By Casey Cunningham
A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler is a show about loves.
Old loves, young Loves, wrong loves, right loves, and all the various kinds of love in between.
Its plot, if you are unfamiliar with it, is that of a standard musical romantic comedy; by way of Love, Actually and a Henrik Ibsen novel.
It examines the relationships of Desiree Armfeldt (Jill Jeffrey), a famous actress approaching the end of her career. There is her old flame, Fredrick Egerman (Jeff Way), and her new flame Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm (Michael Kirk). Desiree’s life on the road, touring from city to city, has forced her to leave her daughter Fredrika (Alyssa Greenway), in the care of her own mother, Madame Armfeldt (Lynne Franks). Fredrick meanwhile has recently married Anne, (Carissa Warren) a much younger woman, who is closer in age to his son Henrik (Garrett Hoffman).
Fredrick, (for some absolutely baffling reason) buys tickets for his young wife to go see his former lover perform in a play. This, it hardly needs be said, does not go well, and the young Anne leaves in tears. Fredrick and Desiree meet after the show, old flames are rekindled, and a man cheats on his 18 year old wife. Soon after they are interrupted by Desiree’s paramour, The Count; an alpha male of the highest order, which leads to no small degree of tension.
The Count returns home and tells his wife Charlotte (Colleen Hamond) to go to the Egerman household and tell Anne that his husband has been unfaithful. (At this point in the story, both pot and kettle throw up their hands in exasperation at all this hypocrisy and are not seen again for the remainder of the show)
Desiree comes to the realization that she is still in love with Fredrick, and so invites him and his family up to her mother’s house in the country. The Count, hearing about this from his wife, determines to crash the party.
That’s act one, which is all set up for the hilarity that follows.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, Henrik (Fredrick’s son) because everyone forgets Henrik. Henrik is attending seminary but is challenged by the fact that he is desperately in love with his stepmother, and in lust with the housekeeper Petra (Emily Yuretich).
Act two takes all these combustible elements, bottles them up in a country house, and vigorously shakes them until they go off bang.
To find out the exact nature of said bang, you’ll have to go see for yourself. I assure you; it is a beautiful train wreck of emotion.
If you are unfamiliar with Sondheim, be wary, he is a challenge to the unprepared. There are several songs where different characters sing different melodies and lyrics over one another, to the point where it’s hard to make any of it out. This can be frustrating because it’s almost impossible to follow what is being said, unless you’ve already heard the song before. Therefore, if you don’t know the show, listen to the music ahead of time to train your ear for what to expect. If you do this, I promise you will begin to find his music beautiful. Sondheim is one of the few musicians who can describe with music, the complicated web of humanity. Everyone is singing their own song, but those songs share common themes and sounds, which once overlaid create a sort of gestalt-theme/tune.
The music is challenging, and the cast met it ably. Sondheim is not kind to female singers.
For this production the pit and conductor were underneath the performing space. I would like to mention here that not being able to see the conductor does not make it any easier to sing such complicated music, but the cast did a phenomenal job. That is no small feat.
Now earlier I mentioned Henrik Ibsen, and one of the things about his characters is that almost none of them are objectively likeable. A Little Night Music shares this.
Desiree left her daughter behind for fame. Fredrick abandoned Desiree. Henrik is a sexually frustrated mess. The Count is a misogynistic bully. His wife is an enabler. Anne is vapid. The only seemingly good-hearted characters are the Grandmother and granddaughter, who are respectively too old and too young for love to drive them to distraction. And indeed, at times the message of the show seems to be “Love makes monsters of us all.” And yet the innocence of the grand daughter and the “I’ve seen it all” wisdom of the grandmother, frame the story with a wistful and light-hearted optimism and nostalgia. And by the end, it seems all sins are indeed forgiven.
Despite the grim picture of human nature it sometimes paints, A Little Night Music is an uproariously funny show. Every member of the cast got at least one chance to bring the house down, and the physical comedy was excellently cultivated.
There are some truly excellent young performers on display in this production, which is fortunate because having the majority of the cast being visibly of the same age is mildly distracting in a show about love at different ages.
I would like to compliment the whole cast on their acting and their voices. There were very few weak moments, and the majority of those were due to technical elements. I have not seen many musicals performed in a space like this one, and the sound-dampening effect of the curtains and audience made balancing the sound seem challenging. Do not let that dissuade you from seeing this show however, as I guarantee you will enjoy it. I also have to say that the costuming was gorgeous.
I strongly recommend you see this show. Especially if you have a background in the performing arts, as much of the humor in the music could not be winking harder at people who know what it’s like to be backstage every night. It is in equal parts at different times, sweet, cynical, depressing and ecstatic. It is well acted and well performed. Well done to the Red Masquers, and I look forward to more from you especially from what you make of the exceptionally talented freshmen you have at your disposal.
A Little Night Music runs through April 14th. For more information, visit the Red Masquers site.
Photography Credit: Griffin Sendek.
Categories: Archived Reviews