Learning about A Little Night Music

So I've been introduced to this musical in the last 2 weeks--read the text, listened to the music, read some commentary, and attempted to watch the movie but couldn't get through it because of it's sheer awfulness. Liz Taylor...yikes.

So I kind of wanted to discuss it.

Apparently, the show was conceived quite differently. Though the show was presented in a fantasy way, it was conceived as a complete fantasy. It was only to take place over the weekend. Desiree would be the prime mover and would work the characters into different situations. The first time, farce would occur, and everyone would end up with the wrong partner. Then magically, the weekend would start again. The next time, everything worked out but Henrik committed suicide. The third time, Desiree arranged everything right but this time she was left alone with Fredrick. He left her and walked off the stage because she hadn't done anything to make him want her.

Now Madame Armfeldt, who was like a witch, would reshuffle the pack of cards and we'd go back in time to the beginning of the weekend again. Things would work out this time. It would be presented like a court masque, but High Wheeler gave up on it. He couldn't make it work to his satisfaction.

Some people felt elements of this kind of story, the very theatrical/fantastic elements did not integrate well with the rest of the show.

I loove the song Everyday A Little Death.

And it's really great to fully understand Send in the Clowns. It's fascinating that it's become such a breakaway hit, since so much of the context of the song comes out of the story. It means so much more now (and anyway, I always preferred Glynis' version to Collins'). And I just can't get over how much the song is in context to the show. All the theatrical references made to Desiree--how much of it is about what just transpired. Wow. The way it integrates all the elements of the show...yeah. Just...fantastic. (I didn't know there was a reprise...)

And I can't decide between this and Sweeney in terms of one of them having I think the best music Sondheim has ever written...strictly speaking music, especially the orchestrations, discounting words. I just love this kind of dramatic, gorgeous music. I listened to the OBC while lying in my bed with my eyes clothes and the music was just so...strong, it just overtook me. I really love it.

Wheeler's book has received more criticism than I've seen here on the boards(he's often cited on here as Sondheim's strongest book writer--for Sweeney but also this).

And the way Prince viewed this was fascinating. He said he didn't enjoy doing Night Music--no sleeping nights, no digging deep into himself. He said: "Mostly, Night Music was about having a hit"

It's quite fascinating. Sondheim commentors feel that this show doesn't have the emotional impact of Company or Follies, but it is still loved by most of them.

While it doesn't have the...so many elements of plot that have kept me thinking and analyzing like Sweeney or Company, I still think the music is so lush and something I found more pleasurable music-wise than Company, though I really enjoyed both.

This really seems like something that needs to be seen in a theatrical setting. I hope someday I'll get to.

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Love the show...please don't let the movie be your only point of reference for it. (If anything, rent "Smiles of a Summer Night", the Bergman source material for the show)

Get a copy of the theatre script and you'll get a better sense of what was intended.

BTW: "Every Day A Little Death" is also my fav from the score. 'Little Death' or 'petit mort' in french means orgasm...could enhance your true understanding of the song..!

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Tom, I did read the complete libretto. I referred to it as text in my original post, maybe it was unclear.

I enjoyed it much more than the movie. The movie just...dragged. The humor was lost.

That's why, having read it and listen to it, I say how much I would love to see it done on stage, since it's so theatrical.

Boy does that change the meaning of the song! Well, fits more with the theme of the rest of the show. Heh.

I still can't get over how so much better "Clowns" is when Glynis sings it.

I agree it's difficult to compare the scores of Night Music to Company (still not familiar w/ Follies, and my Sondheim class isn't covering that, so if I do, it won't be till winter break), which is why I didn't specify one is better than the other, just that I have a personal preference.

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Well, wicked, there's something you didn't address:

A Little Night Music is the only Sondheim show to ever make money on Broadway.

Company? Lost money. Sweeney? Lost money. Sunday? Lost money.

Night music closed in the black. The only Sondheim to do so.

A Little Night Music is not the only Sondheim show to pay back its investment. A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to the Forum (both the original production and the 1996 revival), the original production of Sweeney Todd(albeit about 20 years after the show closed on Broadway) and its most recent revival and Into the Woods all turned out a profit (I believe Company did as well).

BTW ljay, look at this huge Wicked and Rent fan going on about Sondheim shows.

LOVE you for saying that, wicked!!

Did you ever see the Lincoln Center revival? There was a live telecast, but, as we all know, it will never be sold on the market.

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Updated On: 10/24/06 at 11:35 PM

I just think it is a common misconception that Sondheim shows are flops.
I agree with LJay, Follies is such a controversial Sondheim show that I don't see how you could teach a Sondheim course without tackling Follies. Well, as long as Sunday in the Park with George is included, anything else is pretty much fair game.
A Little Night Music is a brilliant piece. To me the show is a mixture of one of Shakespeare's best romances and Wilde's comedy of manners. I believe the popularity of "Send in the Clowns" often overshadows the brilliance of other numbers in the show. The "Now/Later/Soon" sequence is Sondheim at his best (in a way borrowed from the the Rain on the Roof/Ah, Paris!/Broadway Baby" sequence in Follies but used to completely different results). It's hard to find a show with so many great songs: "Everyday A Little Death," "In Praise of Women," "You Must Meet My Wife," "A Weekend in the Country," "The Miller's Son," the list is almost never-ending.

Company returned its investment and made a small profit during its original Broadway run. As already stated, Forum made a nice profit during its original run. And ITW closed at a slight loss, but within six months or so the investors were paid off thanks to revenue from the tour. I'm sure that investors in ITW have probably made a fairly decent profit.

I've said this before, but the Los Angeles Opera production of ALNM a few years ago stating Victor Garber and Judith Ivey was amazing, and would have been a great production to go to broadway. I tend to be underwhelmed by Sondheim, but ALNM was a revelation. That was one of those magical productions where you never want it to end and have to take some time to remember where you are when it's over.

Probably the only other times I've had similar reactions were after Ragtime, Angels in America, and a brilliant RNC production of Othello starring Ian McKellen as Iago.

wicked,

The huge problem here, and you brought it up, is that "Night Music" has never had a major revival.

It needs one.

wickedrentq,

ITA about Send in the Clowns. The pop version completely lost the context of the song. When sung well, it's heart-wrenching. Another thing that I love about the song is that it doesn't have to be performed by the best "singer." A well-acted version is fantastic.

A number of years, one of the English TV channels had a show called The South Bank Show that aired here on Bravo. They did a profile on Judi Dench while she was rehearsing to play Desiree, and aired her singing Send in the Clowns from one of her rehearsals. It was brilliant.

The Sean Mathias' production of the show, featuring Judi Wench (sorry, Dench) was the greatest piece of theatre I have ever witnessed. The set was breath-taking, the performances were top notch and the music was to die for. It gives me goosbumps just thinking of it now.
Joanna Riding as Anne and Sian Philips as Madame Armfeldt
gave the standout performances.

Updated On: 10/25/06 at 06:15 AM

I guess the rumors for the impending revival with Glenn Close have remained rumors.

Still, it was hard to pass up City Opera's production of it two years ago. A Sondheim score played by a full orchestra. Who could refuse that?