broadway debuts - became VERY tiresome.

Indeed Mallory so overdid the hysterical squealing and jabbering that one wondered why Fredrik had not had her sectioned. Why Nunn never reined them in during the rehearsal and previews is totally beyond me. What made her performance even more outlandish was that the young Katherine McNamara who played Desiree's young daughter Fredrika was a model of restraint and charm! What really annoyed me about Mallory and Herdlicka was that without them it would have been an exemplary supporting cast. Ok, Aaron Lazar as the egotistical Carl-Magnus had the grating habit of singing "wimmin" rather than "women" - which is a worry when his big solo was "In Praise Of Women" - but other than that he was fine and he was perfectly partnered by Erin Davie as his bitter and cynical wife Charlotte - her duet with Mallory on "Every Day A Little Death" was beautifully sung and actually drew the only true moment from her co-star.

A special mention must go to Leigh Ann Larkin as the only realist in the show, Ann's maid Petra. She stole every scene she was in - not difficult as she shared most of them with my two least favorite actors - and her rendition of "The Miller's Son" fully deserved the huge ovation she received. On our last trip we had seen her as the mutinous June in GYPSY so it was good to see her coming on!

But again, there was an irksome trick during her solo which I can only lay at Nunn's door. Larkin and Herdlicka play their roles with American accents while all the others use varying degrees of Received Pronunciation and towards the end of her song, while holding the note on "Meanwhiiiiile..." she suddenly verged into a Bronx accent singing "Meanwhiiiiyell..." that got a cheap laugh but ruined it for me. If it was some attempt to show that Petra was lower-class, it was unnecessary as she had done it through her performance!

 
Luckily Alexander Hanson has come over with the production to reprise his role as Fredrik and his witty, understated performance was good to see again. I suspect it was this unshowy aspect to his performance that won him the role against his formidable leading ladies.

As Owen suggested there was probably an interesting generational divide in who in the audience had come to see who and of course quite a few would have been there to see Catherine Zeta-Jones as Desiree.

Well she has come a long way since I used to see her clattering about backstage at 42ND STREET at Drury Lane with the show baseball cap welded to her head. As I was there to see my friend Carol Ball who played 'Anytime Annie', I have a good memory of who was in the cast - Catherine, your biog is wrong in the programme - you were chorus, love, not lead.

 
I'm not a big fan of her as I find her difficult to warm to. She was interesting to watch but again I never really forgot she was Giving A Performance. She gave a very luxurious, almost voluptuous reading of the part and as such, seemed to have her own rhythm against the other actors on stage, she always seemed somehow off the beat, which made her comedy scenes a trifle strained.

However in the odd moment, when she dropped her guard and allowed herself to be vulnerable on stage she showed a warmth that had been missing before. She was at her best in scenes with Hanson and their easy relationship together made it very easy to believe that they had once been intimate.

One such scene of course included her singing "Send In The Clowns" - not as heartbreaking as Judi Dench or Dorothy Tutin, not as emotional as Hannah Waddingham at the Menier, but all the more effective for her doing it quietly and ruefully. I happily joined in the large ovation she received for it.Which of course brings us to Angela Lansbury.

Mme. Armfeldt is the perfect role for her now - a delightful gem of a part that due to it's   small stage time makes you treasure each moment she's on stage. You simply couldn't take your eyes off her.She gave a performance of true star quality - every one of her laugh lines knocked out of the park with a deceptive ease, every look and piece of business timed to perfection.
  
She indeed has the timing of death - she gave a performance that almost revelled in the artificiality of high comedy but that turned on a coin to be breathtakingly poignant. Her scene toward the end with her grand-daughter (all her scenes with Katherine McNamara were charming) where she wistfully remembers a long lost lover who she turned down because he was not wealthy broke your heart simply by the way she timed the line "He could have been the love of my life".

Her solo number "Liaisons" was an object lesson in singing Sondheim. Perfectly sung, you could hear a pin drop as she quietly made the show her own.

 
Her final moments on stage were quite unforgettable. Slowly playing cards in her wheelchair as her grand-daughter watches for the night to smile, Mme. Armfeldt fell back in her chair with the cards scattering out of her hand as the audience reacted in shock.
  
By God, she was worth the wait.

 

Oh ker-fuck.  I know where I want to be on Monday January 12th. And it ain't here.

For one night only Natasha Richardson, Victor Garber, Christine Baranski, Laura Benanti and Vanessa Redgrave will appear in a fundraising concert version of Stephen Sondheim's A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC. Vanessa sings Sondheim!

The ticket prices would bring on a new credit crunch - the cheapest at the back of the mezzanine being $150.

NIGHT MUSIC is being staged at the end of the year at the Menier Chocolate Factory and I have tickets for December. Only instead of Vanessa Redgrave they have Maureen Lipman.  To quote one of the songs "Every Day A Little Death".