Sunday, December 20, 2009

SOB's Favorite Shows Of The Noughties: #10 - A Little Night Music

SOB's Favorite Shows Of The Noughties: #10 - A Little Night Music (2008, Menier Chocolate Factory, London, United Kingdom)

Introduction: Hard as it is to comprehend that we're already 119 months into this "new" millennium, we are fast approaching the end of its first decade. While we have yet to agree on what exactly we should call the '00s, I'll take a cue from the fine folks at The Times of London and the BBC and henceforth refer to them at the Noughties.

With that small introduction, I'm pleased to present my list of plays and musicals that wowed me the most during that time. Out of the hundreds and hundreds of shows I've seen over the last ten years, I give you my countdown of my 25 personal favorite shows of the Noughties.

Wasn't this rich?! Who would have thought that a show staged in a style so deceptively simple could be so sublime, not to mention utterly romantic. Rich, indeed.

Now, if you're not a romantic at heart, you need not have bothered. But for the rest of us, there was the pure heaven found in Trevor Nunn's gorgeous revival of A Little Night Music. It enveloped every one of my senses like a welcome salve for these troubled times. Only a heart of stone could not be moved by Stephen Sondheim's ravishing score and Hugh Wheeler's über-clever book.

Thanks to Nunn's deft and gentle touch, this tale of requited love in turn-of-the-20th-Century Sweden felt timeless, transcending all expectations. It made me feel a twinge in my heart and left a tear in my eye. While I have not yet seen the current Broadway transfer (I will do so in January), the intimacy of the tiny Menier made this a revival utterly unmissable on both sides of the Atlantic.

This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).

In keeping with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post. I paid my own way for this performance.


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