A Little Night MusicMusic and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Hugh Wheeler
September 17 through October 10
Previews September 15 and 16
Margeson Theater
Pictured: Al Bundonis, Kate Ingram and Warren Kelly The Festival’s first-ever musical! Set in turn-of-the-20th-Century Sweden, A Little Night Music is a classic of the musical theater. Along with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Sweeney Todd, one of Sondheim’s most popular works! Produced in honor of
Ken and Trisha Margeson
Music Sponsored by
Marilyn and Sig Goldman & Stephen Goldman 
The cast of A Little Night Music
The Cast:
Madame Armfeldt - Diane J. Findlay*
Desiree Armfeldt - Kate Ingram*
Fredrika Armfeldt - Noelle Joy Cariola
Fredrik Egerman - Warren Kelley*
Anne Egerman - Tracy Ganem*
Henrik Egerman - Christopher Kale Jones*
Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm - Al Bundonis*
Countess Charlotte Malcolm - Meghan Moroney*
Petra - Michelle Knight
Frid - Michael Gill
Malla - Lana Hancock
Bertrand - Tim Shane
Osa - Katie Knipp
Mr. Lindquist - Frank McClain*
Mrs. Nordstrom - Tracy McCoy
Mrs. Anderssen - Lucy Carney
Mr. Erlanson - Scott Raneri
Mrs. Segstrom - Melissa Mason * Courtesy of Actor's Equity Association 
The cast of A Little Night Music
REVIEWSA Feast in Waltz Time: 'Night Music' Soars!The Orlando Sentinel
Excerpts from the Reviw by Elizabeth Maupin
Posted 9/22/04  Pictured: Kate Ingram and Warren Kelly
The summer night smiles three times, a wise old woman tells her granddaughter in A Little Night Music -- once at the young, who know nothing; once at fools, who know too little; and once at the old, who know too much. But the summer night must be smiling a fourth time this season, at the people at the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival, who have known enough to make their production of A Little Night Music the glorious event it is.
Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler filled their 1973 musical with wry comedy and romance, with subtlety and sophistication and the kind of music that swirls you around the room. Still, it has taken a gifted group of people at the Shakespeare Festival to turn this production, the company's first musical in its 16-year history, into such a feast.
Full-blown musical-theater productions have become a rare commodity in contemporary theater, where hiring a couple of actors and a pianist is all most companies can afford. So it's good news in Orlando to see the Shakespeare Festival embracing the idea of the classic American musical -- and to see it done with all the trappings that a thriving professional theater can employ.
That means ribbon-bedecked late-Victorian-era costumes (by Jack A. Smith), opulent lighting (by Joseph P. Oshry) and an Art Nouveau-inspired set (by Bob Phillips). It means an able eight-piece orchestra led by music director John Bell, coordinator of the musical-theater program at UCF.
And it means an accomplished cast of 18 actors, drawn from Orlando, from other regional theaters across the country and from New York. Sondheim and Wheeler based their musical on Smiles of a Summer Night, Ingmar Bergman's 1955 film about love and folly among a group of mismatched couples in turn-of-the-century Sweden. All of the story is there in Bergman's film, but Sondheim brought it so much more -- his all-embracing melodies, written in waltz time and variations of it, and his adroit, elegant lyrics, which say in a few words all there is to say.
Surely such cleverness is congenital with these sophisticated people -- the somehow dissatisfied middle-aged lawyer, Fredrik Egerman; the vaguely discontented famous actress, Desirée Armfeldt; Fredrik's 18-year-old virginal bride, Anne, and his brooding theological-student son Henrik; Desirée's world-weary mother, her curious young daughter, her pompous dragoon lover and his long-suffering wife. Desirée is far from the only one, it turns out, to have made a "muddle," as she calls it, of her life. But the summer night smiles on all the fools and all the lovers, and before evening's end just about every one of them has seen life turn for the good.
At the festival's Margeson Theater, director Patrick Flick has staged the show to take advantage of every inch of space: The orchestra plays from behind the proscenium arch; pieces of ornate Victorian furniture appear and disappear around the Tiffany-like medallion at the center of the thrust stage, and the incongruous couples sweep each other in three-quarter time across the floor... the swirling bodies add to the show's lushness, and even the five singers of the ensemble (Frank McClain, Tracy McCoy, Scott Raneri, Melissa Mason and the splendid Lucy Carney) become characters who switch partners and passions in the blink of an eye.
