Video: Celebrate 50 Years of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
A Little Night Music opened on Broadway on February 25, 1973.
By: Nicole Rosky Feb. 25, 2023
50 years ago today, on February 25, 1973, A Little Night Music opened on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre.
A Little Night Music is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the 1955 Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, it involves the romantic lives of several couples. Its title is a literal English translation of the German name for Mozart's Serenade No. 13, K. 525, Eine kleine Nachtmusik.
The musical was directed by Harold Prince with choreography by Patricia Birch and design by Boris Aronson. The cast included Glynis Johns (Desiree Armfeldt), Len Cariou (Fredrik Egerman), and Hermione Gingold (Madame Armfeldt). It won six Tony Awards in 1973, including Best Musical.
A film version of A Little Night Music was released in 1977, starring Elizabeth Taylor as Desiree, Lesley-Anne Down as Anne and Diana Rigg as Charlotte, with Len Cariou, Hermione Gingold and Laurence Guittard reprising their Broadway roles. The setting for the film was moved from Sweden to Austria.
The show premiered in the West End at the Adelphi Theatre on April 15, 1975, and starred Jean Simmons, Joss Ackland, David Kernan, Liz Robertson, and Diane Langton, with Hermione Gingold reprising her role as Madame Armfeldt. It was revived in 1989, at the Piccadilly Theatre, and again in 1995 starring Judi Dench, who received the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical.
The third London revival ran at the Menier Chocolate Factory from November 22, 2008, until March 8, 2009. The production was directed by Trevor Nunn, and starred Hannah Waddingham as Desiree, Alexander Hanson as Frederik, Jessie Buckley (Anne).
The 2008 Menier Chocolate Factory production transferred to Broadway and opened at the Walter Kerr Theatre on December 13, 2009. The cast included Angela Lansbury as Madame Armfeldt and, in her Broadway debut, Catherine Zeta-Jones as Desiree. Zeta-Jones received the award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical at the 64th Tony Awards.
The production temporarily closed on June 20, 2010 and resumed on July 13, with new stars Bernadette Peters as Desiree Armfeldt and Elaine Stritch as Madame Armfeldt.
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