Interview: Jodi Long Talks A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC & Much More

The second mainstage production of Pasadena Playhouse's six-month-long Sondheim celebration A Little Night Music opens April 30, 2023 (with previews beginning April 25th). David Lee directs this 50th anniversary production of A Little Night Music with a cast of 19, accompanied by a full-sized orchestra. Jodi Long, who plays Madame Armfeldt, took some time to answer a few of my queries.

Thank you for taking the time for this interview, Jodi!

What cosmic forces first brought you together with Pasadena Playhouse's A Little Night Music?

I think a little insouciance and maybe my work as Mrs. Basil E in Netflix's Dash and Lily. When I was told Sondheim was involved in the planning of this production before he passed, David Lee was directing and they were using a full UNION orchestra with Steve's original orchestrations, that cinched the deal!

Have you worked with any of this show's cast or creatives before?

No, I have not.

What productions of A Little Night Music have you seen?

I hate to admit it, but I've never seen any live productions, Broadway or otherwise. I felt like I had, because I'd seen so many snippets of people singing songs from the show over the years. Once I read it, I thought, 'Where have I been?!' It intrigued me and daily in rehearsal I find myself falling in love with the many layers of the human condition the script and the music touch upon.

Did you ever imagine that you an Asian American actress would be playing Madame Armfeldt?

Ha, ha, ha! Never in my wildest dreams! I mean when did I get to be THAT OLD, to be playing someone in a wheelchair!? However, it's kinda perfect because now that I've reached the ripe old age of... whatever, I realized this is what I have been working towards my entire life as an actor. All through college, and running around New York City as an actor, I have been pushing, striving to play any character regardless of race, gender or color! In those days they called it non-traditional or color-blind casting. It has just taken THIS long for casting, directors. producers, the WORLD, to catch on to what I've been doing and advocating for years!

If you were to submit Madame Armfeldt on a dating website, what qualities of hers would you list?

Elegant, worldly, witty, and fun.

What character flaws would you definitely omit?

Opinionated, uncensored and doesn't suffer fools.

For those few unfamiliar with A Little Night Music, what would your three-line pitch for it be?

A midsummer's sun that never sets is the backdrop to love and lust's pinings and life's other realities set to a sumptuous masterful score by Stephen Sondheim.

A Little Night Music is not your first dance with Sondheim. You played Nam-Jun Vuong in Getting Away With Murder in 1996. What words of wisdom did Stephen Sondheim impart on you?

It was a thrill of a lifetime to work with Steve. The interesting thing was it was a murder mystery without music, but the cast was full of musical theater performers! John Rubenstein, Christine Ebersol, Terrance Mann, Josh Mostel, Frankie Faison and me. We didn't last long on Broadway and in closing Steve wrote me a note which I still have on my wall "May we do better the next time." In the theater there is always a next time!

You come from a theatrical family. Your mother danced at The China Doll night club and with your father had a vaudeville act 'Larry and Trudy Leung,' with your father tap dancing (before he became a professional golfer). You made your Broadway debut at age seven in Nowhere to Go But Up. Was acting what you wanted to pursue growing up?

Always. When other kids drew pictures of themselves as doctors or nurses or lawyers, I would draw myself on stage with my parents. Of course, I was center stage right in the middle of them!

Your birth name is Jodi Leung and you changed it to Jodi Long for your professional moniker. Your father's name is Lawrence K. Long but used the stage name of Larry Leung. Did some agent suggest that you change your last name to Americanize it?

Ha, ha, ha! You did your research, but have that a bit backwards. I never changed my name. I was born Jodi Long, not Jodi Leung. My father was born Long but when he came from Australia and became a song and dance man here in America, he changed his professional name to Leung to make it sound 'more Chinese!'

You are the first Asian-American to win in any Emmy acting category when you won in 2021 for Dash & Lily. What do you remember of the moment they announced your name?

Complete shock and yet very emotional. My parents had both passed a few years before and for them not to be able to see the culmination of not only my work, but all their hard work was very bittersweet. The next day when the Television Academy told me I was the first Asian American actor to win in any acting category, it was exhilarating and a bit surreal after all my many years in the business.

The type of roles you tried out for must have been very narrow when you started. When did you notice that audition doors were more open to you, an Asian American actress?

In the theater, with lots of persistence in those early days, I played a lot of wonderful parts. Helena in Midsummer Night's Dream, Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday and Cherie in Bus Stop. In film and TV, I went from newscasters to lawyers, to Korean mothers! The success of Hamilton started the change in the theater, but it has ebbed and flowed ever since. In the last year or so, (Thank God!) there is much more awareness of inclusivity in film, TV and the theater, and many more opportunities available not just for me but for the next generation of performers which makes me so happy!

I did get the chance to see you in your delicious turn as Madam Liang in Flower Drum Song at the Mark Taper in 2001. In an alternate universe, under what circumstances and at what locale would Madame Armfeldt and Madam Liang interact? A bridal gown shop? In line at a specialty grocery store? Afternoon tea on a luxury hotel balcony?

It's highly unlikely Madame Liang could entice Madame Armfeldt out of her chateau, after all Madame Liang is a theater agent and the lowest of the lows of that species! However, if Madame Liang dangled the presence of a powerful handsome man to join them at the fanciest hotel for high tea, Madame Armfeldt might venture out just for fun. Although she would never hand over one penny to someone in the (Gasp! Horrors!) theater!

What's in the near future for Jodi Long?

Two upcoming movies: Night Swim with Kerry Condon and Wyatt Russell, and the animated film The Monkey King, with Jimmy O. Yang and Bowen Yang. A film of my one-woman show American Jade: Surfing the DNA at Bucks County Playhouse last June is in post- production. In August, I'll be off to do a new play by Dan Lauria Just Another Day, a two-hander with the two of us at The Public Theater in Great Barrington. Currently, I am also the SAG-AFTRA Los Angeles Local President, so my plate is full. After August, a VACATION!

Thank you again, Jodi! I look forward to meeting your Madame Armfeldt.

For tickets to the live performances of A Little Night Music through May 28, 2023; click on the button below:

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