THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 5, 1995 TAG: 9504050082
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater review
SOURCE: BY KEITH MONROE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
``A LITTLE NIGHT Music'' is now 22 years old, but it remains one of Stephen Sondheim's most popular musicals. The Commonwealth Musical Stage ends its fourth season with a beautiful production at Virginia Beach's Pavilion Theater.
Sondheim is anything but a romantic, but in this adaptation of an Ingmar Bergman comedy set in turn-of-the-century Sweden, some of the couples actually get what they want and the rest get what they deserve. Still, like most of Sondheim's work, ``Night Music'' could serve as an illustration of ``Civilization and Its Discontents.''
Henrik, a seminary student, is tormented by his love for his father's much younger second wife. The father, Fredrik, yearns for his one-time mistress, the worldly Desiree. Carl-Magnus, a no-account count, is Desiree's present lover, to the displeasure of his formidable wife, Charlotte. One theme of the play is stated by the women who sing: ``Men are stupid. Men are vain. Love's disgusting. Love's insane.''
But love is also inescapable, which sets the stage for a second act straight out of farce, with plenty of slamming bedroom doors. But something a little more serious takes place instead. Young love takes a leap of faith. Middle-aged affection settles down. And the farcical count and Charlotte live unhappily ever after.
Eileen McNamara as Desiree is fine as an actress living a superficially glamorous life but wearying of the effort. She has a sultry Tallulah Bankhead voice she deploys to good effect. She is even better as the woman who must finally lose her illusions. Her ``Send in the Clowns'' is the pivotal moment in the play, and she delivers it with quiet authority.
Julie Tsirimokos plays Desiree's tart-tongued mother. She's the veteran of many liaisons who says such things were done better in her day. She suggests that losing a husband is vexing but losing your teeth a catastrophe. Tsirimokos brings appropriate imperiousness to the part.
David Elledge as Fredrik performs his midlife crisis expertly. David Faber's Carl-Magnus is, if anything, a trifle too human. The role calls for a man ``as vain as a peacock with the brain of a pea.''
Chevy Anz as the acerbic Charlotte is excellent. She has a touch of Eve Arden's haughtiness and asperity, which suits a woman who is deliciously cold, cheerfully embittered. Her ``Every Day a Little Death'' is wickedly amusing.
Kelli Maguire as the airheaded Anne, Seth Teter as Henrik - torn between love and Luther - and Mary Faber as the flighty Desiree's levelheaded daughter carry out their assignments skillfully.
Technically, the show is all one could wish. The staging is essentially choreography, as befits a souffle such as Sondheim confects. The scenic and lighting design of George Hillow is austerely effective. Bedrooms glide on and offstage. Clever things are done with diaphanous hangings and scrims. The lighting suggests tree-shaded park, sunset and moonglow.
Costumes are dreamy evocations of an era of immense style. The orchestra is full enough to do justice to the score, and the conducting by David Kunkel deftly guides the singers through sometimes complex songs.
Sunday's performance of ``A Little Night Music'' was hampered by A Little Mike Static. Carl-Magnus snapped, crackled and popped, and the five-person chorus sometimes seemed to have been routed through a fuzz box, but the audio glitches will presumably be put right by curtain this Friday.
Those who enjoy the astringent wit of Sondheim will appreciate this first-rate rendition of a bittersweet show. It succeeds in delightfully demonstrating an axiom stated by Madame Armfeldt: that the young know nothing, fools know too little and the old know too much. by CNB