THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 30, 1995 TAG: 9503300029
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater Review
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
IN MUSICAL THEATER, there exists an elite cadre of showstopping tunes that became hits on their own. One is ``Don't Cry for Me, Argentina'' from ``Evita.'' Another is ``Memory'' from ``Cats.''
For stage actresses, rendering such chestnuts can be a challenge. How can you make them fresh, and personal, when someone else's recorded version is so well-known?
Eileen McNamara has gladly taken on the task in Commonwealth Musical Stage's version of ``A Little Night Music,'' the Stephen Sondheim musical about star-crossed lovers who get uncrossed through one long summer evening.
The 1973 show, based on the 1955 Ingmar Bergman film ``Smiles of a Summer Night,'' opens Friday at the Virginia Beach Pavilion Theater for a two-weekend run.
McNamara's fretting about ``Send in the Clowns.'' Judy Collins sang it, as did Frank Sinatra and countless others.
What makes the song work for McNamara is the whole scene, from lead-in to the last verse. She's portraying Desiree, an exquisite, middle-aged actress in turn-of-the-century Sweden. It's been 14 years since she has seen her one-time lover Fredrik.
Encountering Fredrik again, she realizes she has loved him all along. She is finally ready to settle down, after an exciting but shallow series of fleeting romances. But Fredrik has wed a 19-year-old girl, who is still a virgin after a year of marriage.
Desiree risks baring her soul to Fredrik. She says to him, ``Do you know why I invited you here? I thought perhaps you might be in need of rescue, too.''
But Fredrik offers a quick quip, rather than a thoughtful answer.
``He just didn't get it,'' said McNamara. ``So I immediately try to regain my composure.''
Then, she starts in with the cool, sad irony, singing: ``Isn't it rich? Are we a pair? Me here at last on the ground. You in mid-air.''
After Fredrik leaves, Desiree sings the final verse. ``That's when I let more of my emotion come out. It's a really heavy scene. But it's so great to sink your teeth into.''
While delivering ``Send in the Clowns,'' McNamara dredges up that sinking feeling from moments in her past. ``That sense of hope, of expectation. I believe she's replayed that moment over and over again, the possibility in her mind that maybe she won't be let down.''
The psychological complexity of Sondheim encourages such soul-searching in performers. The depth is there, just waiting to be explored.
With Sondheim, ``you have to listen. You have to think,'' said Jeff Meredith, the company's managing director. ``It's not escapist entertainment.''
``A lot of his music is very operatic,'' said David Elledge, who portrays Fredrik. ``All the interweaving and the layers are what you'd expect in Verdi.''
In a duet he sings with the character of Count Magnuss, a dragoon after Desiree's heart, the two men actually belt out a double soliloquy - more often an operatic device.
In ``Night Music,'' Sondheim's songs were inspired by Viennese waltz, Meredith said. ``And the whole show revolves around people who have reached a point in their lives where they know they're waltzing with the wrong partner.''
The sweetness of the music contrasts with Sondheim's wicked, suggestive humor.
The virile Count Magnuss is described to Fredrik: ``The vanity of a peacock, the brain of a pea and the physical proportions of a. . . ''
Fredrik jumps in: ``Please don't mention the vegetable. I'm easily deflated.'' ILLUSTRATION: BILL TIERNAN
Staff
Jeff Meredith is the director of ``A Little Night Music'' at the
Virginia Beach Pavilion.
STAGE FACTS
What: ``A Little Night Music,'' with music and lyrics by Stephen
Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler. Produced by Commonwealth Musical
Stage.
Where: Virginia Beach Pavilion, 19th Street and Parks Avenue
When: Opens Friday at 8 p.m. Shows continue Saturday at 2 p.m.
and 8 p.m., and at 2 p.m. Sunday plus April 7 to 9.
How much: $7.50 to $30
Call: 340-5446 or 428-8000
by CNB