Send In The Cast: Broadway A Little Night Music

By Leora Kanner, Broadway Magazine

"Sondheim's lyrics are little plays in themselves," says director Trevor Nunn, "and he writes as richly, poetically as Shakespeare does, and he writes as psychologically insightfully as Chekhov does." In this video feature on Broadway.tv and Broadway Magazine get up close and personal with the extremely talented cast of the new revival of "A Little Night Music."

The musical hasn't been revived since its original production in 1970 and Alexander Hanson who plays 'Fredrik Egerman' believes "its well overdue." Angela Lansbury, who plays Madam Armfeldt, agrees and speaks about how she thinks "the audience is going to see a recreation of a landmark musical written by Steven Sondheim in the 1970s during the center of his most active period."

Broadway Show: A Little Night Music

Catherine Zeta-Jones, who plays Desiree, says "its like we are starting over-creating some magic." Erin Davie, who plays 'Countess Charlotte Malcolm,' elaborates, saying "its definitely not what people expect...new reinvention of 'Night Music' since it has this younger sexier cast… It's that thing you can't describe...its amazing."

The cast is clearly thrilled by the Stephen Sondheim musical itself: "the piece is magical, the piece is incredible, the piece is brilliant, the piece is a masterpiece" says Leigh Ann Larkin, who plays Petra. "You get into the heads of these people and the heads of this piece and musical selections...you feel like u are able to live in this world."

The director, Trevor Nunn, discusses how the team picked apart the material to create the best production possible: "we are taking everything apart-probably no scene gets more than 3 lines into it before we are stopping and working and discovering, and finding and relating" he says.

The cast has only praise for their director, with Aaron Lazar (who plays Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm) saying, "Trevor is one of the greatest-ever." Hunger Ryan Herdlicka echoes this sentient, saying that working with Trevor is "feels like working with a modern day Shakespeare...he brings something to the Broadway stage that I know I haven't seen this season," Ramona Mallory, who plays 'Anne Egerman,' goes further to say that Trevor "lets things marinate and then shocks you with another idea."

The actors offered a little insight into the characters in the musical as well. Catherine Zeta-Jones' Desiree is "flamboyant, theatrical, an actress." Jones laughs as she says, "the word Desiree, 'desire,' kinda sums her up actually." Larkin's Petra is "sassy pants, saucy, passionate… lovely" while Hanson's Egerman is "very urbane, cultured, good looking, sexy...Am I talking about me?"

The cast departs with some final words from Lansbury: 'it has everything...an extraordinary piece of work...something in this time of our lives to see again." Jones bids us goodbye, saying "it's a period piece but its very apt...Sensual...funny, poignant." With a final wave, Jones says: "I look forward to seeing you as we embark on our performance of 'a little night music'...you're going to love it."

Watch the entire video feature of the Ragtime opening night red carpet, right here on Broadway.tv.