Thursday, December 5, 2013

Recent goings-on

I've started a number of posts lately but haven't managed to finish any; that usually means I should do a compilation instead – so that's what I've done.

A Little Night Music

I didn't get allocated to review this show, but I felt it was one worth writing about because of how much I enjoyed it, and how it fits into a bigger picture of my taste in musical theatre.

The core plot is about Fredrik Egerman, a lawyer, and Desiree Armfeltd, an actress – they have a past, which, when Fredrik and his young trophy wife (in the parlance of our times1) attend a performance of a play Desiree is performing in, becomes the present. Complicating this is – of course – Fredrik's wife, Anne, but also Count Carl-Magnus, Desiree's lover and his wife Charlotte. And then there's Fredrik's seemingly humourless, seminary student son Henrick; Anne's amorous maid Petra; Desiree's mother Madame Armdfeldt (a retired courtesan) and daughter Frederika2 and a handful of servants. Oh, and there's a wandering five-person chorus which opens the show and pops up from time to time, but they don't factor into the plot.