Burning Coal Theatre Company to Present A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC in April

Burning Coal Theatre Company has announced its production of A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler, directed by Jerome Davis. A Little Night Music will run April 4 – April 21, 2024, at the Murphey School, located at 224 Polk Street, Raleigh, NC 27604. Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 2 pm. All tickets are $30, or $25 for seniors (65+) or $20 (students, teachers, active military). People 18 and under can get a ticket to any performance for $5. Friday, April 5th is ‘College Night', with $5 tickets available to college students with a valid ID. Sunday, April 7th at 2 pm is ‘Pay What You Can' day. Tickets and additional information can be found at the button below or by calling the box office at (919) 834-4001.

About A Little Night Music

A Little Night Music , the Tony Award-winning musical from Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler, explores a series of interwoven love affairs centered around the once-prominent actress, Desiree Armfeldt. As a group of Sweden's social elite gather for an eventful weekend in the country, suspicion and jealousy abounds, as well as the possibility of new romances and second chances. Featuring one of Sondheim's most popular ballads, “Send in the Clowns”, A Little Night Music  explores the themes of life, death, and the foolishness that happens in between.

About Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler

Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021) was one of the most prolific and beloved composers of the 20th century and is credited with reinventing the American musical. His musicals frequently tackled unexpected themes and addressed darker elements of the human experience than many musicals choose to highlight. Sondheim began his career as a lyricist for the musicals West Side Story and Gypsy. Later in his career, he went on to write both music and lyrics for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and Assassins. Over the course of his illustrious career, Sondheim won eight Tony Awards, eight Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, an Olivier Award, and the Pulitzer Prize, among others. Many of his works have been adapted into films, and his final work for the stage, Here We Are, made its Off-Broadway premiere in 2023, two years after his death at the age of 91.

Hugh Wheeler (1912-1987) was a frequent collaborator with Stephen Sondheim, writing the script, or “book” for A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, both of which earned him a Tony Award for ‘Best Book of a Musical”. In addition to his work for the stage, Wheeler was a novelist and screenwriter. He wrote over thirty mystery novels under the pseudonyms Q. Patrick and Patrick Quentin, four of which were later adapted into films.

About Jerome Davis

For Burning Coal Theatre: Arcadia, Evita, Ashe in Johannesburg, The Weir (twice), Rat in the Skull, Pentecost, Winding the Ball, Steward of Christendom, Night & Day, Company, Road to Mecca (twice), Juno & the Paycock, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Taming of the Shrew, Inherit the Wind, Hamlet, Hysteria, Prisoner's Dilemma, 1960, The Seafarer, Shape of the Table, Enron, Jude the Obscure Parts 1 & 2, Shining City, The Heretic, Iron Curtain Trilogy (Raleigh and London), Sunday in the Park with George, Spoonface Steinberg, Written on the Heart, Dark Vanilla Jungle (London), Iphigenia in Splott (Raleigh and DC). Acting: Love's Labours Lost, Mound Builders, St. Nicholas, Skylight and Talley's Folly (Raleigh and London). Also, Skylight (Tom/Orlando, FL) and King Lear (Lear/Wilmington, NC). Other: See How They Run (Southern Pines), Twelfth Night in Apex and Turn of the Screw for NC Opera. Jerry worked with or studied with Uta Hagen, Adrian Hall, Richard Jenkins, Hope Davis, Horton Foote, Denis O'Hare, Nikos Psacharapolous, Julie Bovasso, Ralph Waite, Oliver Platt, Ben Gazzarra and Ellen Burstyn at Trinity Rep (Providence), People's Light & Theatre (Philadelphia), NJ Shakespeare, SoHo Rep, Barrow Group, Columbia  University, Phoenix Theatre (SUNY/Purchase). This is his 27th year running Burning Coal which he and his wife, Simmie Kastner, founded in 1995. In 2019 he received the Raleigh Medal of Arts.

About the Cast

The cast of A Little Night Music is headed by Kelley Keats as Desiree Armfeldt and Christine Hunter as Madame Armfeldt. The cast also includes company favorites such as Alec Donalson, Ian Finley, Juan Isler, and Byron Jennings. Allie Mae Carnes, Margaret Ellen Christensen, Will Godby, Kai Halford, Devin Lackey, Derek Robinson, Asyia Slade, and Sarah Winter round out the cast.

About the Team

Raleigh's George Waller will serve as the Production Stage Manager. Californian Xiang Li will design scenery. Costumes will be overseen by Stacy Herrison of the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Barry Jaked of Wake Forest, NC will double as Technical Director and Master Electrician. Lighting will be designed by Matthew Adelson of Massachusetts and Lynda Clark of Raleigh will be properties designer. The sound design for A Little Night Music will be done by Juan Isler of Raleigh. The Music Director will be Christian Stahr of New York City. Choreography will be by Raleigh's Gigi Juras. Kat Cupp of Raleigh will be the Assistant Director.

About Burning Coal Theatre Company

Burning Coal Theatre Company is an intimate, professional theatre and an incorporated non-profit (501 (c)(3) organization in the heart of downtown Raleigh. Burning Coal's mission is to produce literate, visceral, affecting theatre that is experienced, not simply seen. It produces explosive reexaminations of overlooked classic and modern plays, as well as new plays whose themes and issues are of immediate concern to our audience, using the best local, national, and International Artists available. The company works toward a theatre of high-energy performances and minimalist production values. The emphasis is on literate works that are felt and experienced viscerally to create an active role for the audience, unlike more traditional linear plays, at which audiences are most often asked to observe without participating.

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