A director who casts Lucy Carney in his chorus must be confident about his principal actors... Michelle Knight finds the sensual swagger in Petra, Anne's worldly maid; and Christopher Kale Jones makes an adorably comical Henrik with a gorgeous tenor voice. Al Bundoni is all peacock as the handsome Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm, Desiree's self-important, dim-witted lover; Meghan Colleen Moroney finds both the humor and the heartbreak in Countess Charlotte, his maligned (and much smarter) wife. And Diane J. Findlay makes a terrific old lady as the imposing Madame Armfeldt, Desirée's mother: With one cosmopolitan arch of an eyebrow, she combines Madeleine Albright and Mae West.
As Desirée, Kate Ingram finds a character you can believe in -- a smart, passionate woman who has let her life get away from her, a woman who longs for "a coherent existence after so many years of muddle." Ingram talk-sings her way through the show's most famous number, "Send in the Clowns," but the effect is breathtaking: Her Desirée has missed the boat, she knows it, and there is nothing she can do.
And Warren Kelley is her equal as Fredrik, the lawyer who has gotten himself into a marriage he didn't mean to and a life that makes no sense. Kelley brings both a bit of prissiness and a comical slouch to Fredrik, who can find amusement in his own morass. But this Fredrik also has a keen eye, the lawyer's gift of gab and a wonderful way with a lyric, and Kelley makes him a delight.
A Little Night Music is all about missed opportunities: Madame Armfeldt wonders aloud about the young man she turned away long ago, and nearly everyone else longs for something or someone out of reach. There's a lesson to be learned -- from Bergman's characters, from Wheeler and Sondheim's sumptuous musical, and from the Shakespeare Festival itself, which has seized on this opportunity and played it for all it's worth. The Getting is Good!The Orlando Weekly
Excerpts from the review by Al Krulick
Posted 9/22/04  Pictured: Kate Ingram and Warren Kelly
There is a theater tale about a young player who asked his director if he could become a better actor by "doing Chekhov." According to the story, the mentor replied simply, "Get good first ... then do Chekhov!'" The same could be said about "doing" Stephen Sondheim, the master of the late 20th-century American musical. One must get very good first, before tackling the challenging wordplay, the strenuous music and the subtle moods of this most erudite and urbane of composer/lyricists. In choosing to mount A Little Night Music (Sondheim's take on Ingmar Bergman's classic film Smiles of a Summer Night) as the first musical offering in its 16 seasons, the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival has gambled that it is good enough to succeed with its version of this 1973 Tony Award-winning show. That it has done so, admirably, is a validation of director Patrick Flick's superb staging, John Bell's glorious musical direction, Jack A. Smith's splendid costuming, and most significantly, a cast of strong-voiced and intelligent actors, who have shown that they are more than just good – they are superlative interpreters of Hugh Wheeler's cynically comic book and Sondheim's brilliantly lyrical score. The play takes place in Sweden in 1899 and tells the story of middle-age Fredrik Egerman (Warren Kelley) and his teenage bride, Anne (Tracy Ganem), whose 11-month-old marriage has yet to be consummated. The couple lives with Fredrik's son, Henrik (Christopher Kale Jones), an unhappy and frustrated lad who just happens to be in love with his father's new wife. Fredrik's own melancholy leads him to the door of an old flame, the actress Desirée Armfeldt (Kate Ingram), whose love for the hapless lawyer has never completely died. Unfortunately for the reunited couple, Desirée has a dangerous paramour, Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm (Al Bundonis), who catches the two of them in an uncompromising situation. Attempting to get the better of Desirée's erstwhile and now again suitor, Magnus instructs his all-too-understanding wife, Charlotte (Meghan Moroney), to inform Anne of Fredrik's infidelity. The unhappy wives then conspire to get back at Desirée, the woman who has stolen both of their husbands. Meanwhile, Desirée has invited the Egerman family to spend a few days at the county estate of her mother, Madame Armfeldt (Diane J. Findlay). When Magnus hears of the invitation, he crashes the party with his wife and the stage is set for a sexually charged weekend of accusations, assignations and shifting partnerships. All ends happily, though, as the midnight sun hangs just above the Scandinavian horizon. Woven throughout the proceedings is Sondheim's hauntingly beautiful music, done in variations of three-quarter waltz time. Every one of the performers sings sublimely well, and it would be improvident to choose a favorite tune or moment from the show. My advice is to enjoy the entire ensemble, with special attention paid to Jones' fine tenor, and Moroney's touching rendition of "Every Day a Little Death." The Shakespeare Festival company has proven that it can take on the challenge of performing musical theater at a high level. Let there be more of the same over the next 16 years! Festival's Night Music an Exemplary Success!TalkinBroadway.com
