Watch This Present A Little Night Music
Melbourne-based Sondheim repertory company Watch This will bring in 2018 with A Little Night Music, in association with Geelong Performing Arts Centre, National Theatre Melbourne & Whitehorse Centre.
Winner of four Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book and Best Original Score, Sondheim’s operatic farce premiered in 1973, based on Ingmar Bergman's film Smiles of a Summer Night.
It is midsummer in Sweden. On a magical night that smiles three times, an ageing actress, a married virgin, a sex-starved divinity student and a buffoonish count are drawn into a tangled and hilarious web of love affairs.
Featuring a lush score including “A Weekend in the Country”, “Liaisons” and possibly the best known Sondheim ballad, “Send in the Clowns”, A Little Night Music is a romantic tour-de-force.
Nadine Garner, John O’May, Jackie Rees and Eddie Muliaumaseali’i headline an ensemble cast, also featuring Carina Waye, Nelson Gardner, Johanna Allen, Grace O’Donnell-Clancy, Adrian Barila, Anna Francesca Armenia, Kate Louise Macfarlane, Greta Wilkinson, Kerrie Bolton and Raphael Wong.
Nicholas Cannon directs, with the creative team featuring Musical Director Daniele Buatti; Choreographer Michael Ralph; Set Designer Christina Logan Bell; Costume Designer Emily Collett and Lighting Designer Rob Sowinski.
"What I love about this show is the slightly odd collection of characters and the tension between their public faces and their more unruly, comfortable realities or desires. So although it's set at the turn of the last century, there's an immediate parallel with our own time and how we curate our lives for public consumption via social media. It's also incredibly witty. Plus I have an extraordinary line up of Australian talent to play with: Nadine, John, Eddie, Jackie ... it's a gift." - Nicholas Cannon, Director
After premiering in Geelong, A Little Night Music will open in Melbourne at the historic National Theatre Melbourne before transferring to the Whitehorse Centre.
Watch This debuted in 2013 with their debut production of Assassins, followed by Pacific Overtures, Company and Merrily We Roll Along in the next four years. The company has amassed 12 Green Room nominations and a win (for Best Supporting Actor for Adrian Li Donni in Pacific Overtures).
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Hugh Wheeler
Suggested by a Film by Ingmar Bergman
National Theatre Melbourne, 28 February – 3 March,
www.nationaltheatre.org.au/a-little-night-music (Opening Night: Thursday 1 March)
Photo: Jodie Hutchinson
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