On Tap For This Evening, A Little Night Music
On Tap For This Evening, A Little Night MusicThanks to the recent, Tony-nominated musical revival of Stephen Sondheim's Sunday In The Park With George, Broadway audiences now know the name Menier Chocolate Factory -- the fledgling little London theatre that has already served as a springboard for several West End shows.
The company's current production is another Sondheim revival, A Little Night Music, helmed by none other than Trevor Nunn. The 1973 tuner features a book by Hugh Wheeler, which was suggested by Ingmar Bergman's 1955 film "Sommarnattens Leende" (Smiles Of A Summer Night).
Given Menier's amazing string of successes, as well as the fact that A Little Night Music is one of the few remaining Sondheim musicals I've never seen, I let the effervescent SarahB at Adventures In The Endless Pursuit Of Entertainment convince me, one week ago today, to do what I could to acquire tickets for this show. This evening, I'll make my way back to the rather isolated Menier, raising a special toast in honor of Sarah, no doubt thinking to myself, "Well, isn't this rich?!"
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: A Little Night Music, Adventures In The Endless Pursuit Of Entertainment, Hugh Wheeler, London, Menier Chocolate Factory, Musical, Revival, Stephen Sondheim
posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Saturday, November 29, 2008
7 Comments:
Hi-ho, the glamorous life!
Sarah, We'll be raising a toast to you this evening. Only three hours to showtime!
OMG...I hope it's a good production.
ALNM is one of my very favorite musicals of all time but it requires a special touch...it is often ruined by productions that fail to balance the comical, the cynical and yes, MYSTICAL aspects of the show.
I've read the West End Whingers' preview of the show and it does sound like a West End transfer is in order.
As a true showtune geek, can I ask you to note the size of the orchestra. The original score is for a large string-heavy pit band but I'm assuming this had a very reduced orchestration.
As you'll see from my upcoming review, I absolutely adored this production. It was wonderful.
I will have to check my program to see how many members the orchestra contained, but the Menier has no pit, so I could not see the number of musicians, who were housed behind the set.
Expect great reviews all around. As a result, I believe this show will transfer to the West End, and hopefully beyond there.
I'm glad you liked it, Steve. It is one of my very favorite shows and I'm unfortunately trying to still erase the memory of a lousy production starring Stephanie Zimbalist (!!!) in Southern California a year ago.
The buzz is so far uniformly favorable and let's hope that this production makes it to Broadway eventually sooner rather than later.
What I find most interesting is the casting of Hanna Waddingham as Desiree. By making the character of Desiree younger than it is usually played, I can see many 30 something actresses on Broadway vying to play the part. Even though Waddingham will probably get great reviews in London, the producers will probably go with a Broadway name for Desiree when (and if) it goes to Broadway.
BB, Hannah Waddingham hardly seemed like a thirtysomething in this production. She definitely gave off the air of someone who's been around the block 40 or more times...
Post a Comment
<< Home