Had Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler never thought to adapt Ingmar Bergman's 1955 masterpiece "Smiles of a Summer Night" into a Broadway musical, chances are that someone else would have.
No one, though, could have imparted the sense of poignancy regarding romantic love as has Sondheim – or, for that matter, the level of self-delusion that often accompanies the processes of falling in love, staying in love or walking away from love.
The 1973 musical, which enjoys a sturdy revival at the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse, also exposes the hypocrisies of the wealthy. Sure, the bourgeoisie and the poor can be hypocrites, too – but rarely do they mask this quality with so much regard for propriety as do the rich.
While the cast's vocals vary from adequate to outstanding, director Jason Holland, musical director Stephen Hulsey and choreographer Ginger Johnson have created a forceful staging that subtly punches across nearly every point the show has to make.
Located adjacent to the stage, the quartet led by pianist Akari Banna provides a precise, clean reading of Sondheim's Continental-sounding score, which is acerbic at some points, melancholy at others. Ryan Holihan's ornate costumes convey the period's formality, while Daniel Perezvertti's conceptual set fills in as the story's many settings.
In Sweden at the turn of the 20th century, middle-age Fredrik Egerman (Marc Montminy) agonizes over the fact that after nearly a year, his 18-year-old second wife, Anne (Megan Burns), still avoids consummating their marriage.
Anne's boycott drives Fredrik back into the arms of ex-lover Désirée Armfeldt (Elizabeth A. Bouton), a famed stage actress whose touring show comes through Fredrik's home city.
The pair haven't been together in 14 years, and from this point on, "Night Music" reveals the misguided romantic inclinations of its characters. The various story threads converge as the principals show up, invited or not, at the lavish country estate of Désirée's wealthy old mother. Everyone's desires are frustrated, bearing out the line in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Lord, what fools these mortals be!"
The biggest fool is Fredrik, blind to his compatibility with Désirée and convinced that Anne will come around. Fredrik is described as "distinguished" and "old." Montminy is neither, yet triumphs by underplaying the role, showing us that Fredrik is painfully aware of his shortcomings.
As Désirée, Bouton is gloriously regal and a bit jaded, projecting the actress's confident, willful personality and disdain for Fredrik's child bride. Her chemistry with Montminy is undeniable. More crucially, she's the show's strongest female vocalist, investing "Send in the Clowns," arguably Sondheim's most famous song, with stately passion.
Burns is suitably gorgeous, vain and airheaded as the chaste, frivolous Anne, but her cartoonlike voice almost reeks of parody. Youthful-looking Jaycob Hunter is so-so as Fredrik's conflicted son Henrik, capturing the devout young man's feeling of being thwarted at every turn but none of his burning, guilty passion for Anne or his roiling inner turmoil.
An impressive tenor, Hulsey shows Désirée's jealous lover, Count Malcolm, as a tense, humorless soldier ready to duel over mistress Désirée yet blind to his own wife, Charlotte. In that role, Alison Mattiza, filling in for Rachel Pfeifer Green in the performance reviewed, was all deadpan sarcasm and ambivalent longing for her husband's affections.
Tisha Bellantuoni is a haughty, formal Madame Armfeldt. Cynthia Price is charmingly artless as the illegitimate daughter Désirée chose to name Fredrika (after you-know-who). Montica Reeves is aptly saucy as the Egermans' maid but misses the young woman's ruefulness at having had too many meaningless romps in the hay.
Araceli Applegate, David A. Blair, Dawn Veree Marshall, Emily Price and Jon Sparks are outstanding as the play's liebeslieders, its singing Greek chorus. They deliver superb vocals, as do most of the cast, making this "Night Music" a revealing flirtation with the fickle nature of love. Reservations
©2007 Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse
