Women steal the evening in ‘ Night Music’
A tragic farce in threequarter time, Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” has an elegance, beauty and richness that make it one of the great musicals of the latter part of the 20th century.
Certainly Sondheim’s varied and sublime take on the waltz and his dazzling, incisive lyrics are the hallmark of the 1973 show, but Hugh Wheeler’s book, based on Ingmar Bergman’s 1955 movie “Smiles of a Summer Night,” has its own enchantments and is just about as sturdy as a libretto can be.
Sondheim’s score and Wheeler’s book in the hands of some remarkable women make for some lively “Night Music” that opened Thursday night at American Conservatory Theater.
Early on, director Mark Lamos shows a rather heavy hand in dealing with the ghostlike quintet that breezes in and out of the action. He has them outfitted in undergarments and black masks like something out of “50 Shades of Sondheim,” rutting on the floor and carrying on as if to say, “This is not
your grandmother’s ‘ Night Music.’ ”
Although the quintet will wear those masks from time to time, their awkward attempts to add erotic heat to the musical are easily overlooked.
Once the plot gets going and the score begins to work its magic, there’s little Lamos can do but get out of the way and let the expert machinations of the show’s creators take over as they tell a seemingly lighthearted story about silly people — young, middle aged, elderly — having affairs, marrying the wrong people, gossiping, scheming and ultimately spending a fraught weekend in the country to work out all the tangles.
Leading men eclipsed
Leading men Patrick Cassidy as lawyer Frederik Egerman and Paolo Montalban as dragoon Count Carl- Magnus Malcolm both cut striking figures, but their acting and singing tend toward the stolid or overly cartoonish. They are eclipsed by their female co- stars, who, in scene after scene and song after song, handily take control of this “Night Music.” Of the men, only Justin Scott Brown, as Frederik’s frustrated, lovelorn son, makes a lingering impression.
Karen Ziemba as fading stage actress Desiree Armfeldt gets to be world weary (“The Glamorous Life”), funny (“You Must Meet My Wife”) and gently heartbreaking (“Send In the Clowns”), all the while managing to be completely lovable. Desiree is aching for “some sort of coherent existence after so many years of muddle,” and Ziemba makes us root for her success.
As Desiree’s mother, a former courtesan who has turned imperious with age, Dana Ivey has one song, “Liaisons,” but she unpacks its riches. Working with musical director Wayne Barker, she finds the right pace to keep the number languid and sensual without becoming a dirge.
On the opposite end of the musical spectrum, the show’s paean to lust for now and settling later, “The Miller’s Son,” is performed by Marissa McGowan as the maid Petra ( in a thoughtful post- coital moment). Her full- throttle performance is so robust it nearly stops the show.
The challenges of marriage ( and of aging) lie at the heart of “A Little Night Music,” and though the story’s more farcical elements will rearrange the relationships into some semblance of a happy ending, there’s a darkness amid the leitmotifs. This is most apparent in the shattering duet “Every Day a Little Death,” achingly performed by Laurie Veldheer as Anne, Frederik’s 18- yearold wife ( still a virgin after nearly a year of marriage), and Emily Skinner as Countess Charlotte Malcolm, the embittered wife of the philandering Carl- Magnus.
Waltzing charm
Though “Send In the Clowns” is the score’s best- known song, the real showpiece is the Act 1 finale, “A Weekend in the Country,” a brilliant means of bringing all the characters together for the trysts, duels and laments of Act 2. It’s a high point in musical theater, and Lamos stages it with gusto.
If it’s not all smiles on this particular night summer night, the waltzing charm of ACT’s “A Little Night Music” allows the genius of the show — depth, complexity and a surprisingly light touch — to shine through.