Review: A Little Night Music tour with Julie Wilson

[phantomo88]

Posted: 12/23/07 at 8:44pm

Here is a review of the A Little Night Music tour with Julie Wilson that toured to the Macauley Theatre in Lousiville, Ky in the 70's:

'NIGHT MUSIC' OFFERS SUBTLE REWARDS

By William Mootz

The Louisville Theatrical Association can breath easy this morning.
Last night, a touring production of Stephen Sondheim's " A Little Night Music" opened this season's Broadway Series before a sold out audience at the Macauley Theatre. and it happily turned out to be the kind of evening that must surely have sent everyone home in a pleasant frame of mind.
And that's good, because the Louisville Theatrical Association has a splendid line up of attractions this year. It's been promising people great rewards for the price of a season subscription.
But you never know. Touring shows don't always deliver. So officials of the theatrical association had their fingers crossed last night.
As "A Little Night Music" gathered momentum however, you could all but hear audible sighs of relief throughout the Macauley Theatre. This is a consistently beguiling production of one of the best of recent Broadway musicals. And it brings the Broadway Series through its first test of the season with flying colors.
"A Little Night Music" isn't your socko Broadway musical. Based on Ingmar Bergman's "Smiles of a Summer Night," one of the most sensuous of all screen comedies, it refects tenderly on sex, sexuality, and other sych matters of the flesh.
But never does it yell at its audiences or try to disctract them with prancing chorus girls. In truth, there are times when it barely whispers, and dace comes along simply as a means to underscore an emotion, rather than in a series of set numbers desinged for physical display.
"A Little Night Music" is a musical that respectfully asks for your attention, and most subtly rewards it. It has taste. Even more surprisingly, it assumes that people who come to see it will have taste. That kind of complement is a nice thing to encounter in the theater these days.
When "Night Music" begins, it neither looks nor sounds like a musical. A single figure walks on stage, bows slightly, and walks to a prop that passes for a piano, strikes a note to check his sense of pitch, and launches into solo song. Others soon join in, and the mood expands slowly until the stage is awash in couples chasing each other, meeting, parting, and fading out of each other's grasp.
And so it goes the rest of the evening. "A Little Night Music" is about the follies of human beings. The folllies fo young people trembling at the brink of first love. The follies of old lovers trying to rekindle spent passions. The follies of husbands philandering. Of wives suffering.
It sounds rather serious, I suppose, and at heart it is. But "A Little Night Music" is a comedy whose heart, if serious, is also light and joyous. And it is Sondheim's brilliant score that keeps it continuously alive and sparkling.
This is music of uncommon distinction. It moves the plot along with a deftness that I'm tempted to call Mozartean. Sondheim's first act finale, at least, as it moves characters through a whirling maze of amusing plot twists with Mozartean dexterity. It's called "A Weekend in the Country," and Broadway musicals seldom reach a peak so literate and civilized.
So, if Hugh Wheeler's book gives up trying to capture the wit of Bergman's original screenplay, and if the direction scampers a bit to fleetly through time and space in a futile attempt to imitate the fluidity of Bergman's cameras, Sondheim's music and lyrics are a constant challenge to the imagination.
The production itself will cause shock waves in anyone who saw the Broadway original. I know one can't expect big complex shows to travel under the weight of today's crippling costs. But I wonder if clever designers might pare down a production with more style than is evident currently at the Macauley. Scenically, this production of "A Little Night Music" is a fright, although its costumes are attractive.
The cast is consistently good. Julie Wilson as an actress beguilingly aware of her charms, has the central role and the score's most famous song. She may be just a bit to much the healthy Midwesterner for the part, which is the essence of European sophistication. But she is also extremely likable.
As her mother, a woman wise in life and weary of sham, Fran Stevens is more believable than was Hermione Gingold in the same role. Of the rest, Grant Walden's cynical layer, Richard Cooper Bayne's naive young seminarian, Scot Stewart's arrogant officer, and Carol Ziske's bitchy countess, are especially notable.
But Sondheim's score is the evening's one irresistible element. Go listen, and enjoy!

[nmartin]

Posted: 12/23/07 at 8:49pm

I had no idea Julie Wilson toured this. I love her. Thanks for posting.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/23/07 at 10:17pm

Wow- I had no idea there was a tour of this out. Isn't Julie Wilson a bit long in the tooth to play Desiree? Any idea when (or if) it plays Chicago?

[ljay889]

Posted: 12/23/07 at 10:19pm

This review is from the 70's.