A Little Night Music goes a long way
A Little Night Music whirls to the rhythm of three-quarter time. Composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim wrote all the music – mazurka, polonaise, gigue, gallops, waltzes, etc. in different triplicate meters: The “one-two-three” of the waltz.
The work is based on Ingmar Bergman’s film Smiles of a Summer Night. The composer was intrigued by the notion of a summer night North of the 59th parallel where “there is always the promise of sex but it never quite gets there because the sun never sets.”
The musical is best known for Send In The Clowns – the only big hit Sondheim has had in his 50 years in the theatre – and for being the composer’s most light, witty and approachable work. A Little Night Music is the current production of Edmonton’s Foote in the Door Productions and runs at La Cite Francophone through June 8.
Light the production may be – but easy it isn’t. Traps wait for unwary performers. There are a number of soprano-crushing high notes. The meters are often complex, with many pitch changes. There are patter songs, contrapuntal duets, trios, a dramatic quartet and the killer dramatic quintet. The characters interact as in something of a waltz itself, constantly changing partners while watching the others with jealousy (and often lust).
The approach brings an appealing turn of the Century character to the musical.
Using age appropriate performers, Foote in the Door carries off the evening with considerable elan. Music Director Daniel Belland fronts an eight-piece band (sounding much larger) complete with harp and french horn. Director Mary-Ellen Perley, an old hand at this sort of thing, keeps it light in Bergman’s charming old-world land somewhere between realism and half-remembered illusion. Consequently what we perceive as an audience is a tuneful, clever sex comedy that skirts the dangers of appearing old fashioned by a spirited local production.
In the Sweden of the early 1900s, there are three households at the centre of the plot. The Armfeldts, headed by an aged grandmother (Pauline Farmer), has a rather colourful past. Her middle aged daughter, actor Desiree (Glynis Price) spends much of her time on the road; ad Desiree’s 14 year old daughter Fredrika (Rebecca Erin Curtis). The second family are Egermans, composed of the middle-aged Fredrik (Morgan Smith), who once conducted a torrid affair with Desiree, but is currently smitten by his 18-year-old trophy wife Anne (Ruth Wong-Miller). The third household is headed by the blustery soldier Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm (Russ Farmer) with his wife Charlotte (Monica Roberts) who is in love with him and willing to overlook his affairs (and complete disregard for her).
Price’s Desiree is warm with a bemused humour while imbuing her character with a sense of grace. She has a fine voice which she uses throughout the evening, but particularly in an indelible and wistful delivery of Send in the Clowns. Farmer is comic as the military blowhard Carl-Magnus. Smith shows off both his comic smarts and singing ability as the middle-aged lawyer.
Desiree and Fredrik have a moment where the lawyer, besotted by the charms of his teenage wife, lets it slip that after a year of married life he has yet to bed her – in the irony-laden comic song, You Must Meet My Wife. Other moments that stand out are the soulful Every Day a Little Death; and Petra (Christina O’Dell) as a maid who brings a frolicsome charm (and an earthy horniness) to The Miller’s Son. As the Grandmother, Farmer performs with the passionate dignity of one who has lived a life full of conquests and (sexual) adventures. She catalogues her various indiscretions in the charming Liaisons. Wong-Miller flutters effectively as the vapid young wife who has maintained her virginity for 11 months of marriage. She has a full classical singing voice and an actor’s stage presence and puts them both to good use.
Also effective is Roberts, who sings like an angel through a role that demands an inordinate amount of cynicism and sarcasm.
A delightful evening.
Photos by Nanc Price
