I love A Little Night Music. It took this musical theater queen longer to get to know it than it should have, but, in my mid ’20’s, I saw a very good community theater production of it in Philadelphia. And then, not long after, PBS broadcast the new New York City Opera production.

This was a great way to really get to know the show. A beautiful production, directed by Susan Stroman and, largely, at least competently cast. George Lee Andrews (who’d been in the original Broadway cast as Frid and who’d played Fredrik on tour) as Fredrik. Sally Anne Howes as Desiree (and my five-year-old Chitty Chitty Bang Bang-loving self squeed) – she actually was not anyone’s ideal Desiree, but she got the job done. Everyone’s favorite Red Riding Hood, Danielle Ferland, as Fredrika. And, best of all, two astonishing possibly-best-of-all-time performances. Opera legend Regina Resnik delivering a pitch-perfect (in every sense) Mme. Armfeldt, truly singing “Liaisons” (beautifully) and delivering every line of dialogue with a crackle that other Mme A’s I’ve seen have gotten nowhere near. (Check out her “oh yes you do, dear”). And teeny little Broadway stalwart Maureen Moore as the most brittle divine icy hilarious Charlotte imaginable. Why her star didn’t go straight to the stratosphere after this broadcast I’ll never know.

So, now I really loved it, and much to my surprise, over the next couple of decades, got the chances to do three productions of it myself. First (in Philly) as a hilariously-miscast Carl-Magnus, but I could at least sing it, and that role is all right there on the page, it’s completely obvious how to do it. I had a ball. Then after my move to New York and ten years mostly spent as a band director, I auditioned for St. Barts’s 2006 production and got a much more suitable role, Mr. Lindquist, the bass of the quintet. This was also a blast – doing the quintet after doing a ‘story’ role is like doing a completely new show, you’re on when they’re off and vice-versa. I made a great many friends in that production who are still my friends today.

Then in 2015, I finally had a chance to music-direct the show in what turned out to be a terrific production with the Blue Hill Troupe. No teeny little orchestra for this one like the first two.

That production was a dream in so many ways, and I was so proud of it.

Other than that, C and I saw the NYCO revival of the PBS production – with not-as-good-a-cast, except oh look,, there’s little Anna Kendrick as Fredrika. And I saw the last Broadway production twice, with both Catherine Zeta-Jones/Angela Lansbury and Bernadette Peters/Elaine Stritch (and got to meet Stritch afterward!).

All this to say that I love the show, and would certainly like to tackle Fredrik sometime, although I’m now actually getting too old. (or Mme Armfeldt, wouldn’t that be a hoot?) But hadn’t seen it in quite a while.

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Village Light Opera Group has been around for a long long time, and there’s a lot of Blue Hill/St. Bart’s/VLOG actor overlap, so I have lots of VLOG alumni friends. Back in the day, they used to do big full productions of G&S operas as well as other big shows like The Music Man and The Merry Widow. Where they are now is producing bare-bones, but excellently cast and directed quality musical theater pieces. I’ve raved in previous blog posts about their delightful Gentleman’s Guide and particularly about their fascinating Baker’s Wife. So I knew their ALNM was going to be great. I’m friends with both Michael Thomas (musical director) and Rick Joyce (stage director), and Rick and I will be directing Pinafore together this summer. I had dear friends/colleagues in the cast.

The production was in a black box theater alongside of St. Mary’s, a church a block from my office on 46th Street. (this was the same church where I suffered through an ungodly-long incense-heavy intoned service years ago just to hear my buddy Craig play some organ repertoire. This was before he actually moved from Detroit to Old Greenwich, so years ago.) The seats are on risers or such, so all seats have great sightlines. Backdrop was only a black curtain. There were furniture pieces that were moved in and out. Accompaniment was piano and cello (when I heard they were using just piano, my immediate reaction was ‘how are you going to handle Henrik?’, a character who actually plays cello on stage.)

Anyway, the production was lovely, very thoughtfully directed, and extremely well-performed. It’s such an adult show – it starts with a family that has managed to mire itself in completely frustration, and the first fifteen minutes are actually really depressing, since it looks like there’s no way out. Anne, the child bride, should be perky, silly, gorgeous-voiced and make you want to slap her across the room – and this Anne had all those qualities in spades. The Fredrik, slim, attractive and a very good mover, was a great choice for the role, not dissimilar to George Lee Andrew’s performance. Henrik was excellent, and (I thought this was very clever) actually played the cello a bit for real – but mimed it (‘air cello’) for “Later”, a theatrical trick which worked beautifully. My buddy Maggie was a delightful Petra, the only one in the household who’s not bound up in a bad situation.

Actual married couple Tyler and Laura, both friends of mine who I’ll be working with this summer in England, were a delightful Malcolm couple. Tyler is a no-brainer casting choice as Carl-Magnus and he totally delivered – Laura brought the acerbic, but also the warmth and the funny to Charlotte. The quintet was used appropriately – Greek chorusing, setting scenes, and even playing statuary, which was very funny, in the garden scenes. They sounded great.

If I had an issue with the production, it veered towards the silly sometimes (although ALNM is often very funny, it’s very human and deep – much like The Marriage of Figaro, which I reviewed a couple months back). But never so silly that it broke the story or the overarching meaning.

I walked out of there happily confirmed that my confidence in the talents of my friends was well-earned. And that I’d really like to work with VLOG at some point, if they’ll have me. They’re doing Sweeney next spring – I won’t submit as MD because I’m not a pianist/conductor, but I’d absolutely love to be in the cast.