The Royal Conservatory of Music closes its 2022-23 concert season with four performances of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music in concert. Winner of four Tony Awards, this popular musical is presented on Friday, May 26 at 8pm, Saturday, May 27 at 3pm and at 8pm, and Sunday, May 28 at 3pm in Koerner Hall.

After a tremendously successful production of Sondheim’s Follies in 2021, Cynthia Dale and Eric McCormack, as well as director Richard Ouzounian, return to Koerner Hall, this time with Music Director David Briskin conducting the full Broadway score.

One of Canada's most acclaimed performers, Cynthia Dale, a true and veritable ‘triple sensation’ who has garnered rave reviews as an award-winning actor, singer, and dancer onstage and on screen, appears in the role of Desiree Armfeldt, singing the Sondheim classic “Send in the Clowns.” Playing Fredrik Egerman is actor Eric McCormack, best known for his roles in Will & Grace, Travelers and Perception, as well as in The Music Man on Broadway. Theatre critic, director, writer and lyricist, Richard Ouzounian has been artistic director of five Canadian theatres, including Toronto’s Young People’s Theatre and CentreStage, and has been involved in more than 250 productions. David Briskin, Music Director and Principal Conductor of The National Ballet of Canada since 2006, is widely recognized as one of contemporary ballet’s most accomplished conductors. He has also appeared regularly with The Royal Ballet, Covent Garden, The Royal Swedish Ballet, and The Royal Danish Ballet.

The all-star cast of Canadian theatre and television icons also includes one of Canada’s best known stage actors, Fiona Reid (Madame Armfeldt), who has performed in theatres across the country, including five seasons with the Stratford Festival and 12 at the Shaw Festival, as well as theatres in Great Britain and the U.S. Dora Award-winning performer and recording artist Gabi Epstein (Charlotte Magnus), hailed “Canada’s Queen of Cabaret” by CTV, is best known for playing Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors at the Stratford Festival and Fanny Brice in Funny Girl at the Segal Centre. Dora Award and Toronto Theatre Critics Award winner Dan Chameroy (Count Carl-Magnus) has appeared in Les Misérables, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and Sondheim’s Company, and is renowned for his star turn as Plumbum in Ross Petty’s annual pantomime shows. In addition, he has worked at Soulpepper and The Shaw Festival, and spent 13 seasons at The Stratford Festival, including last season in Chicago. The showstopping “Miller’s Son” will be performed by Dora Award-winning actor, singer, and dancer Tess Benger as Petra. Benger has performed in Sunday in the Park with George, Cabaret, Chasse Galarie, and spent three seasons at the Shaw Festival where she did Top Girls, The Next Whiskey Bar, Sweeney Todd, The Philadelphia Story and Cabaret.

The cast is rounded out by 12-year-old Annie Grunwald (Fredrika), Indigenous tenor Justan Myers (Henrik), Indian-Canadian actor and singer Sadie Laflamme-Snow (Anne Egerman), tenor Marcel d’Entremont (Mr. Erlanson), Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio finalist, baritone Alex Mathews, as well as The Royal Conservatory’s Jonelle Sills (Rebanks Family Fellow), Elena Howard-Scott and Lillian Brooks.

Richard Ouzounian directs and Music Director David Briskin conducts the full Broadway orchestra, which will feature musicians from The Roya Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School. Maria Fuller, part of Tapestry Opera’s Women in Musical Leadership program, will serve as répétiteur and Assistant Conductor.

Sondheim created a musical masterpiece from Ingmar Bergman’s comedy, Smiles of a Summer Night. A Little Night Music, set in Sweden in 1900, is centered around Desirée Armfeldt, an actress, and the men who are in love with her – a lawyer, Fredrik Egerman, and Count Carl-Magnus Malcom. When the travelling actress performs in Fredrik’s town, the estranged lovers’ passion rekindles, which strikes a flood of jealousy and suspicion between Desirée, Fredrik, Fredrik’s wife Anne, the Count (Desirée’s current lover), and the Count’s wife Charlotte. The men, and their jealous wives, join Desirée and her family for a weekend in the country, the results of which are new romances, second chances, and countless surprises. At times moving and heartbreaking, at times witty and hilarious, the musical is full of regret and desire but, most importantly, it is a celebration of love. A Little Night Music includes the popular song “Send in the Clowns” as well as “The Miller’s Son” and “A Weekend in the Country.”

The production of A Little Night Music is generously supported by Charles & Marilyn Baillie, Nancy Lockhart, Riki Turofsky & Charles Petersen, Eli and Peter Daniels, and the Rebanks Family Fellowship Program.

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC

Music and Lyrics by STEPHEN SONDHEIM

Book by HUGH WHEELER

Orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick

Suggested by a Film by Ingmar Bergman

Originally Produced and Directed on Broadway by Harold Prince

Presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI).

All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI.

Friday, May 26, 2023 at 8pm / Saturday, May 27, 2023 at 8pm / Saturday, May 27, 2023 at 3pm

Sunday, May 28, 2023 at 3pm

Koerner Hall

The Royal Conservatory of Music

TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning, 273 Bloor Street West, Toronto

Tickets start at $65

online at www.rcmusic.com by calling 416.408.0208, or in person at the Weston Family Box Office

A limited number of Rush Tickets are available starting 3 hours before all performances by phone only.