{"id":18777,"date":"2015-06-08T12:08:26","date_gmt":"2015-06-08T19:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=18777"},"modified":"2015-06-08T12:09:22","modified_gmt":"2015-06-08T19:09:22","slug":"sex-fixated-sondheim-musical-looks-back-to-1900s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/sex-fixated-sondheim-musical-looks-back-to-1900s\/","title":{"rendered":"Sex-fixated Sondheim musical looks back to 1900s"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Woody’s [rating: 3.5]<\/span><\/p>\n

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Desiree Armfeldt (Karen Ziemba) struts her stuff in \u201cA Little Night Music\u201d while Mr. Lindquist (Brandon Dahlquist) looks on. Photo by Kevin Berne.<\/p>\n

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Madame Armfeldt (Dana Ivey, right) counsels her granddaughter, Fredrika (Brigid O\u2019Brien of Marin) in \u201cA Little Night Music.\u201d Photo by Kevin Berne.<\/p>\n
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Fredrik Egerman (Patrick Cassidy) sings ever so sweetly in \u201cA Little Night Music.\u201d Photo by Kevin Berne.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
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Charlotte Malcolm (Emily Skinner) is momentarily forlorn in \u201cA Little Night Music.\u201d Photo by Kevin Berne.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

My wife nailed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou gotta look at it in a historical perspective,\u201d she told me as we exited A.C.T.\u2019s \u201cA Little Night Music\u201d amid my doubts about how to assemble this review.<\/p>\n

So I started thinking about time.<\/p>\n

\u2022 About the musical\u2019s setting being Sweden at the turn of the 20th century.<\/p>\n

\u2022 About Ingmar Bergman, whose 1955 partner-switching film, \u201cSmiles of a Summer Night,\u201d was heavily mined in 1973 by Stephen Sondheim for his \u201cNight Music\u201d music and lyrics and Hugh Wheeler for the book.<\/p>\n

\u2022 About its revolving door sexuality and aging themes retaining their relevance in 2015.<\/p>\n

My wife\u2019s always liked Sondheim better than I, branding his lyrics, humor and internal rhymes brilliant (we agree his music\u2019s more non-melodic and difficult than most Broadway composers).<\/p>\n

I\u2019d never argue with his genius, yet he\u2019s always been too bleak for my tastes.<\/p>\n

Sondheim\u2019s initial materials for \u201cNight Music,\u201d it should be noted, were much darker and melancholy than eventually staged.<\/p>\n

No surprise.<\/p>\n

But \u201cNight Music\u201d does include one of my favorite ballads, the show-stopping \u201cSend in the Clowns,\u201d as well as the lilting \u201cA Weekend in the Country.\u201d<\/p>\n

I also admit to enjoying three short, wistful pieces that together put the time arcs in focus (\u201cNow,\u201d \u201cLater\u201d and \u201cSoon\u201d).<\/p>\n

And a tone poem extolling the glories of yesterday (\u201cRemember\u201d).<\/p>\n

And the waggish \u201cYou Must Meet My Wife.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was less enthusiastic about \u201cThe Miller\u2019s Son,\u201d which the opening night crowd applauded wildly because of a powerful delivery by Melissa McGowan as Petra, a sexpot maid who frequently flaunts her body in hopes of a hook-up.<\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s the actors who ultimately make the difference, especially Tony Award-winner Karen Ziemba as a disarming, lusty older stage star, Desiree Armfeldt.<\/p>\n

Also topping my list is Patrick Cassidy, a Great White Way veteran who plays Fredrik Egerman, Desiree\u2019s then-and-now suitor despite having being married for 11 months to an empty-headed, still virginal 18-year-old Anne (Laurie Veldheer) who contemplates studying Italian only \u201cif the verbs are not too irregular.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others I applaud are Dana Ivey as Madame Armfeldt, family matriarch whose facial expressions bring to mind the best of Maggie Smith and who believes that \u201cto lose one\u2019s husband can be vexing\u2026but to lose one\u2019s teeth can be a catastrophe,\u201d and Emily Skinner as Charlotte Malcolm, wife of a philandering warrior (she cynically thinks \u201clove is a dirty business\u2026disgusting\u2026insane\u201d).<\/p>\n

Deserving her place in the sun, too, is Brigid O\u2019Brien, a Novato eighth-grader previously featured in The Mountain Play\u2019s \u201cSound of Music\u201d and \u201cMusic Man\u201d and the Ross Valley Players\u2019 \u201cTo Kill a Mockingbird.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here she portrays Fredrik\u2019s teenage daughter, Fredrika, and is quite remarkable.<\/p>\n

For any age \u2014 but particularly for hers.<\/p>\n

Most of those singing voices are excellent (so commendable, in fact, they make Paolo Montalban\u2019s in the Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm role seem humdrum).<\/p>\n

And costumes and hats by Candice Donnelly are so lush \u2014 in effect, a parade of fashion worthy of a de Young Museum exhibit \u2014 they nearly outdo everything else on stage.<\/p>\n

The plot?<\/p>\n

Well, it resembles a classic French sexual roundelay and could play as a farce if it didn\u2019t want to deal at least superficially with life\u2019s major dilemmas and dramas.<\/p>\n

Lust\u2019s the operative word.<\/p>\n

Fredrik pines for Desiree, who excites Count Carl-Magnus, too. Madame Armreldt pines for royal liaisons past. Henrick, Fredrik\u2019s son, pines for Anne. And Petra pines for males in general.<\/p>\n

Mark Lamos, who was challenged to equal legendary director-producer Hal Prince, who led the \u201873 \u201cNight Music\u201d version, directed this company.<\/p>\n

But he accomplishes his apparent goal \u2014 to make the show, like its onstage waltzes, \u201call about flirtation and eroticism.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s aided by Val Caliparoli\u2019s elegant choreography that incorporates lots of mystery, masks and twirling.<\/p>\n

Bottom line: Although flawed, the musical\u2019s a grand peek into youthful passions and aging memories, a who-wants-to-bonk-who tableau set against a midsummer night\u2019s dream-setting at a country estate to Sweden in the late 1900s.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll probably still be playing somewhere in 3015.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Little Night Music\u201d plays at the American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary St., San Francisco, through June 21. Night performances, 7 p.m., Tuesday, June 2 and Sunday, June 21; 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Matinees, 2 p.m. Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets: $20 to $140. Information: (415) 749-2228 or www.act-sf.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Contact Woody Weingarten at www.vitalitypress.com\/<\/a> or voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Woody’s [rating: 3.5] My wife nailed it. \u201cYou gotta look at it in a historical perspective,\u201d she told me as we exited A.C.T.\u2019s \u201cA Little Night Music\u201d amid my doubts…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"