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A Little Night Music is must-see theatre, right here in New West

There’s a challenge inherent in describing Patrick Street Productions’ A Little Night Music. Describe it as intelligent, sophisticated, elegant, stylish – all of which it undoubtedly is – and you risk making it sound snobbish or hoity-toity.

There’s a challenge inherent in describing Patrick Street Productions’ A Little Night Music.

Describe it as intelligent, sophisticated, elegant, stylish – all of which it undoubtedly is – and you risk making it sound snobbish or hoity-toity. Describe it as warm, human, charming and full of light-hearted humour – which it equally is – and you risk downplaying its depth.

I’ll duck out of the challenge by choosing not to describe it at all, except to say “Get yourself out to see it while you still can.”

New Westminster audiences are being given a chance to discover this gem of a Stephen Sondheim musical right here at home, since Patrick Street has chosen to base its operations out of the Anvil Centre Theatre. What’s more, you can experience it in acoustic form – neither the live, six-piece orchestra (a polished and stunning ensemble) nor the performers are amplified in any way.

The lack of amplification has its occasional challenges when singers’ voices are occasionally overpowered (some of the humour in The Glamorous Life early on was lost on opening night), but the audience is paid back through the added intimacy of the human voices. It allows us to feel we’re not so much watching the actors perform as eavesdropping on their evening.

Singing Sondheim brings its own set of musical challenges, and director Peter Jorgensen has assembled a cast that doesn’t just rise to the challenge but soars right through it.

Katey Wright as Desirée Armfeldt is at the core and the heart of the production, bringing humanity and vulnerability to the role of the actress whose youth is behind her but who hasn’t lost her touch with the male half of the species. Her understated performance of the show’s best-known song, Send in the Clowns, is striking for its very lack of showiness. Wright lets us in on the moment that Desirée sheds her “leading lady” persona and presents an honest, rueful and wryly human observation about her poor timing in love.

Perfectly matched with Wright is Warren Kimmel, the performer who has become New Westminster’s favourite leading man (OK, he’s become my favourite leading man; I’m just speaking on behalf of the whole city here). Kimmel, as Desirée’s former lover, Fredrik Egerman, has a warm voice that fills the room with apparent effortlessness, and he allows his Fredrik to be charmingly and fallibly human.

They’re joined by a cast that shines around them: Patti Allan as the deliciously dignified and cuttingly witty Madame Armfeldt; Nick Fontaine as Desirée’s married lover, Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm; Lindsay Warnock as the Countess Charlotte Malcolm; and Arinea Hermans as Fredrik’s young wife, Anne. Warnock and Hermans work particularly well together in their eviscerating first-act duet, Every Day a Little Death.

Caleb Di Pomponio, as Fredrik’s lovelorn seminarian son Henrik, is a particular standout, along with Rose McNeil as the maid, Petra (who nails one of the night’s most stunning performances with The Miller’s Son in the second act).

And special mention must be made of the youngest cast member, New Westminster’s own Elizabeth Irving, who displays poise and vocal talent that belie her 13 years, in the role of Desirée’s daughter Fredrika.

Immerse this talented cast in Sondheim’s rich melodies and clever lyrics, dress them in sumptuous and playful costumes by Jessica Bayntun and surround them with the fluidly elegant sets of Alan Brodie, and you have a recipe for a delectable night at the theatre.

As Madame Armfeldt tells her granddaughter, the summer night smiles three times (once on the youth, once on the fools, and once on the old). In this case, add a fourth – the production that smiles on its audience, and sends them home smiling too.

See www.patrickstreetproductions.com for more, or buy tickets through www.ticketsnw.ca or at 604-521-5050. It’s on until May 21.