Nominated for 4 Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Musical, the first Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s Tony Award-winning masterpiece A Little Night Music, directed by Tony Award®-winner Trevor Nunn, based on Ingmar Bergman's film Smiles of a Summer Night, is set in a weekend country house in turn of the century Sweden, bringing together surprising liaisons, long simmering passions and a taste of love's endless possibilities. Now starring Tony®, Grammy® & Golden Globe® Award winner Bernadette Peters and Tony® & Emmy ®Award winner Elaine Stritch. Casting after November 7 is TBD.
What a difference a diva makes. Bernadette Peters steps into the six-month-old revival of 'A Little Night Music' with a transfixing performance, playing it as if she realizes her character's onstage billing -- 'the one and only Desiree Armfeldt' -- is cliched hyperbole. By figuratively rolling her eyes at the hype, Peters gives us a rich, warm and comedically human Desiree, which reaches full impact when she pierces the facade with a nakedly honest, tears-on-cheek 'Send in the Clowns.'
The most atypical of Ingmar Bergman's celebrated films, 'Smiles of a Summer Night' brought ripe carnality and a delicious sense of irony to its fin-de-siecle gathering of romantically muddled Swedes. Those same intoxicating elements were translated to 'A Little Night Music,' Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's exquisite waltz-musical inspired by the film. Reviving the 1973 show, director Trevor Nunn brings a blunt, heavy hand where a glissando touch is required, but the wit and sophistication of the material are sufficient to withstand even this phlegmatic staging. A handful of magnetic leads provides further insurance against the uneven production.
| 1973 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
| 1974 | US Tour |
National Tour US Tour |
| 1975 | West End |
London Production West End |
| 1977 | College/University (US) |
Northwestern University Production College/University (US) |
| 1981 | Off-Off-Broadway |
Off-Off-Broadway Revival Off-Off-Broadway |
| 1985 | Off-Broadway |
Equity Library Theatre Revival Off-Broadway |
| 1989 | West End |
London Revival West End |
| 1990 | Off-Broadway |
New York City Opera Revival Off-Broadway |
| 1991 | Off-Broadway |
Return Engagement [NYCO Revival] Off-Broadway |
| 1995 | West End |
Royal National Theatre Production West End |
| 2002 | Regional (US) |
Sondheim Festival Production Regional (US) |
| 2003 | Off-Broadway |
New York City Opera Production Off-Broadway |
| 2009 | West End |
West End Transfer West End |
| 2009 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 2020 | Los Angeles |
Knot Free Productions Production Los Angeles |
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical | Angela Lansbury |
| 2009 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Musical (tie) | Catherine Zeta-Jones |
| 2009 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical | Angela Lansbury |
| 2009 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical | A Little Night Music |
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