Susan Granger’s review of “A Little Night Music” (Walter Kerr Theater)
Catherine Zeta-Jones is the latest cinema star to captivate Broadway audiences, but she’s not exactly new to the stage. In London, she performed in numerous musicals before moving on to British television and then fame and fortune in Hollywood, where she won an Oscar for her supporting role in the screen adaptation of “Chicago.” Now she’s poised to nab a Tony to add to her rapidly growing awards collection.
As alluring Desiree Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s “A Little Night Music,” she’s simply glorious, putting her own bewitching spin on the comedic “You Must Meet My Wife” and wistfully interpreting the ballad “Send In the Clowns,” supported every step of the way by five-time Tony-winner, 84 year-old Angela Lansbury as Desiree’s courtesan mother who delivers a world-weary version of “Liaisons.”
Loosely based on the Ingmar Bergman film “Smiles of a Summer Night” and directed by Trevor Nunn, the sophisticated “A Little Night Music” follows the farcical romantic escapades of several duplicitous Swedish couples around the turn of the last century. While it’s elegant in its waltzing simplicity, there are a few glaring missteps, like the maid Petra’s (Leigh Ann Larkin) vulgar rendition of the earthy “The Miller’s Son.” Except for Alexander Hanson, as the lawyer Fredrik Egerman, and Aaron Lazar, as philandering Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm, the rest of the ensemble loses its luster alongside pros like Zeta-Jones and Lansbury. In particular, Ramona Mallory grows tiresome as Egerman’s shrill, virginal wife, as does Hunter Ryan Herdlicka as Egerman’s frustrated, cello-playing son.
For a full-fledged, high-priced Broadway musical, it’s also a shame that there are only eight musicians, resulting in a thin orchestral sound, and that David Farley’s minimalist sets and monochromatic costumes are serviceable, at best. So for this show, what you can count on is the stardust spread by Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury. And for me, that was enough.