A Little Night Music

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A Little Night Music
Original Broadway production poster
Music Stephen Sondheim
Lyrics Stephen Sondheim
Book Hugh Wheeler
Based upon 1955 film Smiles of a Summer Night
Productions 1973 Broadway
1974 West End
Awards 1973 Tony Award Best Musical
1973 Tony Award Best Book of a Musical
1973 Tony Award Best Original Score

A Little Night Music is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Based on the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, the play tells the story of a lawyer, Fredrik Egerman, who is married to a beautiful, featherbrained and inexperienced 18-year-old trophy wife named Anne, who, despite the fact that they have been married almost a year, refuses to lose her virginity. He sees an old flame, Desiree Armfeldt, who is appearing in a popular play, and his romantic interest in her is rekindled. However, she is having an affair with an arrogant and insanely jealous military man, Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm. Complicating matters is Egerman's son, Henrik, a dull, boring, stodgy and resentful divinity student who is in love with his stepmother.

The play culminates in a weekend at the country estate of Desiree's mother, Madame Armfeldt, a profane yet matronly old woman who is looking after Desiree's precocious daughter, Fredrika, while Desiree is on tour.

Another set of characters, The Liebeslieder Singers, wander in between and around the main characters, sometimes acting as narrators, sometimes expressing the main character's thoughts and sometimes acting as a Greek chorus and setting the scene. Sondheim says that these characters represent "people who aren't wasting time", unlike the main characters, who dither and debate instead of seizing the moment and being honest about with whom they are in love.

Sondheim, Wheeler and Harold Prince (who directed the film version) created a work that is far more complex and sophisticated than first appearances might suggest. The characters, from royalty to bourgeoisie to servant, present a cross section of Swedish society at that particular place and time. The character's ages span from the young teenage daughter to the elderly Madame Armfeldt. Each character's views on life, love and sex are explored in depth and with great compassion and humor. (Sondheim went so far as to write a song for the otherwise mute manservant Frid, which was cut in previews, because, as Prince barked at him one evening, "Who cares what Frid thinks?")

The "Weekend in the County" that the characters spend is at the height of mid-summer, which in Sweden means that the sun never sets completely. The characters wander around the vast estate and grounds bathed in a golden twilight. This hazy, limbo-like setting allows them to explore their passions and realize who it is and what it is that they truly desire.

[edit] The music

Virtually all of the music in the show is written in waltz (3/4) time or variants thereof (such as compound meter, a time signature like 12/8, for example); brief passages in "Overture", "Glamorous Life", "Liaisons", and "The Miller's Son" are in duple meter. The work is often performed as an operetta in many professional opera companies; the score makes heavy demands on performers, with extensive use of counterpoint. Despite the oblique Mozart reference in the title (see below), the elegant, harmonically-advanced music in this show pays indirect homage to the compositions of Maurice Ravel, especially his Valses nobles et sentimentales; part of this effect stems from the style of orchestration that Jonathan Tunick used. The score contains Sondheim's best-known song, "Send in the Clowns", as well as such songs as "The Glamorous Life," "You Must Meet My Wife," "Every Day a Little Death," "Liaisons," "In Praise of Women," "A Weekend in the Country," and "The Miller's Son."

[edit] Production history

[edit] Broadway

A Little Night Music opened on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre on February 25, 1973, in a production directed by Harold Prince, choreographed by Patricia Birch and designed by Boris Aronson. The cast included Glynis Johns, Len Cariou, Hermione Gingold, Victoria Mallory, Mark Lambert, Laurence Guittard, Patricia Elliott, and D. Jamin-Bartlett. It won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and the Tony Award for Best Musical. It ran for 601 performances.

[edit] London

The subsequent London production opened at the Adelphi Theatre on April 15, 1975 and starred Jean Simmons, Joss Ackland, David Kernan, Liz Robertson, and Diane Langton, with Hermione Gingold reprising her role as Madame Armfeldt. It ran for 406 performances. During the run, Angela Baddeley replaced Gingold, and Virginia McKenna replaced Simmons.

