A Little Night Music

The most active theatre company in Cheltenham

About the Show:

Includes the unforgettable Send In The Clowns.

A lawyer, Fredrik Egerman, is married to a very young wife, Anne, who, despite the fact that they have been married almost a year, is still a virgin. When he takes Anne to the theatre, he sees an old flame, Desiree Armfeldt. His romantic interest in her is rekindled, however, she is having an affair with a jealous, and married, military man, Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm. His long-suffering wife Charlotte is a friend of Anne. When Desiree (having the intention of reviving Fredrik’s interest), invites the Egermans for the weekend at her mother’s country estate, Charlotte convinces Anne that she should accept the invitation as, with her youth, she can make Desiree look ancient and thus retain Fredrik’s affection.

Complicating matters is Egerman's son, Henrik, a gloomy divinity student who cannot make up his mind about his sexuality. The Egermans have a flirty maid, Petra, who tries to teach Henrik the facts of life.

The play culminates in the weekend at the country estate of Desiree's mother, Madame Armfeldt, who is looking after Desiree's daughter, Fredrika. Too much wine is consumed, and Charlotte tries to make Carl Magnus jealous by flirting outrageously with Fredrik, eventually causing a duel between the two men with Fredrik being shot and thought to be dead. Charlotte realises that her “Tin Soldier” could have been killed, and glassy eyed falls for him all over again. It has been a hot summer’s night and whilst Madame Armfeldt’s butler Frid is wooing young Petra, Anne has discovered that she loves Henrik and not his father. She runs off with the now not so gloomy Henrik, leaving Desiree and Fredrik free to renew their romance and start life anew with Fredrika, who, it turns out, is their daughter from their previous relationship.

(Follow this link and you can listen to some of the music)

More about the show

Considered by many to be Sondheim's masterpiece, this is a romantic and sophisticated adult musical comedy about love, lovers, foolishness and sexual desires: it takes an ironic look at the sentimental world of operetta, revealing the knives beneath the whipped cream surface.

Set in turn-of-the-century Sweden, a middle-aged lawyer, Frederik Egerman, is enduring an unconsummated 11-month second marriage with teenage wife Anne, whilst his student son, Henrik, struggles with the guilt and frustration he feels from being deeply, but secretly, in love with his virgin stepmother.

On to the scene sweeps Desiree Armfeldt, a worldly actress and former lover of Frederik's, she being currently involved in an affair with a married dragoon, Carl Magnus, whose wife Charlotte suffers in her helpless love for him. Frederik and Desiree meet again after 14 years, and their feelings are rekindled. Tangled liaisons and romantic intrigues are happily resolved when all are thrown together for a weekend in the country estate of Desiree's mother, Madame Armfeldt. A magical midsummer night smiles three times, as she tells her granddaughter Frederika: "First, for the young who know nothing, second for the fools who know too little, and third for the old who know too much."

Includes the unforgettable Send In The Clowns.

From the "New York Times" - "A Little Night Music" is heady, civilised, sophisticated and enchanting. The music is an orgy of memorable waltzes and then, of course, there are breathtaking lyrics, the kind of sassy poetry that Cole Porter used to write

Winner of the New York Drama Circle Award for Best Musical

Winner of six Tony Awards

All Photo Caroline Young

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