A Weekend in the Country.

High notes, low notes, out-of-this-world notes-- all hit by the wonderful cast of Atlantis production's "A Little Night Music".

Not knowing anything from this musical, I still wanted to watch it because of its hype on Broadway, and its stellar cast and production. This once again proves the cliche, "Don't judge a book by its cover". By its boring title and classical poster, it doesn't look like a fun watch at all. But yes, it's not boring, it's not just classical-- it is funny, exciting and gives you generous amount of joy. The music and lyrics of Sondheim is written lovely, with melodies that will strike your heart-- especially, "Send in the Clowns".

The cast includes Dawn Zulueta as the blissful Desiree Armfeldt, Nonie Buencamino as Frederik Egerman, Jay Glorioso as the sarcastic Madame Armfeldt, Cris Villonco as Anne Egerman, Felix Rivera as the Antisocial Henrik Egerman, the amazing Alys Serdenia as the horny Petra, Crystal Baranda-Paras as Frederika Armfeldt, Jake Macapagal and Jenny Jamora as the Count and Countess Malcolm and the ensemble cast of Gabs Santos, Teenee Chan, Agnes Barredo-Fenoli, Glen Llanes, Raul Montesa, Jenny Nuyda and my favorite Anthony Ong.

The plot is pretty simple unlike how its promotion mirrored a very complicated one. A theater actress that is stuck in love with a man, but still with another man-- complicated love, I shall call it. This is not a tragedy, my dear readers, but a story of realization and acceptance and facing the truth that no matter how much you deny your love, at the end of the day, you still lose.

The cast performed each of the song very professionally, if they ever did a mistake, it was very unnoticeable and that's what I love. Although, Crystal who plays Frederika did a number of mistake of stuttering her lines. Besides this, the cast were wonderful especially the ensemble. Alys Serdenia is my favorite though, who will not love her? She's very talented, and she had a solo! She really deserved a break.

I also want to commend the costumes,especially Desiree's. The construction was perfect-- the structure from the Broadway revival design is almost the same as what Rajo Laurel did, the difference is the colors. He brought the colors back from its original Broadway production. Very different from the Black and White costumes Catherine Zeta-Jones and Bernadette Peters wore in the revival.

Watching Dawn Zulueta perform "Send in the Clowns" is promising. My eyes were set on her and Nonie doing the scene, and I was just in awe. If you don't have tears in your eyes after the performance, I swear you need to have your tear glands checked. Just a funny thing I've noticed, when Nonie and Dawn were singing the duet version of "Send in the Clowns", Dawn is sitting on the ground with Nonie singing, "With you at last on the ground...".

This musical became an instant favorite. You will leave the theater in awe, humming "Send in the Clowns".  A Little Night Music will also be staged in the Esplanade theater in Singapore from November 9 - 14 2010, with Bea Garcia playing the role of Frederika.

I invite you all to watch A Little Night Music running until October 31! Log on to http://www.atlantisproductionsinc.com for more details.

Plus, a clip of Julie Andrews singing "Send in the Clowns"



Based on Ingmar Bergman's film, Smiles of a Summer Night, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC is a witty and urbane musical set in waltz time. The action takes place in a weekend country house in turn-of-the-century Sweden, where surprising liaisons, long-simmering passions and taste of love's endless possibilities are all brought to light.


Thanks, Bobby Garcia for the tickets!

Happy 80th Birthday, Stephen Sondheim-- continue inspiring us with your wonderful music.

Isn't it bliss? Bliss indeed.