A Little Night Music

Spoilers, and theatre snobbery alert

When I realised I had a free evening in London, it just was a matter of selecting which show I want to see. I was spoilt for choice. My shortlist was Three Days of Rain, Plague over England, A Little Night Music and Carousel, as I’d been very impressed by leading lady Alexandra Silber at a charity show the other week. What really swung it was the Trevor Nunn factor with A Little Night Music.

It’s had excellent reviews at the Menier Chocolate Factory, and has transferred to the Garrick Theatre in West End. As their last show was Zorro, I’m guessing the quality has gone up with this. It’s a lovely little theatre, even though the stalls are subterranean, and you can hear the Tube trains rumbling beneath your feet. It also has lovely staff, as, when I was told there was no cloakroom, a very cute usher offered to look after my suitcase until the end of the show.

It was only after I booked that I read of Maureen Lipman’s response to Charles Spencer’s review, and critical comments of her casting as Madame Armfeldt. I admire her reaction.

I’m not sure how I’ve never seen this before, as it's exactly my sort of show. When I think about it, my experience of Sondheim is pretty small. A rather fabulous production of Into the Woods by John Doyle at York, and that’s about it. The style of this reminded me a lot of it. Apart from ‘Send in the Clowns’ most of the songs don’t really work out of context, as they’re part of the narrative.

Collecting my ticket, I found I had centre of Row B in the Stalls. As someone who likes to see the whites of the eyes, it was a fabulous seat – who needs to see feet? Though the Americans on the front row commented that, if there was a lot of dancing in the show, they wouldn’t have a very good view. I’m not sure what they thought they’d booked for.

I thought there were some fabulous performances. A lot has been said about the casting of Hannah Waddingham as Desiree Armfeldt, who is much younger than usual. I thought it worked perfectly, and she was fantastic, utterly heartbreaking in 'Send in the Clowns'. Alexander Hanson also seemed perfect as ex-lover and new husband Frederik. As for Maureen Lipman, well, her grand dame dropped witticisms from centre stage with great comic timing.

The characters here are the type who will always be polite and correct about their marital infidelities, hence Kelly Price’s long suffering countess, stoically condoning her rat of a husband’s affairs. Frederik’s young wife Anne was played by Jessie Buckley from I’d Do Anything. Having never been a particular fan, she had the youth for the part, and her acting was better than I’d expected. Unfortunately her singing voice was rather shrill.

Sondheim uses a Greek chorus of singers as narrators/commentators, as a counterpoint to the action, whilst I felt that this technique was a little over used in the second act, they were all very strong singers. Slick scene changes of David Farr's elegant versatile set take us smoothly between interior and exterior, and into a Scandanavian summer night where the sun never quite sets

The production was romantic and beautiful, with some lovely pieces of staging, as all the characters waltzed around the stage in the half light. I guess it’s a very Chekovian musical (though a lot funnier). Once again, I’m happy I trusted in Trevor*.

After the show, Corinne was waiting for me. I came out of the theatre beaming, and a little lost for words, with that wonderful theatrical euphoria which tells you you’ve seen something just a bit special. We found a pub just round the corner – always something of a challenge in central London, we’ve discovered – and caught up on all the news, while I continued to rave on about the production.

*Yes, I know the least said about Gone with the Wind, the Musical, the better, but then I would never have been silly enough to book for that one.