Excerpts from the Review by Matthew MacDermid 
Al Bundonis as Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm, Kate Ingram as Desiree Armfeldt, and Warren Kelley
as Fredrik Egerman
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When the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival announced at the close of last season that they would present their first ever musical, A Little Night Music, in the fall, it was safe to say that many were skeptical. The company has a tremendously respectable canon of work behind them and, with the presentation of this, their first musical, gives great hope for the future of their productions. A Little Night Music, without a doubt, exceeds every expectation and puts all naysayers to rest with a beautifully designed and exquisitely acted production of one of Stephen Sondheim's greatest masterpieces. A Little Night Music opened on Broadway in 1973 and completed a respectful run of just over a year. With a score by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler, the story was suggested by Ingmar Bergman's film, Smiles of a Summer Night, and deals with the romantic follies of a group of individuals in turn-of-the-century Sweden. In a nutshell, the story involves Desiree Armfeldt, an actress who is involved with the married Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm (whose wife, Charlotte, much to her own disappointment aids her husband in his affair). Fredrik Egerman, Desiree's past lover, is married to the still-virginal Anne, who is also admired by Fredrik's young, divinity-driven son, Henrik. The action occurs beneath the stars and the roof of Desiree's mother, the all-too-knowing Madame Armfeldt, in a beautiful country chateau where the moon smiles three times: first for the young who know nothing, second for the fools who know too little, and third for the old who know too much. Director Patrick Flick has assembled a mostly remarkable ensemble of actors... with Tracy Ganem providing a lovely Anne nicely matched by a Henrik exuberantly played and masterfully sung by Christopher Kale Jones. Al Bundonis is perfectly stiff as the Count, with Meghan Moroney continuing to show herself as one of Central Florida's most remarkable performers with the deadpan comedy of Charlotte. Diane Findlay's Madame Armfeldt is rich in presence and humor, providing a matriarch of great strength and knowledge. Michelle Knight's Petra is sensuous and bawdy, with her rendition of "The Miller's Son" wonderfully acted and sung. Warren Kelley's Fredrik is charming, singing beautifully and providing a nicely nuanced characterization. Somewhere toward the center of the first act, you realize you're witnessing a truly magnificent performance from Kate Ingram. Ingram's Desiree is compassionate, humorous, and beautiful. She performs the role with great reserve and subtlety, and provides the greatest rendition of the famous "Send in the Clowns" this particular viewer has ever witnessed. Many famed actresses have played the role - original star Glynis Johns, Jean Simmons, Elizabeth Taylor, Judi Dench, and soon enough, Glenn Close - but it's hard to imagine any of these actresses holding a candle to the brilliance and magnetism that Kate Ingram brings to the stage in this role. It is the performance of a lifetime, and she will be remembered for it for years to come. Patrick Flick has directed a production that keeps the intimacy of the piece in tact. His cast has a great understanding for the material, both in Wheeler's witty dialogue and Sondheim's complex music and lyrics. John Bell's musical direction is brilliant, with his eight-piece chamber orchestra sounding beautiful and full. Bobby and Judi Chapman, as well as director Flick, have provided lovely choreography, filling the thrust stage space with wonderful waltzes and gorgeous stage pictures. Bob Phillips' scenery, along with the costumes of Jack Smith and the lighting of Joseph Oshry, add to the exemplary work that OSF has brought to this production. Matthew Given's sound design allows the actors to be heard and, more importantly, never overamplifies, lending a nice, natural sound to the entire production. Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival continues to outdo whatever it is they have done before, but this production of A Little Night Music, and Kate Ingram's glorious star turn, are going to be awfully tough to beat. A Little Night Music plays through October 10th at the John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center located in Loch Haven Park, Orlando. For further information, contact the OSF box office at (407) 447-1700 ext. 1 or visit the website: www.shakespearefest.org. 
Warren Kelly, Christopher Kale Jones and Tracy Ganem |
