Stritch Does Double-Duty: Combines Hartford Commute and NIGHT MUSIC Rehearsal

This past weekend, Elaine Stritch performed her 'Singin' Sondheim' cabaret in West Hartford, CT. As reported by the Hartford Courant, the A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC-bound star was simultaneously in private rehearsals with director Trevor Nunn. According to the report, Stritch and Peters were in New York working on scenes with Nunn, who then rode to Hartford with Stritch to continue discussions over the two-hour car ride. They continued work at the Roberts Theatre, the same space Stritch performed 'Singin' Sondheim' that evening. Jeremy Cohen, associate artistic director of Hartford Stage, is quoted as saying that watching Stritch and Nunn "was like [being] a kid in a candy shop ... He's definitely an actor's director and listening them talk about Sondheim was incredible. It's as if they had been working together for decades because they spoke in The Common vocabulary of Sondheim."

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC stars Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury gave their final performance on Sunday, June 20th. The production will be dark until performances resume on Tuesday, July 13th starring Bernadette Peters as Desirée Armfeldt and Elaine Stritch as Madame Armfeldt.

Trevor Nunn's production of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC debuted to critical acclaim at London's Menier Chocolate Factory in November 2008 and subsequently transferred to the West End where it played a successful limited engagement through July 25, 2009 at the Garrick Theatre. The first Broadway revival of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC began performances on November 24, 2009 and officially opened on December 13, 2009 at the Walter Kerr Theatre starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Angela Lansbury and Alexander Hanson.

The creative team for A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC includes Lynne Page (Choreography), Caroline Humphris (Musical Supervision), David Farley (Set & Costume Design), Hartley T A Kemp (Lighting Design), Dan Moses Schreier and Gareth Owen (Sound Design), Paul Huntley (Wig Design), Jason Carr (Orchestrations) and Tom Murray (Musical Direction).

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC is produced on Broadway by Tom Viertel, Steven Baruch, Marc Routh, Richard Frankel, The Menier Chocolate Factory, Roger Berlind, David Babani, Sonia Friedman Productions, Andrew Fell, Daryl Roth/Jane Bergere, Harvey Weinstein/Raise the Roof 3, Beverly Bartner/Dancap Productions, Inc., Nica Burns/Max Weitzenhoffer, Eric Falkenstein/Anna Czekaj, Jerry Frankel/Ronald Frankel, James D. Stern/Douglas L. Meyer

Tickets for A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC are available by calling Telecharge.com at (212) 239-6200, (800) 432-7250 outside the NY metro area, online at Telecharge.com or in person at the Walter Kerr Theatre box office (219 West 48th Street). For A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC group sales, contact Theatre Direct International at 212-541-8457 x 2, or outside the NY metro area at 1-800-BROADWAY x 2.

Tickets range in price from $57 to $137. Tickets for Wednesday matinees range in price from $52 to $132. Performances beginning July 13 will run as follows: Tuesday & Thursday at 7pm; Wednesday, Friday & Saturday at 8pm; Wednesday & Saturday at 2pm; Sunday at 3pm

Born in Detroit, Elaine Stritch studied at the New School in New York City under the direction of Edwin Piscator. Beginning her career in musical comedy on Broadway, she went from standing by for Ethel Merman in Call Me Madam to her Tony-nominated performance in the revival of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance. Her Broadway credits include Angel in the Wings, Pal Joey, On Your Toes, Bus Stop, Goldilocks, Sail Away (which she performed in both New York and London), and most recently in concert at Carnegie Hall to celebrate Noel Coward's centennial), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (following Uta Hagen in the role of Martha), Company and Showboat. In London's West End, she starred in Neil Simon's The Gingerbread Lady and Tennessee Williams' Small Craft Warnings. Other stage credits include the concert version of both Follies and Company at Lincoln Center and her appearance in A.R. Gurney's Love Letters with Jason Robards. Ms. Stritch made her film debut in the 1957 remake of A Farewell To Arms. She co-starred in the 1977 Alain Renais film Providence and the award-winning BBC television series "Two's Company." Other film credits include Cocoon: The Return, Woody Allen's September, Out To Sea with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, Krippendorf's Tribe with Richard Dreyfuss, An Unexpected Wife with Stockard Channing and Stephen Collins, Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks and Autumn in New York with Richard Gere and Winona Ryder, Monster-in-Law with Jane Fonda and Jennifer Lopez, and Romance and Cigarettes, with James Gandolfini and Susan Sarandon.

Ms. Stritch's television credits include "The Cosby Show," "3rd Rock from the Sun," "Soul Man," and "30 Rock," for which she has received a 2007 Emmy Award for her guest starring role as Colleen, Jack's (Alec Baldwin) mother. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance in "An Inconvenient Woman," written by Dominick Dunne and won an Emmy for her recurring role on "Law & Order." Ms. Stritch won a Tony Award and two Drama Desk Awards for the Broadway production of Elaine Stritch At Liberty and a 2004 Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance In A Variety Or Music Program. In 2005, Elaine made her New York cabaret debut with her critically-acclaimed show Elaine Stritch: At Home at the Carlyle and returned the following year with an all new program entitled Elaine Stritch: At Home at the Carlyle...Again. She returned to the Café Carlyle in January of this year with her all new cabaret show, Elaine Stritch Singin' Sondheim ... One Song At A Time.

Photo Credit: Peter James Zielinski