The Citiblog

Photo: Joan Marcus

By Brian Scott Lipton

Even here in New York City, thousands of miles from Scandinavia, the sun did not set before the great orchestrator and conductor Jonathan Tunick led the 53-piece Orchestra of St. Luke’s into the opening notes of Stephen Sondheim’s masterful, slyly titled “A Little Night Music” on Thursday at David Geffen Hall.

But even though this concert presentation – directed with finesse by Marc Bruni -- finished well after darkness fell, many audience members would have been tempted to stay up all night just to listen (and relisten) to this glorious score, which should be a perpetual mainstay on Broadway instead of just being offered as a three-day (four-performance) event through Saturday.

Presented in the old “Encores” style, with the performers in tuxes and gowns, books in hand, moving slightly around the no-scenery stage (the “choreography” is credited to Josh Prince), the show admittedly had its share of opening night, under-rehearsed jitters, which included bits of important dialogue being missed and lyrics being muffled, not to mention surprisingly slow tempi by Tunick.

Still, the musical’s peerless craftsmanship shone through any of these blunders. The moving, wry script by Hugh Wheeler (here further “adapted” by John Doyle) is a take-off on Ingmar Bergman’s delicious comedy “Smiles of a Summer Night,” as it examines the romantic foibles among Sweden’s upper class.

The complex, sophisticated plot has elderly lawyer Frederik Egerman (Ron Raines) seemingly in hopeless love with his childlike bride of 11 months, the literally virginal Anne (Kerstin Anderson), yet still enamored of his long-ago sweetheart, the worldly actress Desiree Armfeldt (Susan Graham). Further complicating things, Frederik’s self-serious son by his first marriage, Henrik (Kevin Gotay), pines semi-silently for Anne, who has yet to admit to herself that the desire is mutual.

Meanwhile, Desiree – who hasn’t seen Frederik for 14 years and since the birth of her daughter Frederika (Addie Harrington) – is carrying on an affair with the pompous “dragoon” Count Carl-Magnus (Shuler Hensley), who treats his wife Charlotte (Ruthie Ann Miles) as little more than an after-thought and reacts rather badly once Frederik reenters the picture.

Finally, sitting mostly on the sidelines are Desiree’s wealthy, disapproving mother (Marsha Mason), her mostly silent manservant Frid (Jin Ha), the Egerman’s saucy servant Petra (Cynthia Erivo), and the five Liebeslieders (Ellie Fishman, Leah Horowitz, Jordan Christopher, Andrea Jones-Sojola and Ross Leitkes, gorgeous singers all), who provide clever, sometimes coded commentary about the group’s past and present goings-on.

Any successful production of “Night Music” requires its main performers to not only vocally do full justice to Sondheim’s stunning score, but to create superior characterizations. Graham, a longtime opera house mainstay, isn’t required to use much of her vocal ability here, although she does serve up a beautiful, heartfelt rendition of the show’s super-famous ballad “Send in the Clowns.” More importantly, though, she smartly captures Desiree’s glamour, fecklessness, and, ultimate introspection that she may not have made the wisest life choices.

Raines (booming brilliantly), Anderson (blessed with a truly soaring soprano), and Gotay (who has a gorgeous, strong tenor voice) sound superb on their opening trio “Now/Later/Soon,” but the trio of tunes felt rather sluggish. By evening’s end, Raines was the true stand-out as the slightly deluded Frederik, making each of his scenes and songs quite memorable, while Anderson was only superficially successful as the flighty Anne and Gotay glowered and quivered (often with too much exaggeration) as the immature Henrik.

Stealing the show was Hensley, who while not physically right for the supposedly perfectly built Carl-Magnus, provided every ounce of bravado, sadism and stupidity his role requires. Still, he was topped by Miles, in magnificent form as the sardonic, defeated, slightly masochistic Charlotte, giving a performance for the ages. (Her duet with Anderson on the gorgeous “Every Day a Little Death” was a definite highlight of the show.)

Mason, looking glamorous in her wheelchair, was champagne-dry as Madame Armfeldt, delivering her signature song of reminisces, “Liaisons,” with style and substance, if a rather too-distracting French accent. Meanwhile, Ha was passion personified through his one late-in-the-show song, “Silly People” – which was cut well-before Broadway and could have stayed that way. (It tells us nothing we don’t know about the characters and simply adds a few unnecessary minutes to the action.)

Finally, Erivo – practically billed here as the main attraction -- proves to be sexy and seductive in her early scenes as she teases Henrik about his repressed behavior. But her big challenge is pulling off the tongue-twisting 11 o’clock number “The Miller’s Son,” and her vocals remain among the most thrilling one will ever hear anywhere. Still, her “reading” of the song, while quite thoughtful and studied, ultimately lacked the sense of playfulness and pure fire that distinguishes Petra from the other characters. (This may change during the run.)

I went into this “A Little Night Music,” one of my five favorite musicals, with perpetual anticipation from the day it was announced. I left not only mostly satiated, but eager to go back again before the sun finally sets on this short-lived production!