Wilson Chin’s scenic design creates an atmosphere of old-world affluence without the encumbrance of too many set pieces, allowing the musical to glide at an accelerated pace to its mostly happy conclusion. There, Madame Armfeldt (Jodi Long), an ex-courtesan with imperious manners, expensive taste and Wildean wit, observes the rascally antics while properly educating Fredrika (Makara Gamble), Desirée’s illegitimate daughter (guess who the father is), in properly parsing the human comedy swirling around them. The first act ends with the brilliant company number “A Weekend in the Country,” the scheme that Desirée concocts to bring the lovelorn and the lovesick to her mother’s estate. Hearts dissemble, jealousies can spring up out of nowhere and erotic desire leads everyone astray. She’d settle for the miller’s son, as she’ll magnificently explain in song in the second act, but the shy, sensitive scion of a lawyer is hard to resist.Įstablishing the nature of these relationships is not quite as tricky as establishing what the characters truly want. Rounding out this roundelay, Petra (Ruby Lewis), the Egerman’s maid, also fancies Henrik, enticing him whenever she can into a quick tumble on the couch. A dutiful if grousing spouse, Charlotte is sent on a mission by her husband to discover the true goings-on between Desirée and Fredrik. Excuses are proffered, but the Count brings his furious grievance to his long-suffering wife, Charlotte (Sarah Uriarte Berry), who happens to be a family friend of Anne’s. Worse, this middle-aged interloper is wearing his robe. Intensely jealous, he finds Fredrik having an intimate tête-à-tête with Desirée after her performance. Meanwhile, Desirée, who looms as large in Fredrik’s mind as he does in hers, is having an affair with Count Carl-Magnus Malcom (Ryan Silverman), a dragoon who’s nearly all brawn and no brain. The marriage between Fredrik and Anne hasn’t yet been consummated, not simply because Anne is young and skittish but because she is in love with Henrik (Chase Del Rey), Fredrik’s neurotic and self-serious son, who’s studying for the ministry while fending off temptation at home. Set in Sweden at the turn of the 20th century, “A Little Night Music” centers on Desirée, who is touring in a French comedy that stops at the town of her former lover, Fredrik Egerman (Michael Hayden), a prominent lawyer, who decides to attend the play with his 18-year-old wife, Anne (Kaley Ann Voorhees). Pasadena Playhouse’s Sondheim Celebration kicks into gear with a revival of “Sunday in the Park With George,” directed by Sarna Lapine. A loves B who loves C who loves D, but genuine objects of affection can get misplaced in the ensuing madness.Įntertainment & Arts Review: A majestic ‘Sunday in the Park With George’ revival arrives at Pasadena Playhouse The laughter emanates not as an escape from time but as an acceptance of its inexorable reality.Ī full synopsis would be a dizzying experience, but the musical has a neat geometry. Sondheim and Wheeler stay true to the Shakespearean poise of the vision. Of course, even a comedy by Bergman is going to be shadowed to an extent by mortality. “A Little Night Music” is derived from Ingmar Bergman’s 1955 film “Smiles of a Summer Night,” a breakthrough work for the Swedish auteur and one of his more lighthearted films. Theatrical assurance is seductive, and the beauty of her singing is as entrancing as her impeccable comic timing and emotional groundedness. I’ll confess to having a few moments of doubt about whether Pasadena Playhouse was going to be able to pull this off, but everything snapped into place as soon as Dandridge took center stage.ĭesirée is at the eye of the musical’s romantic hurricane, and Dandridge captures the character’s sangfroid in the midst of chaos. In the early going at Sunday’s opening, there was some acoustic disconnect between the singers and the orchestra before a fuller sound eventually emerged.Ĭompounding the uneasiness, the ensemble introduces the dramatis personae in strokes that can seem unnecessarily broad. Lee’s production takes a little time to settle in.
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