Stage Door News
Stage Door News
October 27, 2015… Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, arguably his greatest achievement, will be given a luscious production at the Stratford Festival in 2016. Directed by Gary Griffin, it will feature an all-star cast, led by Ben Carlson, Cynthia Dale and Yanna McIntosh, with Juan Chioran, Sara Farb and Alexis Gordon.
Sondheim is the winner of a Pulitzer Prize and more Tony Awards than any other composer. He is renowned for his remarkable insight into the human condition, every note and lyric exposing another layer of what it means to love and to lose. A Little Night Music, which premièred in 1973, still sets a benchmark for musicals. Its clever balance of sophisticated wit and gut-wrenching emotion is encapsulated in the score’s crowning jewel (and arguably Sondheim’s most popular song), “Send In the Clowns.” That beautiful ballad, so full of love and sadness, showcases Sondheim’s extraordinary ability to stir the depths of the heart.
But this enchanting musical is far from melancholy. Based on Ingmar Bergman’s film Smiles of a Summer Night (a rare venture into romantic comedy by that renowned director), A Little Night Music is a playful exploration of love’s endless possibilities. Its story whisks us away to Sweden, on a midsummer weekend in the country, and into a dizzying whirl of romance between lovers old and new.
Ben Carlson, hot off his first role in a Stratford musical as Captain von Trapp in this season’s The Sound of Music, will play Fredrik Egerman, a charming lawyer who has recently remarried, but still holds a candle for his old flame, Desirée.
Cynthia Dale, last seen as Myra Arundel in 2014’s Hay Fever, returns to play Countess Charlotte Malcolm, the watchful wife of the powerful dragoon (and Desirée’s current lover), Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm.
Yanna McIntosh, who shone as the femmes fatales Cleopatra and Helen of Troy, will play Desirée Armfeldt, the dazzling actress at the centre of this tangled web of steamy affairs.
Juan Chioran, who has played such leading musical roles as Juan Perón in Evita and Cervantes in Man of La Mancha, will play Carl-Magnus.
Sara Farb, who this season played the title role in The Diary of Anne Frank, will play Petra, the Egerman maid.
Alexis Gordon, who played Julie Jordan in Carousel this season, will play Fredrik’s new young wife, Anne.
The production will also feature Matt Alfano as Frid, Gabriel Antonacci as Henrik, André Morin as Bertrand and Kimberly Ann-Truong as Fredrika. Sean Arbuckle, Barbara Fulton, Ayrin Mackie and Jennifer Rider-Shaw will play members of the Quintet.
Ben Carlson’s previous musical credits, in addition to this year’s Sound of Music, include Canadian Stage’s electrifying production of London Road and Feste in Des McAnuff’s rock-and-roll Twelfth Night at the Festival in 2011. Recent highlights of his Stratford career include Petruchio in this season’s The Taming of the Shrew, the Chaplain in Mother Courage and Her Children, Octavius Caesar in Antony and Cleopatra, Charles Condomine in Blithe Spirit, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, Leontes in The Winter’s Tale, and the title role in Hamlet.
Cynthia Dale, the centrepiece of a string of Stratford musicals, is well remembered as Dorothy Brock in the 2012 hit 42nd Street, Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, Maria in The Sound of Music, Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls, Aldonza in Man of La Mancha and Guenevere in Camelot. A true triple sensation, Ms Dale has also been featured as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Myra Arundel in Blythe Spirit, and the Red Queen in Alice Through the Looking-Glass. Her cabaret, Cynthia Dale in Concert: Outside Looking In, was a highlight of the Festival’s Forum in 2013, as was her performance as Fosca in this season’s intimate concert version of Stephen Sondheim’s Passion.
Yanna McIntosh last worked with Mr. Griffin in 2014, lighting up the stage as Cleopatra in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. This season she was featured in two key roles, Mrs. van Daan in The Diary of Anne Frank and Jocasta in Oedipus Rex. Other recent highlights of her 10 seasons at Stratford include the Queen in Cymbeline, the title role in Elektra, Mme de Volanges in Dangerous Liaisons, Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hermione in The Winter’s Tale and Helen in The Trojan Women. Her Toronto credits include Arkedina in The Seagull, Mama Nadi in Ruined, Condoleeza Rice in Stuff Happens and the title roles in Mary Stuart, Hedda Gabler and Belle.
Casting continues for the Festival’s 2016 season, which also features Macbeth; As You Like It; Breath of Kings; A Chorus Line; A Little Night Music; The Hypochondriac; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; All My Sons; John Gabriel Borkman; Bunny; and The Aeneid. For more information, visit www.stratfordfestival.ca or call the box office at 1,800.567.1600.
Tickets for the 2016 season will go on sale to Members of the Stratford Festival on Sunday, November 15, 2015, and to the general public on Friday, January 8, 2016.
Photo: Cynthia Dale, Juan Chioran, Alexis Gordon and Ben Carlson. ©2015 Don Dixon.
2015-10-27
Stratford: Ben Carlson Cynthia Dale and Yanna McIntosh to star in "A Little Night Music"