A newly orchestrated concert production of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music will debut tonight at Lincoln Center.
Cast and creative team of new production of "A Little Night Music," with new orchestrations for the ... [+]
The production features new orchestrations by orchestrator and lifelong Sondheim collaborator Jonathan Tunick and direction by Tony, Grammy, and Olivier Award-winner Marc Bruni, with four performances at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center from June 27 through June 29.
Tunick will conduct the 53-piece Orchestra of St. Lukes, playing for an all-star cast including Susan Graham, Cynthia Erivo, Ron Raines, Kerstin Anderson, Jonathan Christopher, Jason Gotay, Ellie Fishman, Jin Ha, Addie Harrington, Shuler Hensley, Samantha Hill, Andrea Jones-Sojola, Ross Lekites, Marsha Mason and Ruthie Ann Miles.
This new production nearly doubles the size of the original production’s 27-piece orchestra.
A Little Night Music was originally produced and directed on Broadway in 1973 by Harold Prince, and won six Tony Awards including best musical. Sondheim’s eighth musical, it features his highly popular ballad, “Send in the Clowns.” It is a musical adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s 1955 film, Smiles of a Summer Night.
In an interview with Forbes, Hensley, who appears as Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm in the production, said that ”as a performer, there’s nothing like having a 50-piece orchestra behind you—it’s spectacular.”
Hensley, who won a 2002 Tony Award for best featured actor in a musical for his portrayal of Jud Fry in a revival of Oklahoma!, said he met Sondheim during this production.
He said he feels “like Sondheim is our generation’s version of the greatest composers of all time.”
This week’s production, he added, deservedly honors both Sondheim and Tunick.
Mason appears as Madame Armfeldt in the production—a role previously portrayed by Hermione Gingold and Angela Lansbury—and sings the song, “Liaisons.”
She called this a “wonderful role for an actor,” and said she was “so thrilled” to be part of the production under Tunick, whom she called “so brilliant.”
Mason, who took singing lessons as a student and has a home in Connecticut, also was friendly with Sondheim, who had a home there until his death in 2021.
“His musicality was unlike anybody else’s. He was able to tell emotional stories in a way nobody else could do. He was one of a kind,” she said.
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