A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC Will Close Bergen County Players 92nd Season

Bergen County Players will close its 92nd season with Stephen Sondheim's Tony award-winning A Little Night Music at the Little Firehouse Theatre in Oradell from May 3 through June 1. With music and lyrics by Sondheim and a book by Hugh Wheeler, lovers reunite, passions reignite, and new romances blossom in 1900s Sweden. Show times are Friday and Saturday nights at 8PM and on Sundays at 2PM, but there will be no performances on Memorial Day Weekend (May 23-25). 

On a magical night that "smiles three times," an aging actress, a married virgin, a sex-starved divinity student, a jaded lawyer, and a buffoonish Count find themselves hilariously tangled in a web of love affairs. Sondheim created a stunning theatrical experience when he took Ingmar Bergman's 1955 comedy of manners, Smiles of a Summer Night, and turned it into a musical where confusion rules, jealousies flair and sexual passions reign. Sondheim's ravishing score, set entirely in variations of waltz time, explores the universal subject of love across the generations. Sondheim's harmonically advanced score and masterful orchestrations include his famous "Send in the Clowns."

With direction by Steve Bell, musical direction by Victoria Casella, and choreography by Diana Baer, A Little Night Music is full of hilariously witty and heartbreakingly moving moments of adoration, regret and desire. The original Broadway production of A Little Night Music opened at the Sam S. Shubert Theatre February 25, 1973. The production, directed and produced by Harold Prince, played 12 previews and 601 performances before closing August 3, 1974. The musical earned 12 Tony Award nominations, winning six including Best Musical.

Director Steve Bell of Hackensack is a BCP Life Member and three-time past President. His directing credits include Rent, 33 Variations, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Harvey, The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940, The Drowsy Chaperone, Curtains, The King and I, and Urinetown, to name just a few. BCP audiences have enjoyed his performances in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Fantasticks, It Shoulda Been You, Guys and Dolls, Anything Goes, The Full Monty, Into the Woods, A Year with Frog and Toad, and Follies (Perry Award winner), among others. He has served as musical director for numerous shows, including A Christmas Carol: The Musical, Ragtime: The Musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Pippin, Cabaret, Man of La Mancha, The Music Man, and Company.

"Inspired by the number three, Sondheim set for himself the challenge of writing the entire score based upon variations of the waltz," remarked Bell. "As the characters' stories span several generations, from the young, to the fools and to 'those who remember,' there is a way into this story for everyone. I have certainly found more in the text and score every time I've worked on it."

A Little Night Music's talented cast of 16 includes Brooke Olivia Ginsberg of North Caldwell as Fredrika Armfeldt, Marian McCabe of Tappan, NY as Madam Armfeldt, Eric Najimian of Verona as Frid, Damon Quattrocchi of Stony Point, NY as Henrik Egerman, Katherine Hope Stelma of Bloomfield as Anne Egerman, Sean Lynch-Littlejohn of Ridgewood as Frederik Egerman, Katrina Michalewski of Hoboken as Petra, Sky Monroe of Morristown as Desirée Armfeldt, Brendan Lynch-Littlejohn of Ridgewood as Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm, Nina Lionetti of Westwood as Countess Charlotte Malcolm, and Lori Feiler-Fluger of River Edge, Paul Foster of Tenafly, Tara Hutchison of Hillsdale, Bryan John Morris of New Milford, Robert G. Ouellette of Westwood, and Rachel Silverstein of Carlstadt as the Liebeslieder Singers.

New Jersey Awards - Live Stats

Best Musical - Top 3

1. THE LITTLE MERMAID (HOWELL PAL THEATRE COMPANY)

3.1% of votes

2. HAIR (Vanguard Theater Company)

2.9% of votes

3. GREASE (Plays-in-the-Park)

2.9% of votes

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