Sunday, April 23, 2000
Theater review
'Night Music' elegant and inspired perfection
There are a handful of perfect American musicals. Perfect musicals are not only crafted with infinite care, they carry bold signatures. They are nothing like what came before or since. You know them instantly when you see them: the best of Rodgers and Hammerstein, The Music Man, My Fair Lady, Guys and Dolls.
A Little Night Music is a perfect musical, one of several by Stephen Sondheim. Through May 31 it is getting a dream of a production at Playhouse in the Park to close The Marx Theatre mainstage season.
Night Music is inspired by Ingmar Bergman and looks at human folly with a generous, affectionate, magical spirit. In Night Music, no matter how foolishly these silly people behave, it's all set to rights at the end under a glorious summer moon in turn-of-the-century Sweden.
How foolish for Fredrik (Cris Groenendaal) to marry a girl young enough to be his daughter. How foolish of his dearly insecure son Henrik (Michael Moore) to fall in love with her, too.
How foolish for morose Fredrik to renew acquaintance with long-ago love Desiree (Donna McKe chnie) and how extremely foolish of her to be having an affair with puffed-pea-brained dragoon Carl-Magnus (Daniel Britt). (Of course, if Desiree hadn't, we wouldn't have the pleasure of his performance.)
How foolish of Desiree to think she can snatch real love by inviting old friends (and being invaded by unwanted lovers) for a weekend in the country.
Mr. Sondheim unfolds the whole in luxurious, flamboyantly romantic waltz time.
If Night Music bears the stamp of Mr. Sondheim and Mr. Bergman, the Playhouse production also carries the stamp of director Ed Stern and his splendid creative team.
This Night Music plays out on Paul Shortt's lavish ballroom set. A crystal chandelier dangles overhead, and the orchestra plays elegantly (under the direction of Darren Cohen) on a terrace above the action. Costumer Elizabeth Covey's are a character-driven fashion parade.
Individual scenes are set for the most part on a turntable, a wonderful inspiration since so much of Night Music is intimate, with people simultaneously lost in their own thoughts and somehow singing them in perfect duets, trios, quartets, all with some of Mr. Sondheim's best internal rhyming.
In the second act, the action opens up at an estate where Mr. Shortt's panels of birches become a dappled forest in the hands of lighting designer Thomas Hase.
The performances are enchanting and complex from top to bottom and the voices could stand as an original cast recording, led by Mr. Groenendaal.
Mr. Groenendaal and Ms. McKechnie are a fine, wry pair who draw you into their flawed and humane characters with their perfectly pitched self-awareness.
As Fredrik's impossibly young wife, Sara Schmidt forms her lips in a perfect moue for every emotional occasion; Mr. Moore finds every note of painful funniness in Henrik. Alison Bevan is superb as faithless Carl-Magnus' wounded, sardonic wife.
Sheila Smith as Desiree's mother delivers her deadly observations and rich memories in a fabulous foggy voice. Young Cassie Fichter, as Desiree's daughter, is a natural.
I've never seen a better performance of earthy lady's maid Petra that Funda Duyal's, who finds every shadow of meaning in her solo about biting into the fruits of love and life.
A Little Night Music, Playhouse in the Park, through May 21. 421-3888.
Nordstrom price tag seems worth it
Easter: A new beginning
Gun dealers respond
Schools call Ohio's funding system unfair
Cincinnati won't join schools' lawsuit
Administrator hails from private sector
Courthouse funding OK'd
Dogs strut their stuff in parade for cause
Elian's burden: the prior traumas
Get to it
'Little person' left big changes for disabled
Long-term view
Monroe designing gateway
'Nixon's Nixon' wraps up run at Toronto festival
PEOPLE YOU KNOW
Reaping what girls sew
Students polishing craft for mock trial
The great Easter Egg Hunter
Theater review
TRISTATE A.M. REPORT
Tristate speaks on case
Women help staff hospital
CSO's diversity efforts fall short of target audience
1970 series a model for other orchestras
Lack of minorities a national dilemma
What some other orchestras are doing
WILKINSON: GOP fumbles its handling of 'Team Ohio'
KIESEWETTER: Documentaries have their day
PULFER: Nordstrom deal
McGURK:Film Society broadens its focus
DAUGHERTY: Adults made a mess of everything for little Elian
Queen City's moments to shine reflected in book
