Review: A Little Night Music

Images by Jack Sain

If there’s one thing you need to know about this musical, it’s that it’s simply spectacular.

Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music is the no expense spared, all singing, all waltzing production of this Michaelmas term. The attention to detail shows in the lavish costumes and in the exquisite wrinkles on Madame Armfeldt’s brow.

To cut a long and lascivious story short, the production involves the interwoven relationships between a lawyer, his young and suitably virginal wife, an army officer sporting an excellent moustache, an actress, her mother and a fair few more women.

It goes without saying that these relationships move fluidly, and in waltz time, throughout the play. The central liaison between Frederik the lawyer (Richard Hill) and Desirée the actress (Georgina Hellier) is the focus of the proceedings, providing much of the comedy and some chilling poignancy.

The production struck a balance between set pieces – involving twirling croquet sticks – and witty, fast paced dialogue. In most musicals, the speech lets the showpiece songs down. Here the one liners, effortlessly delivered by Natasha Heliotis as Madame Armfeldt, were some of the highlights of an impressive show.

Aleksander Cvetkovic was also excellent throughout as Count Carl Magnus, the brainless but self-proclaimed ‘tiger’ of the show with his ‘rrrrrr-rapier’ ready at all times.

A faultless performance from the orchestra complemented the action on stage. A Little Night Music has a certain magical quality about it. The soft and gentle yet at times strong and insistent melodies of the orchestra really built on this impression.

The same can be said for the stage settings as a whole, and particularly with respect to the lighting, which isolated the elderly Madame Armfeldt and somehow placed her out of time.

Brilliant music was accompanied by some characters who were gauche to the extreme and yet others who were witty enough to belong in an Oscar Wilde play.

Best of all, it managed to be all these things and really, really funny.