A Little Night Music

A Little Night Music, a bittersweet tale of romantic longing and furtive liaisons unfolding over a single midsummer's evening in the Swedish countryside, remains among composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim's most admired and best known works, as well as one of his most commercially successful. The musical, inspired by Ingmar Bergman's classic film Smiles of a Summer Night and featuring a book by Hugh Wheeler, logged in 601 performances during it's first Broadway run in 1973. Back then, the New York Times theatre critic called the lavish Harold Prince-directed production "heady, civilized, sophisticated and enchanting". The sumptuous score even yielded an enduring adult pop hit in the rueful "Send in the Clowns", brought to Top 40 and adult contemporary radio via Judy Collin's elegant, contemplative interpretation on Elektra Records.