Canadian Stage Company, Toronto
until May 11, 1996
A Stage Door Review by Jim Lingerfelt

It isn’t often one gets to, or even wants to, see exactly the same production twice in one month, but even this jaded reviewer made an exception for Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music last week. This co-production of The Grand Theatre in London and the Canadian Stage Company in Toronto has just completed its London engagement and now is recreating exactly the same sophisticated magic at the St Lawrence Centre for the Arts on Front Street in Toronto. You saw my review then. And I’m just as excited the second time around.
A Little Night Music is based on the Ingmar Bergman film, Smiles Of A Summer Night, with music and lyrics by Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Its 1973 Broadway première garnered six Tonys, all richly deserved.
A Little Night Music is a light-hearted story of love and infidelity set in the turn of the century in Sweden. The majority of the score is in waltz tempo, with brilliant choreography by director Michael Shamata and musical direction by Don Horsburgh. Using a turntable set design by John Ferguson and John Thompson, and a five-person chorus of dancers and singers, the scenes change effortlessly and beautifully in three-quarter time.
In addition to the one instantly recognizable hit, Send In The Clowns, the play is richly threaded with a dozen delightfully intricate songs all wonderfully interpreted by a superbly talented cast. Patricia Collins is the glamorous actress, Desirée Armfeldt, Benedict Campbell is her old flame, Fredrik, now married to 18-year old Anne (Kristin Gauthier), herself no older than her stepson Henrik (John Ullyatt). This love quadrangle is complicated by the jealous Count Carl-Magnus (Bruce Clayton) who persuades his wife Charlotte (Mary Ellen Mahoney) to tell her girlfriend Anne that the Count has discovered Anne’s husband in a compromising position with the Count’s lover, Desirée. And with that, the farce begins in the play billed as “part Mozart, part farce and all romance.”
Also featured are Marion Gilsenan as Madame Armfeldt, whose featured song, Liaisons, could have been the subtitle of the play, and Trish O’Brien as Anne’s maid, Petra. Each cast member had an opportunity to shine in the solo spotlight, and O’Brien’s lusty interpretation of The Miller’s Son received the most enthusiastic ovation of the evening.
The play runs in Toronto until May 11. Tickets are $22 to $48, and you will never find a more stunning production of this enchanting play any price. Call 416-368-3110.