A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC Reviews.... — Page 4

I know that a lot of people don't agree with this kind of thinking, but Lansbury's performance alone is worth buying a ticket for. She's luminous. "Liaisons" made me cry. And her performance completely works on every level.

Not that I didn't like this production. It's just that SHE is remarkable. And it's not just because she is Angela Lansbury. She is simply perfect in her interpretation of Madame Armsfeldt.

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B+ from Entertainment Weekly:

"But this is an ensemble show, following the rising and falling fortunes of four different couples over a weekend in the country in turn-of-the-20th-century Sweden. And since it's based on Ingmar Bergman's 1955 film Smiles of a Summer Night, it can be a bit difficult to embrace these somewhat cold, calculating, frankly Bergmanesque characters: Even a seemingly sympathetic figure like the long-suffering Countess, played here by Erin Davie, resorts to trickery to get even with her callous, philandering husband. That's why director Trevor Nunn is so smart to cast Zeta-Jones and Lansbury, and also why the energy tends to flag a bit whenever they're not on stage. Their celebrity throws the show a little out of balance, particularly when some performers — like Ramona Mallory as Anne, the virginal trophy wife of Desiree's now-middle-aged former lover Fredrik — resort to playing their parts a little too broadly to compensate.

Still, this is an enviable dilemma for most musical revivals: too much star wattage. As the song goes: Isn't it rich, indeed."

Stage Review: A Little Night Music; Reviewed by Thom Geier