A Little Night Music Overture/Night Waltz

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 2:36am

I see a lot of people criticizing Trevor Nunn's direction in this new production. I think he did a fine job, but my absolute favorite part is the opening with the vocalizing and the dancing and the body language. It all looks like a music box. My favorite part of the show for sure.

[ljay889]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 2:56am

Also one of my favorite parts of the production.

[CockeyedOptimist2]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 7:36am

I do think it works beautifully. I also love that most people here are singing a different tune about this revival than they were a year ago when it opened, and it has turned into one of the most recommended shows around here. My only complaint about this moment still is that, yes, it is a night waltz, but I always wish there was just a tiny bit more light on the stage. Not too much so we could still get the sense of night, but just a tiny bit more.

[E.Davis]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 7:38am

I will say this, as much as people criticize the Kerr's balcony. Seeing it from up there was absolutely stunning.

[once a month]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 11:32am

NOT TO BE MISSED...saw it three times.

[EponineAmneris]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 11:56am

I saw the Tuesday night show and was blown away

I loved every second. It was BEAUTIFUL.

A happy-ending Sondheim show? ... I mean yes she dies in her chair, but... she was happy and so was everyone else... My only issue with the show has always been that I want to see everyone's reaction to her passing...

Updated On: 12/10/10 at 11:56 AM

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 12:51pm

Yes, the "music box" image also occurred to me, and it reminded me of the opening title sequence of the 1975 film AT LONG LAST LOVE (featuring Cole Porter's songs) which shows a music box with a pair of couples waltzing away.

Appropriately - to the tune of "Just One of Those things" - the waltzing stops, the couples separate and change partners resuming the waltz.

It's an apt summation of the plot to come(convoluted and poorly told in the film) but also stolen from Hal Prince's and Pat Birch's original staging of the opening of NIGHT MUSIC where the waltzing and re-coupling couples foreshadowed the plot.

[Kad]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 1:18pm

I don't think it's necessarily stolen. It's in the text.

[tellybox]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 2:47pm

Spoiler alert, Eponine.

I was completely in love with the night waltz. I had front row seats, and felt completely immersed in the action. I can imagine how lovely it must have looked from the balcony.

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 2:50pm

I too loved that moment. It created a dream-like state for me that most of the production seemed to be in.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 2:51pm

Eponine, I don't think anyone dies in the show. Did I miss something?

[ljay889]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 2:54pm

*Spoiler* ?


Madame Armfeldt dies at the end.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 3:01pm

Oh, I thought she just fell asleep again on that last scene. Oops.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 4:21pm

Oh dear god.

[binau]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 4:46pm

hahahahahahaha.

I love the opening too, I think it's thrilling.

"A happy-ending Sondheim show? ... I mean yes she dies in her chair, but... she was happy and so was everyone else.."

I don't think that Charlotte will be happy.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 4:57pm

Charlotte leaves happy because Carl Magnus becomes a "tiger" for her.

[binau]

Posted: 12/10/10 at 5:03pm

I know but in the long term as if their relationship will 'work out' imo....

[bluetuna]

Posted: 12/12/10 at 1:04am

Charlotte's never going to be happy...

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 12/12/10 at 12:56pm

Kad... What I meant was that the waltzing and re-coupling couples image was stolen by Peter Bogdonovich for his 1975 film AT LONG LAST LOVE from Hal Prince's staging of ALNM in 1973. Sorry, I did not make that as clear as I should have. But yes, you are right it is in the text of NIGHT MUSIC.