Theatre Cedar Rapids staging ‘A Little Night Music’ outdoors at Brucemore

CEDAR RAPIDS — One who keeps tearing around, one who can’t move.

Both will be in the spotlight when Theatre Cedar Rapids brings Stephen Sondheim’s classic, “A Little Night Music,” to the outdoor stage behind Brucemore mansion Aug. 11 to 27.

But which one is tearing around and which one can’t move? Is it Desiree, the actress, or her former lover, Frederick, the lawyer? Both find themselves in difficult relationships at midlife. Still, when they see each other at the theater — she onstage, he in the audience with his new bride — old flames spark anew.

Other dalliances weave in and out of the various characters in this romantic farce, perfect for romping outdoors — especially in Act 2, when the action moves to a lavish estate for a weekend getaway, where all is sorted out under the stars.

Set at the turn of the 20th century, the core dilemmas remain golden, 50 years after the sweeping musical swept up six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical for Hugh Wheeler, Best Original Score for Sondheim, and Best Leading Actress in a Musical for Glynis Johns as Desiree.

“Like ‘Cabaret’, despite being 50 years old, it still feels very fresh and exciting and energetic, and doesn't feel like an old classic, which is fun,” director Angie Toomsen said. “And in the past couple of years, there's been quite a Sondheim renaissance across regional theater,” in the wake of the theatrical titan’s death in 2021.

If you go

What: Theatre Cedar Rapids presents “A Little Night Music”

Where: Brucemore’s outdoor Peggy Boyle Whitworth Amphitheater, 2160 Linden Dr. SE, Cedar Rapids

When: 7 p.m. Thursday to Sunday, beginning Aug. 11 to 27, 2023

Tickets: $32 adults; $20 students; $125 date night with two tickets and TCR tote bag with wine, two cups, stadium blanket; TCR Box Office, (319) 366-8591 or theatrecr.org

Extras: Gates open 6:15 p.m.; bring seating, snacks; concessions available

Send in the Clowns

One of the best things, however, is that so many golden voices have wrapped themselves around the show’s beloved “Send in the Clowns” — from Sinatra to Streisand — that no single recording is an iconic interpretation Jordan Arnold, 38, of Cedar Rapids, has to compete with.

Still, “it’s terrifying,” she said. “Honestly, it is terrifying and exciting. It is such a beautiful piece. And what I love about it is that it's grounded in feeling and her experiences. And while there's obviously an element of vocal skill, I do want it to sound nice. You want it to be palatable to the audience. ...

“The desire is to be connected to it. The desire is to feel what Desiree is feeling in that moment. So there's an ability to let go of some of the insecurities. Sometimes getting distracted by how I sound or what the audience is hearing can be really challenging,” she said.

“The ability to separate from that, and really prioritize, connecting to what she's experiencing and going through — and giving the audience a window into that — is a super-exciting opportunity. And I'm really, really thrilled to be able to explore that.”

Later in the show, she and Joe Wetrich, who plays Frederick, reprise the song.

An internet search turned up this gem. Broadcast live from the New York City Opera during the production of “A Little Night Music” in the early 1990s, Sondheim explains the enigmatic title for one of his best-loved creations:

“I get a lot of letters over the years asking what the title means and what the song's about; I never thought it would be in any way esoteric. I wanted to use theatrical imagery in the song, because she's an actress, but it’s not supposed to be a circus. ... (I)t's a theater reference meaning ‘if the show isn't going well, let's send in the clowns’; in other words, ‘let’s do the jokes.’ I always want to know, when I’m writing a song, what the end is going to be, so ‘Send in the Clowns’ didn't settle in until I got the notion, ‘Don't bother, they're here,’ which means that ‘We are the fools.’ ”

Opening doors

Humor abounds, even in the most dramatic of moments, as the various characters try to discover their heart’s desire.

“At the beginning of the show, you see that it maybe isn't exactly the thing they need, or they really want at their core,” Arnold said. “And the whole show becomes this exploration of what is that true desire? What is that truth?”

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"I think another interesting thing is that it's all different ages of people,“ added Catherine Blades, 31, of Cedar Rapids. She plays Fredrick’s young wife, Anne, who after 11 months, is too scared of marriage to relinquish her virginity.

“There's a lot of reflection, but there's also a lot of like, ‘What is my future going to be like — this is my life that I chose,’ but it doesn't have to be. Things change,” Blades said.

