In A Little Night Music, Bernadette Peters doesn’t look a day over her 1985 self from Sunday in the Park with George. Peters, replacing Catherine Zeta Jones, plays Desiree Armfeldt, a middle-aged actress who seeks to rekindle a relationship with an old love after they see each other during one of her plays. But Desiree has two obstacles. First, Fredrik Egerman is now married to an eighteen year old, Anne. Second, Desiree has another lover—a married dragoon with a huge ego. Desiree’s decision to seek Fredrik’s affection takes her through the recesses of her memories, embracing nostalgia at every moment. The audience is along for this walk down memory lane. Peters’ strong, yet aging voice, is perfect for the role. We can hear all her regret in her wizened rendition of “Send in the Clowns.” She pauses at just the right times, and sheds real tears when she thinks she is losing Egerman. “Aren’t we a pair? Me with my feet on the ground; you in midair,” she reflects.Desiree is not the only nostalgic character in A Little Night Music. Her mother, Mrs, Armfeldt, is played by the fabulous Elaine Stritch. In “Liaisons,” she hilariously recollects her past lovers—most of whom are now dead—and asks where they are now. It makes us wonder where our long lost friends are as well.
A Little Night Music builds a serious theme in that typically Sondheim way: through song lyrics and less through the libretto. Sondheim is a master of telling stories through multi-part songs with overlapping lines. The last song of the first act, “A Weekend in the Country” has each character revealing their motives for spending a weekend at Mrs. Armfeldt’s as the invitation is passed around. We learn that the dragoon is scheming to toss out Fredrik, while Anne schemes to keep an eye on her husband. The piece predicts the ensemble title song of Sondheim’s later musical, Into the Woods. That ten minute first number introduces all their characters and situations entirely in song, without a line of plain dialogue.
At the same time, A Little Night Music is not one of Sondheim’s masterpieces. While its music is consistently interesting, its shortfalls lie in its plot. Many of the songs seem only tangentially related to the plot. While “Liaisons,” advances the show’s themes, it doesn’t really advance the plot. A solo piece in the second act, “The Miller’s Wife,” sees Petra, the Egermans’ maid, preaching about enjoying one’s youth before settling down and getting married. But this is Petra’s seemingly only purpose in the show. Though she serves as a contrast to the virginal Anne, she doesn’t add anything to the texture of the show, even from an instrumental perspective.
The main thing preventing A Little Night Music from being great is its sudden ending. The tone shifts dramatically in the last ten minutes of the production, leading the audience to question the entire show that it just saw. When two characters run off together, throwing two others together, the theme of regret and a life poorly lived are completely gone as four characters begin seemingly new lives.
Chances, though, are that few people are seeing A Little Night Music for its plot or lessons. We're there to see Bernadette Peters. Her singing is remarkable, but her acting is a bit detached. It's as though her real-life role as a middle aged stage actress makes her character blend together with her real-life self. Desiree is difficult to separate from Peters. Still, Peters' nasal voice is perfect for deadpanning memorable lines from "You Must Meet My Wife" and other songs. A Little Night Music is overall quite memorable, even if mostly because of Peters' star power.