Sondheim on 'NIGHT MUSIC', Regret and Balancing Art and Life to UK TimesOnline

Stephen Sondheim, whose musical, A Little Night Music is currently playing in the West End at the Garrick Theatre in a production directed by Trevor Nunn, spoke to the UK's Times Online. The legendary composer spoke on a variety of subjects, including his celebrated body of work, his personal regrets and his joy at finding love, it is a candid interview and a must read for fans of musical theater. To read the UK TimesOnline feature, click here.

The critically acclaimed, sell-out Menier Chocolate Factory production of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's musical A Little Night Music, directed by Trevor Nunn, transfered to the Garrick Theatre for a strictly limited season.

A Little Night Music, based on Ingmar Bergman's film Smiles of a Summer Night, is set in 19th Century Sweden where affairs of the heart are uppermost in everyone's thoughts. Hailed as a witty and stylish celebration of romance the story centres on the elegant actress Desiree Armfeldt and the spider's web of sensuality, intrigue and passion that surrounds her and features the classic "Send in the Clowns".

The cast is led byJessie Buckley, Kaisa Hammarlund, Alexander Hanson, Maureen Lipman, Kelly Price, Alistair Robins, Gabriel Vick and Hannah Waddingham.

Since it opened in 2004, six Menier Chocolate Factory productions have transferred to the West End and New York - Fully Committed, Sunday in the Park with George, Little Shop Of Horrors. Dealer's Choice, Maria Friedman Re-Arranged and most recently La Cage aux Folles, currently at The Playhouse Theatre.

A Little Night Music - featuring a score by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Hugh Wheeler - originally opened in 1973 at Broadway's Shubert Theatre with a cast that included Glynis Johns as Desiree, Len Cariou as Fredrik and Hermione Gingold as Madame Armfeldt. The show, directed by Harold Prince, garnered six Tony Awards, including one for Best Musical. The Sondheim score features one of the composer's best-known tunes, Send in the Clowns, as well as Every Day a Little Death, The Miller's Son and A Weekend in the Country.

Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for Bounce (2003), Passion (1994), Assassins (1991), Into the Woods (1987), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sweeney Todd (1979), Pacific Overtures (1976), The Frogs (1974), A Little Night Music (1973), Follies (1971, revised in London 1987 and in New York 2001), Company (1970), Anyone Can Whistle (1964) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962); as well as lyrics for West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), Do I Hear a Waltz (1965), and additional lyrics for Candide (1973). Side by Side by Sondheim (1976), Marry Me a Little (1981), You're Gonna Love Tomorrow (1983), and Putting it Together (1992, 2000) are anthologies of his work. For film he composed the scores for Stravinsky (1974) and Reds (1981) and songs for Dick Tracy (Academy Award, 1990). He wrote the songs for television's Evening Primrose (1966), co-authored the film The Last of Sheila (1973) and the play Getting Away With Murder (1966), and provided incidental music for the plays The Girls of Summer (1956), Invitation to a March (1961), and Twigs (1971). He won Tony® Awards for Best Score of a Musical for Passion, Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Follies (1971 version), and Company.

All of these shows won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, as did Pacific Overtures and Sunday in the Park with George, the latter also receiving the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1985). Mr. Sondheim is on the Council of the Dramatists Guild, having served as its president from 1973 to 1981, and in 1983 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

In 1990, he was appointed the first Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Oxford University, and in 1993 was the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors.

Photo Credit: Fernando Leon/Retna Ltd.

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