Review: A Little Night Music
Sep. 8th, 2010 01:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
next_to_normalGah, sorry it's taking me so long to get these up. Life has, you may have noticed, been a touch crazy lately. I had also intended to do a write-up of the season finale of Huge, which now aired a week and a half ago, and I still need to talk about Dexter season 4, and maybe eventually I'll get back to watching Lost. Someday... *sigh*
A Little Night Music, Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Book by Hugh Wheeler
A Little Night Music is about generations and the passage of time - the young, anticipating the future; the old, reminiscing about the past; and the middle-aged, wondering where they went wrong and if it's too late to change. It's also a crazy 3-D geometric shape of intersecting love triangles. The show begins and ends with a waltz, symbolic of the shifting relationships in the story - in the beginning, the dancing is awkward, and the characters are all clearly mismatched. At the end, the dancers glide gracefully around the stage, each finally with the right partner.
Bernadette Peters plays Desiree, a glamorous Swedish stage actress who has been having an affair with a married man, when an old flame (who also happens to be the father of her daughter), Fredrik, shows up at one of her plays. Fredrik has just married an 18-year-old trophy wife, and his repressed son, only a year older, is secretly (and awkwardly) in love with his stepmother. Carl-Magnus, Desiree's current affair, is extremely jealous of Fredrik, though apparently oblivious to the irony of his situation, as his own jealous wife is scheming to teach him a lesson. This results in all parties going out to Desiree's mother's home in the countryside, where all of the romantic entanglements must be sorted out.
Although this is a Sondheim show, it's not one I was familiar with prior to seeing it. I had no idea of the story or the music (except for "Send in the Clowns"), but I tend to have certain expectations with Sondheim, and this one hits them all. The music is intricate and sophisticated, with lyrics full of clever wordplay and occasionally bawdy wit. And it is all held together by the theme of time that I mentioned above, most prominent in the musical medley of "Now"/"Later"/"Soon," but also in the nostalgic "Liaisons" and the regretful "Send in the Clowns," and in the Greek chorus' insistence to "Remember." Seriously, I dare anyone who says musicals aren't good stories to watch a Sondheim show. You could write pages of meta about his stuff.
The cast was absolutely phenomenal. I cannot say enough good things about Bernadette Peters. I have adored her since Into the Woods, and she is the reason I wanted to see this show on Broadway. Everyone raved about her rendition of "Send in the Clowns," and I didn't think much of all the talk because I'm not a huge fan of that song anyway, but OH MY GOD. She is absolutely amazing. (And for those who don't know, Bernadette is replacing Catherine Zeta-Jones, who won a Tony for this role last year. I admit, I cannot see CZJ in this role AT ALL, and I laughed when I read this review of Bernadette's performance, which starts out, "Dear Catherine Zeta-Jones: The Theater Wing would like its Tony back.")
Elaine Stritch, another Broadway veteran, was also fantastic as Desiree's brassy mother. Everything that comes out of her mouth is hilarious. I also especially liked Anne, Fredrik's wife - she reminded me quite a bit of a younger version of Bernadette. I wouldn't be at all surprised if that were entirely intentional, to imply that Fredrik had married her because she reminded her of his love, but either way, it takes an impressive talent to evoke another impressive talent.
All the actors were very gracious, by the way, signing autographs after the show at the stage door. My mother, having become an expert at stalking Nathan Lane, lol, taught me that the trick is to find the star's car and then plant yourself in between the door and the car. :) It was pretty crowded and they had metal barriers up so we wouldn't block the door, so we ended up kind of behind the car instead. I only got blurry pictures from there, but this led to Christi totally freaking out because Bernadette got in the car and slid across the backseat, which meant she was just a single pane of glass away, lol.
Christi and I both loved the show, and she would've gone back and seen it again on Sunday if I hadn't convinced her that I don't get to New York often enough to repeat performances. We went to In the Heights instead, which I'll talk about maybe tomorrow? Maybe?
A Little Night Music, Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Book by Hugh Wheeler
A Little Night Music is about generations and the passage of time - the young, anticipating the future; the old, reminiscing about the past; and the middle-aged, wondering where they went wrong and if it's too late to change. It's also a crazy 3-D geometric shape of intersecting love triangles. The show begins and ends with a waltz, symbolic of the shifting relationships in the story - in the beginning, the dancing is awkward, and the characters are all clearly mismatched. At the end, the dancers glide gracefully around the stage, each finally with the right partner.
Bernadette Peters plays Desiree, a glamorous Swedish stage actress who has been having an affair with a married man, when an old flame (who also happens to be the father of her daughter), Fredrik, shows up at one of her plays. Fredrik has just married an 18-year-old trophy wife, and his repressed son, only a year older, is secretly (and awkwardly) in love with his stepmother. Carl-Magnus, Desiree's current affair, is extremely jealous of Fredrik, though apparently oblivious to the irony of his situation, as his own jealous wife is scheming to teach him a lesson. This results in all parties going out to Desiree's mother's home in the countryside, where all of the romantic entanglements must be sorted out.
Although this is a Sondheim show, it's not one I was familiar with prior to seeing it. I had no idea of the story or the music (except for "Send in the Clowns"), but I tend to have certain expectations with Sondheim, and this one hits them all. The music is intricate and sophisticated, with lyrics full of clever wordplay and occasionally bawdy wit. And it is all held together by the theme of time that I mentioned above, most prominent in the musical medley of "Now"/"Later"/"Soon," but also in the nostalgic "Liaisons" and the regretful "Send in the Clowns," and in the Greek chorus' insistence to "Remember." Seriously, I dare anyone who says musicals aren't good stories to watch a Sondheim show. You could write pages of meta about his stuff.
The cast was absolutely phenomenal. I cannot say enough good things about Bernadette Peters. I have adored her since Into the Woods, and she is the reason I wanted to see this show on Broadway. Everyone raved about her rendition of "Send in the Clowns," and I didn't think much of all the talk because I'm not a huge fan of that song anyway, but OH MY GOD. She is absolutely amazing. (And for those who don't know, Bernadette is replacing Catherine Zeta-Jones, who won a Tony for this role last year. I admit, I cannot see CZJ in this role AT ALL, and I laughed when I read this review of Bernadette's performance, which starts out, "Dear Catherine Zeta-Jones: The Theater Wing would like its Tony back.")
Elaine Stritch, another Broadway veteran, was also fantastic as Desiree's brassy mother. Everything that comes out of her mouth is hilarious. I also especially liked Anne, Fredrik's wife - she reminded me quite a bit of a younger version of Bernadette. I wouldn't be at all surprised if that were entirely intentional, to imply that Fredrik had married her because she reminded her of his love, but either way, it takes an impressive talent to evoke another impressive talent.
All the actors were very gracious, by the way, signing autographs after the show at the stage door. My mother, having become an expert at stalking Nathan Lane, lol, taught me that the trick is to find the star's car and then plant yourself in between the door and the car. :) It was pretty crowded and they had metal barriers up so we wouldn't block the door, so we ended up kind of behind the car instead. I only got blurry pictures from there, but this led to Christi totally freaking out because Bernadette got in the car and slid across the backseat, which meant she was just a single pane of glass away, lol.
Christi and I both loved the show, and she would've gone back and seen it again on Sunday if I hadn't convinced her that I don't get to New York often enough to repeat performances. We went to In the Heights instead, which I'll talk about maybe tomorrow? Maybe?
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Date: Sep. 8th, 2010 06:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sep. 9th, 2010 01:36 pm (UTC)