The New Broadway Musical A Little Night Music, Starring Catherine Zeta-Jones And Angela Lansbury, Is Too Slow For Audiences And Lacks Warmth


"A Little Night Music" Is Too Slow For Broadway

A Little Night Music Broadway Show

The air is filled with romance and revelation when friends, family, enemies, and lovers all meet for a weekend in the country in this witty musical by Hugh Wheeler and Stephen Sondheim, based on the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night.

This Trevor Nunn-directed revival of the 1973 Broadway musical (which features Sondheim's best-known song, "Send in the Clowns") is a bit too slow and colorless, which is an unwelcome reminder that A Little Night Music has always been a little lacking in warmth. Frustration, elation, jealousy, hurt, and longing are all displayed prominently in this tryst-filled comedy of romantic entanglement, but love barely figures into it.

Catherine Zeta-Jones And Angela Lansbury Star

However, the production does feature fine performances by its most heralded stars, Catherine Zeta-Jones (as a glamorous but aging actress) and Angela Lansbury (as her disapproving mother).