Arts & Culture
Rose McNeil and Arinea Hermans in musical A Little Night Music.
Photo by Emily Cooper
Appeal for all ages in Gateway season opener
Published 10:25 PDT, Fri September 29, 2017
Following on the successful heels of Gateway’s
co-productions with Sky High Productions, the Richmond theatre opens its
2017-18 season with the Sondheim musical A Little Night Music, also a
co-production, this time with Patrick Street Productions.
Set at the turn of the last century in
Sweden, director Peter Jorgensen says, “A Little Night Music interweaves a
tangled web of former and current lovers. It is full of hilariously witty and
heartbreakingly moving moments of adoration, regret and desire.”
Calling it “Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece,”
Jorgensen says what he loves about Sondheim’s creation is that the songs are
woven into the story line.
They fit naturally and progress the story.
It isn’t a matter of “oh right, let’s all
stop everything and have a song here.” They flow naturally with the live
orchestra accompanying the actors.
“A Little Night Music is an intimate story
about intimate relationships,” Jorgenson says.
For that reason, he finds Gateway the perfect
place to mount this production.
“It’s a big theatre but it feels like the
audience is really close when you’re on the stage. It’s great for a show like A
Little Night Music, because it’s meant to be an intimate musical not a big
mega-musical spectacle.”
Send in the Clowns, a song made famous by
Judy Collins comes from A Little Night Music. Sung, steeped in regret, by an
older character in the play, the enigmatic meaning of a popular ballad becomes
vividly clear.
Jorgensen outlines the different ages of the
couples, from young lovers, to older, to middle-aged and as he puts it, “then
you’ve got Madam Armfeldt, a woman in her 70s or 80s.”
Perfect for those who don’t normally prefer
musicals, Jorgensen talks of people who have come up to him after the show to
say it’s the first musical they’ve really liked. It’s a show with meaning,
heart and humour.
“It’s about love and sex and desire, at all
ages and stages of life,” he says. “That’s the appeal ofA Little Night Music;
it will grab anyone because there’s almost a guarantee that there'll be at
least one character that you’ll identify with.”
A Little Night Music; runs at Richmond’s
Gateway Theatre from Oct. 12 to 21. For more information: gatewaytheatre.com/littlenightmusic
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
2 Hours of free financial consulting
Jai Xin Planning Ltd.
C$120.00 C$0.00
Use any of our home staging service and get a second month rental for free!
MiiX Interiors
C$500.00 C$0.00
Get 10% off any order
Phantom Screens Lower Mainland
C$200.00 C$180.00
