Review Roundup: A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC At Barrington Stage Starring Emily Skinner, Jason Danieley, Sierra Boggess, and More

Barrington Stage Company presents its new production of A Little Night Music, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Read the reviews!

The production, choreographed by Robert La Fosse, musically directed by Darren R. Cohen and directed by BSC Founder and Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, plays the Boyd-Quinson Stage through August 28, 2022. Boyd, La Fosse and Cohen previously collaborated on BSC's acclaimed 2018 production of West Side Story.

A Little Night Music features Tony Award nominee Emily Skinner (Broadway: The Cher Show, Prince of Broadway) as Desiree Armfeldt, Jason Danieley (Broadway: Pretty Woman: The Musical, The Full Monty; BSC: Broadway and Beyond concert) as Fredrick Egerman, Tony Award nominee Mary Beth Peil (Broadway: Anastasia, Follies (2012)) as Madame Armfeldt, Sierra Boggess (Broadway: School of Rock, West End: Love Never Dies) as Countess Charlotte Malcolm, Cooper Grodin (National Tours: The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables) as Count Carl Magnus, Sabina Collazo (Milwaukee Rep: West Side Story) as Anne Egerman, Noah Wolfe (BSC debut) as Henrik Egerman, Sophie Mings as Petra (BSC debut), Kate Day Magocsi (BSC debut) as Fredrika, Adam Richardson (Netflix's "Vikings: Valhalla") as Mr. Lindquist, Rebecca Pitcher (Broadway: The Phantom of the Opera, Carousel (2018)) as Mrs. Nordstrom, Stephanie Bacastow (The Morton Theatre: Mary Poppins) as Mrs. Anderssen, Andrew Marks Maughan (National Tour: Les Misérables) as Mr. Erlanson, Leslie Jackson (International Tour: West Side Story) as Mrs. Segstrom, and Slater Ashenhurst (Pickleville Playhouse's The Addams Family) as Frid.

The creative team includes Yoon Bae (scenic designer), Sara Jean Tosetti (costume designer), Mary Schilling-Martin (wig designer), David Lander (lighting designer), Leon Rothenberg (sound designer). David D'Agostino (production stage manager). Casting Pat McCorkle, CSA; Rebecca Weiss.

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Jesse Green, The New York Times: So perhaps it's no surprise that this Barrington Stage production, directed by Julianne Boyd, gets the rue so right. Especially in the performances of three of its central women, mixed emotion is always palpable. As the embittered Charlotte, Sierra Boggess offers a sad and hilarious sketch of a wife so steeped in the brine of her own disappointment that she actually looks pickled. And Madame Armfeldt, Desiree's imperious mother, is no senile narcissist in Mary Beth Peil's vivid performance; she's a woman clinging as hard as she can, in her final days, to the thrill of a fully lived past.

J. Peter Bergman, The Berkshire Edge: A bright and handsome company of players deliver the fine impact of a show about what it means to love and to acknowledge it, what it means to find the love you've longed for, whether it's a grand actress or the miller's son or a dragoon or a student. Boyd's production of this classic Stephen Sondheim show is just about as good as it can get.

Steve Barnes, Times Union: As sumptuous visually as it is vocally, with Bae's set and Tosetti's costumes made luminous by David Lander's lighting, the production has a respectful, almost reverent feel without being stodgy. Just as Wheeler's book counterbalances Sondheim's elegant score with playful ribaldry, Boyd directs with a keen sense of just how ridiculous these lovers' self-inflicted romantic predicaments can be, without ever denying them the depth of their feelings.

Bill Kellert, Nippertown: Directed by retiring Artistic Director and company founder, Julianne Boyd, she could not have found a more perfect swan song to present. A Little Night Music is her parting gift to her audiences. Boyd moves her cast so perfectly and fluidly around the stage, that they appear to float. The talent which she has amassed is second to none. From the smallest part to the lead performers, their voices get better and better... they start at outstanding and escalate from there.

Peter Marks, Washington Post: Some of the limitations of this "Night Music" are technical: A seven-member orchestra conducted by Darren R. Cohen sounds thin in a 520-seat house; when it comes to Jonathan Tunick's sublime orchestrations, only the full array of flavors will do. (I might have been spoiled by the earful of the "Into the Woods" experience, with an orchestra more than twice as large.) A few of the supporting performances come across as one-dimensional. And the operatic technique of the musical's Greek-chorus Quintet, often referred to as the Liebeslieder singers, overwhelms some of the lyrics.

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