By Jennifer R Jones | Posted on April 05, 2010 7:11 PM
The New Broadway Musical A Little Night Music, Starring Catherine Zeta-Jones And Angela Lansbury, Is Too Slow For Audiences And Lacks Warmth
"A Little Night Music" Is Too Slow For Broadway
The air is filled with romance and revelation when friends, family, enemies, and lovers all meet for a weekend in the country in this witty musical by Hugh Wheeler and Stephen Sondheim, based on the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night.
This Trevor Nunn-directed revival of the 1973 Broadway musical (which features Sondheim's best-known song, "Send in the Clowns") is a bit too slow and colorless, which is an unwelcome reminder that A Little Night Music has always been a little lacking in warmth. Frustration, elation, jealousy, hurt, and longing are all displayed prominently in this tryst-filled comedy of romantic entanglement, but love barely figures into it.
Catherine Zeta-Jones And Angela Lansbury Star
However, the production does feature fine performances by its most heralded stars, Catherine Zeta-Jones (as a glamorous but aging actress) and Angela Lansbury (as her disapproving mother).
