A Little Night Music
Pasadena Playhouse
Reviewed by Taylor Kass
Through May 28
RECOMMENDED
Everyone’s thinking about it, but no one’s doing it. Sex, of course. The characters in the late, great Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music are confused, corseted and cheated on until love and sex turn into a “humiliating business.” But glamorous actress Desirée Armfeldt (performed by powerhouse Merle Dandridge) is here to shake things up – and when she reconnects with ex-lover Fredrik (Michael Hayden), liaisons are at once broken and rekindled. Pasadena Playhouse’s production of this sexy Sondheim piece, directed by veteran of the stage and screen David Lee, is sumptuous, hilarious, and pitch-perfect.
“Doesn’t anything begin?” laments Henrik Egerman (Chase del Rey), a sexually repressed seminary student who’s home to visit his straight-laced lawyer father Fredrik and his scandalously young step-mother Anne (Kaley Ann Vorhees). It’s been nearly a year since Fredrik and Anne wed, but she’s still a virgin. Feeling frustrated and foolish, Fredrik visits his former flame Desirée to… reminisce. She invites him and his family to her mother’s country home for the weekend, but her other lover Count Carl-Magnus (Ryan Silverman) crashes the party with his wife Charlotte (the scene-stealing Sarah Uriarte Berry) and a pair of dueling pistols in tow.
As tensions rise and the misguided lovers head to the country, Wilson Chin’s scenic design bursts out of austere walls and high ceilings and into a lush woodsy landscape. Birch trees cast shadows against the deliriously elongated twilight (lighting design by Jared A. Sayeg) and the Scandinavian sun seems to take all night to set. Costumes by Kate Bergh transform from turn-of-the-century high necks and satin bustles to weekend uniforms of white linen and gauze. As in Into the Woods, Sondheim sets his characters free in the woods, where they can follow their natural impulses without regard for society’s stuffy rules.
The production design is sensual from top to bottom, not to mention the gorgeous score performed by a full orchestra directed and conducted by Alby Potts (with music supervision by Darryl Archibald). Each and every vocalist is up to the challenge – this cast not only masters Sondheim’s notoriously demanding music and lyrics, but has fun illuminating each pearl of humor in the score. A Little Night Music is a rare treat for Sondheim-loving Angelenos; catch it before the sun sets.
Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena; Tues. – Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m. & 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. & 7 p.m.; through May 28. 626-356-7529 or pasadenaplayhouse.org. Running time: 2 hours and 45 minutes with one 15-minute intermission.