“That's what's kind of beautiful about the show. We have Madame Armfeldt (Desiree’s mother, played by Cherryl Moon Thomason), and then Fredericka (Desiree’s young daughter, played by Rhylee Larson). It just spans a lot of ages, where they're all on a journey together.”

The actors say the writing keeps their characters from becoming caricatures.

“(Sondheim’s) lyrics are really smart. It's very well written, obviously,” Blades said. “Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler did a great job. ... There's some ridiculous things that happen, but ridiculous things happen in real life. Everybody's pretty witty, though, too. And I think it's his lyrics, really, that make it so connectable, but also funny and humorous and touching at the same time.”

It’s also typical Sondheim, with its layers of complexity in which several people may be singing completely different thoughts and melodies simultaneously.

“But when it all comes together, it just sounds like one,” Blades said.

“It’s also supposed to invoke that chaos,” Arnold added. “Especially in this case, there's intent and purpose behind the layering and the potential confusion, and that it is, this kind of cacophony and chaos of activity. And that's part of the reason I think it's built the way it is.”

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“We’ve been in shows where the songs are sung beautifully,” said Wetrich, 50, of Cedar Rapids. “And in this ... the songs set the scenes up so beautifully. And then the lyrics are so great, that for someone just to stand up there and to sing it beautifully would almost take away from it in context. So when you’re doing the scene, the scene just kind of melts into the song and the song ties a little ribbon on the package of the scene, because it’s all intertwined.”

Bucket list show

“A Little Night Music” consistently rose to the top when Toomsen and others on the Theatre Cedar Rapids team discussed shows that would be “lovely” to bring to Brucemore’s elegant outdoor setting.

“This was a bucket show for me,” she said. “I have been enthralled with it since I was a young acting student in New York. Much to my musical theater teacher’s frustration, I had to each week bring in pieces from ‘A Little Night Music’ for weeks in a row — things that would have been unrealistic for me at that age to be singing.”

Now, reality is meeting the expectation of her dreams.

“We are all having a marvelous time,” she said. “The magic of this score and the extreme challenge of the score, and meeting those challenges and that sense of accomplishment is giving everyone this really strong team bond. It feels like we all have a shared mission, conquering this tough material and then making it delightful and meaningful and entertaining.

“So I think that the dream is alive. And then we're looking ahead to the ultimate dream which is doing it out under the stars in such a beautiful place. ... (We) are so excited to be able to present it in that very special way.”

It’s also a bucket list show for scenic and lighting designer S. Benjamin Farrar of Iowa City.

He’s especially happy the show is being staged outdoors, because he first started thinking about the scenic design in the early 2000s, during undergrad and graduate studies, and “became obsessed” with Boris Aronson’s design for the original Broadway production.

“He’s my favorite scenic designer of all time,” Farrar said. “My problem in grad school was, I kept recreating his design, because I was so in love with it.”

But that was for a traditional proscenium theater set up — a far cry from the open air, bare stage at Brucemore, where soaring trees provide the backdrop and frogs, ducks and insects provide an ambient soundtrack.

“It’s something totally different out there,” he said. “But I’ve been in love with this musical forever.”

And in this instance, the music also tells him where the story is taking the actors and audience.

“In the best musicals, the music is telling you scenically what needs to be done,” he said.

It also helps that by Act 2, when the action moves to the country, it’s late enough in the summer that the sun is setting, and the stars augment the romance of the stage lighting.

He said that at the end of Act 1, the song “A Weekend in the Country” gives him “a perfect moment to change our way of storytelling.”

The outdoor setting and tone of the show also have furthered his evolution into using more color in his scenic and lighting designs in the past decade.

“I used to shy away from color, because to me, color is very meaningful,” he said. “And culturally, color has different significance for everyone, depending on where you come from. So I've never believed in color symbolism, but color has a lot of power, and that power comes from the context that's around it.”

He likes to fill in the shadows with greens and purples.

“I love the rich colors,” he said. “ ... So instead of representing a realistic look, you're giving everything a poetic level. You're raising the level of poetry where the music exists, where the performances exist, and just bringing the physical world up to that level.”

“I'm so excited,” Blades said of Farrar’s design. “It's perfect. I think it's going to be magical and romantic. ... I think people are going to feel like it's a special night to be at Brucemore. It's magical.”

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com