A sophisticated musical in waltz time, Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music is based on Ingmar Bergman’s film Smiles Of A Summer Night. Set in turn-of-the-century Sweden, it centres on the passionate liaisons between four couples over a midsummer weekend.

A Tony Award-winning success when it received its premiere on Broadway in 1973, A Little Night Music was hailed as a stylish celebration of romantic love and a fairy tale for adults. The score includes one of Sondheim’s best-loved songs, Send In The Clowns. 

Since its London premiere in 1975, A Little Night Music has been revived twice – in 1989 at the Piccadilly, and in 1995 at the National Theatre, a production which starred Judi Dench as Desiree, in a performance that earned her the Best Actress in a Musical Laurence Olivier Award the following year. 

With this revival, the Menier Chocolate Factory will be hoping to continue its run of successful musical productions, which includes recent revivals of Little Shop Of Horrors, La Cage Aux Folles and another Sondheim piece, Sunday In The Park With George, which was a multi-award winner at the 2007 Laurence Olivier Awards.

Acclaimed director Trevor Nunn makes his Menier debut to direct A Little Night Music. A former Artistic Director of both the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, Nunn has an extensive back catalogue of work in musical theatre and drama.

American composer Sondheim is acknowledged as one of the world’s most influential musical theatre composers. His extensive back catalogue of work includes the shows Company, Assassins, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum and Follies.  

For more about A Little Night Music at the Menier Chocolate Factory read our First Night Feature.

Looking to see some musical theatre? Find out more about London musicals.