Musical Triumph
RCRT's 'Night Music' a wonderful confection
By Lane Crockett
The Forum
crockettl@comcast.net
River City Repertory Theatre's production of Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music" certainly solidified the company's standing as a new professional organization.
The Tony Award-winning musical was presented in a four performance run last week at The Strand Theatre.
Following the summer triumph of its dramatic "The Little Foxes" debut, RCRT has stretched itself to encompass this intricate musical and turned it into an elegant entertainment—the most confectionary of all composer-lyricist Sondheim's works.
Based on Swedish director, Ingmar Bergman's 1955 film, "Smiles of a Summer Night,""A Little Night Music" is about love lost, remembered and found through a series of entangled relationships.
Director Patric McWilliams approached the musical with a simplicity of staging that suggested the show's inherent elegance but showcased its lyrical score and sophisticated, often amusing, book. Sparse set pieces, simple backdrops and flowing choreographed movement—right to the set changes—gave the production a gracefulness and sense of style. And that is what one can certainly say about Sondheim's work—a graceful, stylish and wonderful confection.
The director also assembled a first-rate cast to realize his vision. The singing was some of the best you'll find on local stages, and having them backed by a 23-piece orchestra culled from the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra was the frosting on the cake.
At the core of "A Little Night Music" are romantic relationships in transition—some to end, some to be found, some only momentary and all illustrating the vicissitudes of love. The first act is the set-up, as patrons are introduced to the characters, their problems and their aspirations. The second act, played out over a summer weekend in the country, brings realizations, resolutions and poignancy. As the aged Madame Armfeldt says in the play, there are three smiles of a summer night—one for the young who know nothing, one for fools who know too little and one for the old who know too much.
As said earlier, this was a first rate cast: Seva May as the experienced Desiree Armfeldt, a stage actress; John Whitworth Gayle as the somewhat stuffy Fredrik Egerman, the lawyer who once loved her; Ellen Lindsay as the girlish, Anne, the lawyer's innocent young wife who has not consummated her marriage; Jonathan McVay as the conflicted Henrik Egerman, the lawyer's son who is in love with his stepmother; Bill Gallmann as the pompous Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm, Desiree's current lover; Janin Jones Pou as the bitter Countess Charlotte Malcolm, Anne's cousin; Jodie Glorioso as the wise Madame Armfeldt, the play's real heart; Heather Bryson as the sexual Petra, Anne's opportunistic maid; James Monk as the randy Frid, Madame Armfeldt's willing butler; and Catherine Barbaree as the innocent Fredrika, Desiree's coming-of-age daughter. Especially noteworthy were Lindsay's fragile Anne, Pou's arch-but-amusing Countess and Gallmann' s almost insufferable Count.
Lindsay and McVay are members of Actors' Equity Association and Bryson is a member of the Screen Actors Guild.
Much credit must go to the hard-working and musically thrilling quintet that opens the show and then weaves in and out of it as commentators. They were Jim Montgomery, Susan Yankee, William Parsons, Jennifer Dowd and Karmyn Tyler. In fact, they set the musical tone of the show.
Enough cannot be said of music director Kermit Poling's interpretation of the score, which enveloped the show in a musical embrace that not only evoked the atmosphere but brought a lyrical, haunting quality that hung around when the curtain came down. He and his musicians added another dimension—level—to locally produced musicals.
Among the musical highlights were Gayle's apologetic "You Must Meet My Wife," Gallmann's bravura "In Praise of Women," the Lindsay-Pou duet of the insightful "Every Day a Little Death," the Gayle-Gallmann duet of the wistfully amusing "It Would Have Been Wonderful," and any time the quintet wandered about the stage.
The two musical standouts were Bryson's bombastic and revealing "The Miller's Son," in which Petra knows for what she will have to settle, and especially May's poignant rendering of the well-known "Send In the Clowns, in which Desiree realizes that love's timing is off.
McWilliams not only directed, but he also dressed the production in an array of elegant, turn-of-the-century costumes constructed by Robert Buseick. One of McWilliams' greatest strengths is fashioning dead-on, top-quality costuming that ratchets up his productions.
Light designer, Mike Riggs provided some atmospheric lights, especially the moonlit woods of the second act in which McWilliams used cloth strips to represent trees. The varying lights also keep reminding that Sweden's mid-summer had light way into the evening. Katie Dupont added some airy, sweeping waltz choreography that is one of the recurring elements of the musical.
Sondheim's "A Little Night Music" is a tough show to stage, but RCRT proved it was up to the task. The company's next production, scheduled in the spring, will be Tennessee Williams' classic memory play, "The Glass Menagerie."
