Boston Pops: "A Little Night Music" in Concert

A Little Night Music

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; book by Hugh Wheeler; suggested by the film 'Smiles of a Summer Night' by Ingmar Bergman; stage director, Casey Hushion; music director, Lawrence Goldberg; assistant stage director, Tim Bennett; concert libretto adaptation by Lawrence Goldberg; conductor, Keith Lockhart

Cast of Characters:

Madame Armfeldt, Bobbie Steinbach; Désirée Armfeldt, Christine Ebersole; Fredrika Armfeldt, Katie Henney; Fredrik Egerman, Ron Raines; Anne Egerman, Ashley Logan;* Henrik Egerman, Zachary Wilder;* Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm, Matthew Worth;* Countess Charlotte Malcolm, Katherine Growdon;* Petra, Rebecca Jo Loeb;* the Liebeslieders, Emily Hindrichs,* Charlene Santoni,* Kristin Hoff,* Mark Van Arsdale,* and Christopher Johnstone* (Vocal Fellows from the Tanglewood Music Center*)

Performances: Thursday through Saturday, June 12-14 at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Mass.; Tuesday, July 8 at 8:30 p.m., Koussevitzky Music Shed, Tanglewood, Lenox, Mass.
Box Office: 617-266-1200, 888-266-1200, or online at www.bso.org

Sometimes less is more when it comes to staging concert versions of classic Broadway musicals. In the case of the Boston Pops' straightforward presentation of Stephen Sondheim's magnificently bittersweet romantic comedy A Little Night Music, sparing the glitz definitely improves the glamour.

A talented cast combining Broadway, Boston and Tanglewood Music Center performers – led most notably by Tony Award winner Christine Ebersole as the flamboyant actress Désirée Armfeldt – assemble simply and elegantly on the box-like Symphony Hall stage, seated in a row of creamy white straight-backed leather chairs positioned downstage of the full complement of musicians that make up the Boston Pops Orchestra. Staging is kept to a minimum, and props are indicated rather than actually held. Set pieces consist of easily moved chairs and an upholstered chaise that suggests Désirée's dressing room and boudoir. All cast members carry scripts and move discreetly into position when it is time to participate in a scene or song.

The men are all dressed in black tuxedos. Most of the women wear black evening gowns. The exceptions are the lusty hand maiden Petra (Rebecca Jo Loeb) in a bright green silk skirt and white peasant blouse; the virginal bride Anne Egerman (Ashley Logan) in a gown of taupe that makes her appear sexy and unassailable at the same time; Countess Charlotte Malcolm (Katherine Growdon) wearing a body hugging copper gown whose many horizontal tiers suggest how tightly wrapped her philandering dragoon husband tries to keep her; and the breathtaking Ebersole as Désirée, blonde hair shining and strands of large white pearls dripping around the neckline of a simple black gown topped by a beautiful floor length sheer black and red filigree robe. The visual impact when Ebersole gracefully takes her first steps on stage is positively stunning.

Stage director Casey Hushion's subdued concept keeps the full focus of the concert on Hugh Wheeler's wise and whimsical book and Stephen Sondheim's pitch perfect score. Choreography is kept to a minimum, consisting mostly of waltzes that are practically demanded by the score's three-quarter time. Even the usually vigorous Maestro Keith Lockhart takes a back seat to the performers who, with modest sophistication, bring every contradictory nuance and every complex musical phrase delightfully to life.

Local stage stalwart Bobbie Steinbach, pinch-hitting at the last minute as Madame Armfeldt for previously announced Ebersole Grey Gardens co-star Mary Louise Wilson, establishes the ideal dryly winking tone that permeates the sexually charged atmosphere of her Swedish country estate on a particularly combustible midsummer's eve at the turn of the 20^th century. Under her shrewdly watchful eye, lovers – her daughter Désirée included – feverishly match and mismatch, couple and un-couple, mistaking liaisons for love and love for benign affection. Meanwhile the grand matriarch, who during her prime was a consort to kings, instructs her young granddaughter Fredrika (American Girl alum Katie Henney) in the ways of life and love by observing how three times the summer night smiles: first, for the young, who know nothing; second, for the fools, who know too little; and third, for the old, who know too much.

On this particular summer's eve, the fools reign supreme, and the shining cast of this Boston Pops concert conveys that spirit amiably throughout. In the character setting triplet "Now, Later, Soon," powerful baritone Ron Raines captures the bombast if not quite all of the charming insecurities of the middle-aged lawyer Fredrik Egerman as he maps out his strategy for getting his still virginal bride Anne to submit to him; sweet soprano Ashley Logan as Anne mixes coquettish self absorption with suitable nervousness at the thought of consummating her marriage; and Egerman's zealously religious son Henrik, played with wonderfully comic adolescent and hypocritical angst by gifted tenor Zachary Wilder, is simultaneously attracted to and repelled by Anne's mocking playfulness. Enter Ebersole's vibrant Désirée as a torrid love from Egerman's less reserved past and, in the biting duet "You Must Meet My Wife," Désirée decides to do just that – by inviting the May-December couple for "A Weekend in the Country."

Complicating matters are Désirée's current lover, the pompous and conveniently married military man Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm (the richly voiced and marvelously blustering Matthew Worth) and his long suffering but not inconsequential wife the Countess Charlotte (a slightly too soft-spoken and soft-edged Katherine Growdon). When the Malcolms get wind of Désirée's weekend plans, they invite themselves to the party, setting in motion comical star-crossed affairs that are played out over the course of one steamy solstice night.

The entire score is rendered with great skill and alacrity by the vocally nimble ensemble, including the meandering Greek chorus of Liebeslieders who provide running rueful commentary on the fractured fairytale proceedings in songs such as "The Glamorous Life," "Remember," "Night Waltz," and "Perpetual Anticipation." Strong character numbers include Steinbach's "Liaisons," a melancholy reminiscence of past glories, Raines and Worth's "It Would Have Been Wonderful," a dueling duet of their hopeless mutual attraction to Désirée, and Rebecca Jo Loeb's "The Miller's Son," an exuberant and lusty embrace of whatever good happens to come along while waiting for what are more than likely unattainable dreams.

The unadulterated showstopper of this uniformly fine production of A Little Night Music, however, is Ebersole's exquisite interpretation of the show's best known ballad, "Send in the Clowns." Sung with a simple irony that thinly veils her deeper longing, she expresses desire, disappointment and a reluctant acceptance of how her life and career have played out, all touched with an air of gentle self-mockery and ever so slight but never self-indulgent regret.

The audience reaction to Ebersole's performance comes in waves. An initial enthusiastic round of applause is followed by a sustained ovation triggered by the tear she gently wipes from her cheek once she quietly returns to her chair. Not ceasing their adoration, the audience forces her to take a humble seated bow and releases her only when she has smiled and fully acknowledged their gift.

The excellent vocal performances are magnificently enhanced by the full rich orchestrations of the Boston Pops. The musicians seem linked emotionally to the characters and play with great personality and passion under Lockhart's astute baton.

A Little Night Music in Concert will be performed again on Tuesday, July 8 at 8:30 p.m. at the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts. Don't miss this opportunity to experience Stephen Sondheim's most romantically lush musical comedy sung by a vocally gorgeous cast supported by one of the greatest orchestras in the land.

PHOTOS: Christine Ebersole; the cast of A Little Night Music in Concert; Ron Raines; Christine Ebersole as Désirée; Keith Lockhart

 

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