Why you should go see Sondheim’s ‘A Little Night Music’
The show runs at the Huntington Theatre Company through mid-October.
Let’s assume the Huntington Theatre Company’s production of A Little Night Music stinks — the acting is wooden, the singing is screechy, and the staging is blocky. Let’s also assume that you’ll get rear-ended on your way there and you’ll get food poisoning from your intermission snack.
You should still see it.
That’s because it’s a chance to start appreciating Stephen Sondheim, who wrote the music and lyrics for the play.
You probably know something about Sondheim by now. Maybe you’ve heard a rendition of “Send in the Clowns,’’ or perhaps you’ve seen Hollywood’s adaptation of Sweeney Todd or Into the Woods. These were likable films, but big-budget movies require short run times and box-office friendly casts, so they’re not especially satisfying. You wouldn’t leave either movie understanding what Sondheim is really about.
Sondheim is a genius, but, first and foremost, he’s an entertainer. He wants his audience to have fun. While his lyrics and music can be intricate, they’re also accessible and often really funny. One great example of this mix of intricacy and accessibility for the sake of fun is “Not Getting Married,’’ from Company:
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This clip also shows another of Sondheim’s most endearing qualities: his lack of sentimentality. He’s too smart and too rigorous for cheap plays to emotion. In his 50-plus years of writing music, there likely isn’t a single song where a character simply professes his love for another. Saying “I love you’’ in a song just isn’t interesting enough for Sondheim. Take his version of a song of young love, “Johanna,’’ from Sweeney Todd:
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The melody is soaring and gorgeous. But consider the lyrics, which could be grounds for a restraining order:
I’ll steal you, Johanna,
I’ll steal you.
Do they think that walls could hide you?
Even now, I’m at your window.
I am in the dark beside you.
Sondheim never gives you exactly what you’d expect, and “Johanna’’ is just one example. No one goes into a play thinking they’ll hear a 12-year-old pondering her emerging sexuality, a young mother giving a spirited defense of infidelity, or the characters in a famous painting complaining about the artist’s choices. But that’s what you get from Sondheim, and often a whole lot more.
After a show, some of the songs might stick with you because of their astonishing wordplay, beautiful poetry, and unexpectedly complex themes. Late in A Little Night Music, you’ll hear “The Miller’s Son,’’ in which a woman sings about her plans to marry. It includes these lines:
It’s a very short road
From the pinch and the punch
To the paunch and the pouch
And the pension.
It’s a very short road
To the ten thousandth lunch
And the belch and the grouch
And the sigh.
Anyone with an interest in language will be in awe of the rhyme and meter and alliteration. When you hear it live, and then on additional listens, you come to understand that the writing isn’t indulgent or showy. This lyrics are service some difficult themes about the choices one makes and the tug-of-war between regret and appreciation that accompanies any major life decision. The verse above closes with the lines:
In the meanwhile
And a girl ought to celebrate what’s passing by.
But you can’t really appreciate “The Miller’s Son’’ if you don’t see it live. A cast recording won’t do. Sondheim doesn’t allow his songs to be reiterations of plot or simple expressions of emotion. The plot points are contained within his songs. The characters make their decisions within his lyrics. This makes them amazingly satisfying as part of a show, but also hard to interpret in isolation. Sondheim doesn’t produce many hits because they’re a little difficult to understand out of context.
Which is why you should brave the inevitable traffic and the hypothetical food poisoning, and experience Sondheim’s genius as it was meant to be experienced. A Little Night Music plays at the Huntington Theatre through October 11.
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