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BASED on the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles
of a Summer Night, Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music
tells the story of middle-aged Fredrik Egerman and his teenage
bride, Anne, with whom he has never had sexual relations in spite
of the fact that they have been married for eleven months. The
couple lives in the same house with Fredrik's son Henrik, a seminary
student one year older than Anne. The lack of intimacy aside,
things seem to be going tolerably well for the couple until they
attend a comedy at the theatre that features Desirée Armfeldt,
an actress with whom Fredrik once had an affair. Although Anne
can't stomach the thought of sleeping with Fredrik, she doesn't
like the thought of any other woman performing that particular
service for her husband either, and when she notices Desirée
making eyes at Fredrik, she demands to be taken home immediately.
Once home, however, Fredrik can't stop thinking of his former
lover, and when he goes to visit her, his eleven months of forced
celibacy get the best of him, and he is soon in bed with the
actress. No sooner have they done the deed, however, than they
are interrupted by Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm, a married man with
whom Desirée is having an affair. Malcolm is a self-proclaimed
man of the world and knows how these things work, but the situation
grows more complicated the next morning when the Count baldly
relates the evening's events to his wife Charlotte who's little
sister happens to be a girlhood friend of Anne's. Later, when
the Count drifts to sleep, Charlotte decides to tip Anne off
about Fredrik's activities. Meanwhile, however, Desirée
has issued an invitation to Fredrik and his family to spend a
weekend with her at her country estate. In spite of what she
now knows, Anne decides to accept the invitation looking as young
as possible so as to shame Desirée back behind her wrinkles.
When Malcolm learns of the invitation, he announces that he and
Charlotte will attend as well, invited or not, as he is detemined
not to lose his mistress. Once all of the players arrive at the
isolated estate, the stage is set for a sexually-charged weekend
of thinly veiled accusations and unexpected revelations.
Sondheim's score contains two interesting innovations. First,
it is composed entirely in 3/4 time, or multiples thereof. The
composer explains his reasoning for this choice, "In Night
Music I put everything in some form of triple time so that
the whole score would feel vaguely like a long waltz with scherzi
in between so that no song would seem to have come from another
texture." [1] As
a result, the entire score maintains a strong sense of unity,
with each song contributing to the total mood and feel of the
show. The second innovation Sondheim introduces in this musical
is a quintet which opens the show and reappears throughout the
evening, serving much like a Greek chorus.
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC was originally produced at the
Shubert Theatre, New York, on February 25, 1973, with Glynis
Johns as "Desirée," Len Cariou as "Fredrik,"
Hermione Gingold as "Madame Armfeldt," Victoria Mallory
as "Anne," Patricia Elliott as "Charlotte,"
and Laurence Guittard as "Carl-Magnus." The show went
on to win Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Music and Lyrics
(Stephen Sondheim), Best Book (Hugh Wheeler), Best Actress in
a Musical (Glynis Johns), and Best Supporting Actress in a Musical
(Patricia Elliott). A Little Night Music moved to the
Majestic Theatre, New York, on September 17, 1973, and closed
on August 3, 1974, after 601 performances. The 1978 film version
features Elizabeth Taylor and Len Cariou.
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