Isn’t it dark?
Is that a tree?
Trevor has turned out the lights.
Steve cannot see.
Send in Con Ed.
Maybe they should be passing out flashlights along with the Play bills at the elegant revival of Stephen Sondheim‘s “A Little Night Music,” now in previews at the Walter Kerr.
Director Trevor Nunn‘s production is good (I caught it in London last summer), but the chatter around town is that the stage is so dark you can’t see the great Angela Lansbury, the beautiful Catherine Zeta-Jones or the mist-laden forest.
Sondheim himself grumbled (rather loudly) during the intermission of the first preview that he couldn’t see his own show.
The legendary songwriter bolted up the aisle very quickly, giving rise to a rumor that he fled in anger.
But in fact he came back for the second act, and has been at the show ever since, chortling at some of his favorite lyrics and bookwriter Hugh Wheeler’s witty jokes.
“Steve has indeed been doing that,” Nunn said yesterday. “And, at my invitation, he joined the company today to give them his notes, and then he led them in a little music rehearsal. It was an afternoon that nobody in the company will ever forget.”
Nunn admits the lighting has been issue but says: “The only story is that we had a very brief time to get things organized technically. Some things weren’t balanced, but we’ve been refining the lighting cues, and I’m very happy to say that I haven’t heard anybody mention the term ‘lighting’ for the last three days.”
The challenge, says Nunn, is taking a production that began at the Menier Chocolate Factory, a 200-seat theater in London, and expanding it to fill a Broadway house.
“At the Chocolate Factory, not only can you hear people breathe, you can hear them think,” he says. “It was revelatory to be able to do Stephen Sondheim lyrics in that wonderfully intimate space. I desperately do not want to lose the intimacy, but of course I want the experience of the show to be shared by everyone in the larger theater.”
Word on the street is that Zeta-Jones is drop-dead gorgeous in the show and is delivering a strong performance.
“She’s a theater gal,” says Nunn. “She’s got music theater in her blood.”
Lansbury, who’s candid about the trouble she sometimes has remembering lines, had a rocky first preview but is now, I’m told, in fine form.
“She had a wonderful, spot-on show [Wednesday] night,” says Nunn.
For the record, she’s not using one of those earpieces, through which she’s fed lines, that she wore (under Princess Leia hair muffins) in “Blithe Spirit.”
“She’s not wired up to Houston this time,” one wag says.
“A Little Night Music” opens Dec. 13, and Nunn continues to tinker.
“Eventually, I’ll have to be manacled and taken away,” he says, “so the show can be frozen.”
Don’t miss Rob Bartlett‘s hilarious “The True Spirit of Christmas” tomorrow night at the Gotham Comedy Club.
Bartlett — an excellent Amos in “Chicago,” a memorable Speed in “The Odd Couple” and a regular on Don Imus’ radio show — is one of the funniest guys in town.
He’ll be doing his classic routine “Sal Monella’s Night Before Christmas,” as well as new material, including his version of Paula Deen preparing a festive Christmas deep-fried pork and marshmallow log.