Nunn’s Menier Night Music Moves to Garrick???
Date: 11 February 2009
While Gipsy Kings musical Zorro will be moving out of the Garrick next month (See News, 10 Feb 2008), it’s likely to be followed by more music - A Little Night Music to be precise. Trevor Nunn’s revival of Stephen Sondheim’s 1973 classic continues its sell-out run at Southwark’s 150-seat Menier Chocolate Factory until 8 March (See Review Round-up, 9 Dec 2008), but could then come straight in to the West End to replace Zorro, which has posted closing notices for 14 March at the Garrick.
Inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s 1955 Swedish film and written largely in waltz time, A Little Night Music concerns the tangled romantic lives of several couples in Sweden at the turn of the 20th century. The score includes the Grammy Award-winning ballad “Send in the Clowns”.
Nunn’s acclaimed production features Hannah Waddingham and Alexander Hanson as Desiree and Fredrik, along with I’d Do Anything contestant Jessie Buckley as the naïve teenager Anne, and Maureen Lipman as Madame Armfeldt. It opened at the Chocolate Factory, marking Nunn’s Sondheim debut, on 3 December 2008 (previews from 22 November).
If the transfer comes to fruition, it’ll be the second Menier musical currently running in the West End. Terry Johnson’s revival of Jerry Herman’s La Cage Aux Folles, which was first seen in Southwark last Christmas, continues its West End run at the Playhouse Theatre, where Graham Norton has taken over from original star Douglas Hodge as drag queen Zaza. In addition to multiple Whatsonstage.com and Laurence Olivier nominations, the production recently won the Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical.