A new London revival opened on October 6, 1989 at the Piccadilly Theatre, directed by Ian Judge, designed by Mark Thompson, and choreographed by Anthony Van Laast. It starred Lila Kedrova as Madame Armfeldt, Dorothy Tutin as Desiree Armfeldt, Peter McEnery and Susan Hampshire.

In 1995, a revival by the Royal National Theatre opened at the Olivier Theatre on September 26, 1995 in a production directed by Sean Mathias, with set designed by Stephen Brimson Lewis, costumes by Nicky Gilabrand, lighting by Mark Henderson and choreography by Wayne McGregor. It starred Judi Dench, Sian Phillips, Joanna Riding, Laurence Guittard and Patricia Hodge.

[edit] Europe

Zarah Leander played Madame Armfeldt in the original Austrian staging (in 1975) as well as in the original Swedish staging in Stockholm in 1978 (here with Jan Malmsjö as Fredrik Egerman), performing Send In The Clowns and Liaisons in both stagings. The successful Stockholm-staging was directed by Stig Olin.

[edit] Film version

In 1978, a film version of A Little Night Music was made, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Lesley-Anne Down, and Diana Rigg, with Len Cariou, Hermione Gingold, and Laurence Guittard reprising their Broadway roles. The setting for the film was moved from Sweden to Austria, and was filmed on location. Much of the score was cut. Stephen Sondheim wrote lyrics for the "Night Waltz" theme ("Love Takes Time") and wrote an entirely new version of "The Glamorous Life" which has been incorporated into several subsequent productions of the stage musical. The film marked legendary Broadway director Hal Prince's first time as a motion picture director. For more information see A Little Night Music at the Internet Movie Database.

[edit] Opera

Opera companies that have performed this muscal:

Cast recording of 1995 National Theatre revival starring Judi Dench
Cast recording of 1995 National Theatre revival starring Judi Dench

[edit] Cast recordings

In addition to the original Broadway and London cast recordings, and the motion picture soundtrack (no longer available), there are recordings of the 1990 studio cast, the 1995 Royal National Theatre revival (starring Judi Dench), and the 2001 Barcelona cast recording sung in Catalan. In 1997 an all-jazz version of the score was recorded by Terry Trotter.

[edit] Musical Numbers

  • Overture
  • Night Waltz
  • Now
  • Later
  • Soon
  • The Glamorous Life
  • Remember?
  • You Must Meet My Wife
  • Liaisons
  • In Praise of Women
  • Every Day a Little Death
  • Weekend in the Country
  • Night Waltz I (The Sun Won't Set)
  • Night Waltz II (The Sun Sits Low)
  • It Would Have Been Wonderful
  • Perpetual Anticipation
  • Send in the Clowns
  • The Miller's Son
  • Send in the Clowns (reprise)
  • Last Waltz

[edit] Awards

In 1973, the original Broadway production was nominated for eleven Tony Awards. It won in the following categories:

The following were the other nominations. In the Best Featured Actress category, both Hermione Gingold and Patricia Elliott were nominated against one another for their work on the same show.

Additionally in 1973, D. Jamin-Bartlett, Patricia Elliott, and Laurence Guittard were honored with Theatre World Awards for their work on the show.

[edit] External links

A Little Night Music is also an occasionally used translation of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, the nickname of Mozart's Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major, K. 525.

v • d • e
Stephen Sondheim musicals

Saturday Night • West Side Story • Gypsy • A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum • Anyone Can Whistle • Do I Hear a Waltz? • Evening Primrose • Company • Follies • A Little Night Music • The Frogs • Pacific Overtures • Side By Side By Sondheim • Sweeney Todd • Marry Me A Little • Merrily We Roll Along • Sunday in the Park with George • Into the Woods • Assassins • Putting It Together • Passion • Bounce

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