Of all the Sondheim musicals that could be staged at the small-yet-perfectly-formed Hayes Theatre, A Little Night Music is perhaps the best suited to the venue’s pint-sized proportions. This waltzing rom-com about the “follies of human beings” and the emotional cross-currents that twist and churn in lovers’ hearts explores a realm of intimate yearnings, personal crises, and moving revelations that not only fit comfortably within the Hayes, but thrive in its close quarters.
Broadly inspired by the 1955 Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, this 1973-penned show is set during a duskless Swedish midsummer at the turn of the 1900s, as a collection of ill-suited couples try to ignore the glaring incompatibilities standing between them and the lives that they long for. Lawyer Fredrik Egerman (Leon Ford) has married a trophy bride, Anne (Melanie Bird), decades his junior. While lovely and kind hearted, she is physically repulsed by her new husband, so much so that after 11 months, their marriage remains unconsummated. Frederick’s grown-up son Henrik (Jeremi Campese) wants to devote himself to purity and goodness in a quest to be seen as a serious person, but his ambitions to join the clergy are overshadowed by his unrequited desire for his stepmother.
...a focused production that invites the audience to eavesdrop on the quiet intimacies of its characters
Meanwhile, revered-but-fading actress, “the one and only” Desiree Armfeldt (Blazey Best), is no stranger to adoration, both on stage and in the bedroom. However, as she settles into advancing middle-age, she is no longer fulfilled by her hollow liaisons with unavailable men. Men such as Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm (Joshua Robson), a military misogynist who sees women as playthings for him to possess and discard as he pleases. Even his downtrodden wife, Charlotte (Erin Clare), is treated with the same callous humiliations as he casually flaunts his mistress in front of her without a second thought. As this collection of messy lives collide, a complex knot of sexual and social entanglements draws tight, posing the question: what is more important – personal truth, or the appearance of happiness?
Sondheim’s shows stand apart from the musical theatre likes of Stephen Schwartz or Andrew Lloyd-Webber (or the seemingly endless supply of jukebox musicals in recent decades) due to their blazing intelligence and uncompromising commitment to both musical and dramatic heft. But even by Sondheim’s standards, A Little Night Music is unlike a conventional musical, existing in a hinterland between being a straight play with songs and an operetta. Indeed, the witty wordplay of Sondheim’s lyrics are contrasted by the extended passages of Ibsen-esque dialogue in Hugh Wheeler’s book, which channels a dryer, more cerebral humour. This necessarily demands that the cast have acting chops at least as robust as their pipes.
Director Dean Bryant has opted for an account that skews more play than musical, creating a focused production that invites the audience to eavesdrop on the quiet intimacies of its characters. This is mirrored in Jeremy Allen’s pared-back set and Veronique Benett’s subtle lighting. The magnificent Nancye Hayes (the theatre’s namesake) as the withering matriarch Madame Armfeldt is allowed a little more scope to hamm it up – a wry sage dropping zingy one-liners to break up the realism.
Largely, this lean into the straight theatre pays off, although there are a handful of moments when the musical execution stumbles. Sondheim himself acknowledged that some numbers in this show were specifically tooled to accommodate the singing shortcomings of certain actors, who could lean on a speak-sing half measure without cheating the essence of the music. However, despite whatever gaps in ability might be acceptable, Leon Ford’s thinner tone has trouble at times keeping up when heard alongside the outstanding vocals of Joshua Robson and Melanie Bird.
One point where theatrical and musical demands gloriously align, however, is Blazey Best’s delivery of this show’s most famous number, ‘Send in the Clowns’. It’s a nuanced yet gutsy powerhouse performance that perfectly balances the interplay of music and words to heart-rending impact.
The extended season of A Little Night Music plays at Hayes Theatre Co, Potts Point, until November 19, 2023. Tickets start at $79.99 and you can snap them up over at hayestheatre.com.au while they last.