Sondheim’s romantic romp still relevant
A Little Night Music
(out of 4) Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by Hugh Wheeler. Directed by Gary Griffin. Until Oct. 23 at the Avon Theatre, 99 Downie St., Stratford. stratfordfestival.ca or 1-800-567-1600
If Madame Armfeldt is correct — and as the wise matriarch in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, she should be — we know the summer night smiles three times:
“The first smile smiles at the young, who know nothing. The second at the fools, who know too little. . . . And the third at the old, who know too much, like me,” she tells her granddaughter Fredrika.
Based on the1955 Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, the 1973 operetta A Little Night Music is a romantic romp between mismatched couples in turn-of-the-century Sweden.
The spider web of this love heptagon looks something like this: widower lawyer Fredrik Egerman (Ben Carlson) is remarried to the virginal and bubbly 18-year-old Anne (Alexis Gordon) but really loves the famous stage actress Désirée Armfeldt (Yanna McIntosh), daughter of Madame Armfeldt (Rosemary Dunsmore) and mother of Fredrika (KimberlyAnn Truong). Désirée loves Fredrik back but is having an affair with Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm (Juan Chioran), who flaunts his infidelity in front of his wife Charlotte (Cynthia Dale), an old friend of Anne’s. Meanwhile, Fredrik’s son Henrik (Gabriel Antonacci) is enrolled in the ministry yet growing deeper in love with his stepmother Anne. For now, he satisfies his unhappiness with secret rendezvous with Anne’s maid Petra (Sara Farb).
Everything famously unravels during “A Weekend in the Country” at Madame Armfeldt’s estate. A chorus of aristocrats, Sean Arbuckle, Barbara Fulton, Ayrin Mackie, Stephen Patterson and Jennifer Rider-Shaw, perform the vocal acrobatics of Sondheim’s challenging score and slightly mirror the main action, as if they were the shadows of affairs past, present and future.
The big hit of this very lighthearted musical, and of Sondheim’s entire career, is “Send In the Clowns,” one of the saddest demonstrations of the loss of love in Broadway history.
The comedy that does permeate Sondheim’s lyrics and Hugh Wheeler’s script is wry, witty and sarcastic. Its comments on the frustrations of both requited and unrequited love feel contemporary despite its 43 years.
Inside the Avon Theatre, the night seems to smile on three performers in particular. First, Antonacci is endlessly watchable as the morose Henrik, plunked into the awkward spot of early adulthood when you yearn to be taken seriously but haven’t done anything to prove your seriousness. There’s earnestness in Antonacci’s anguish and his chemistry with Gordon’s Anne makes you cheer for the two would-be lovers.
Next, unsurprisingly, is veteran actor Dale as the mistreated wife Char- lotte, an unfortunate challenge of a character who openly admits, “I worship the ground that he kicks me around on.” Dale’s Charlotte is fiery and witty. Chioran is also masterfully funny as Carl-Magnus, though he doesn’t get to show the range that Charlotte does.
Finally, there’s Farb as Petra, one of the play’s smaller roles but with a show-stopping solo in the second act with “The Miller’s Son.” Farb, known for classical roles at Stratford, like Cordelia in last year’s King Lear, originally trained in musical theatre. Unleashing her voice for the first time for Stratford audiences, she turns “The Miller’s Son” into a brash defence of Petra’s promiscuity in the face of her employers’ sexual frustration.
In fact, you might walk away humming “The Miller’s Son” rather than “Send in the Clowns.” McIntosh, also making the switch from classical acting to musical theatre, shines when Désirée is defensively sarcastic or teasing, but a lack of singing experience makes her seem less confident in her moments of vulnerability with Fredrik.
The staging doesn’t do the play any particular favours. Debra Hanson’s set of smokestacks in the city and an oversized wrought iron gate in the country are strangely at odds with the lushness of Sondheim’s music, beautifully realized here by the ensemble under the guidance of musical director Franklin Brasz. If we’re given just a “little” night music here, a lot would surely bring the Avon Theatre’s chandelier crashing to the ground.