A Little Night Music

I have to say, I've never really taken to theater. During my two years as a New Yorker, where I'm just a hop, skip and a jump from Broadway, I've only attended two shows: "Boeing, Boeing" after the leading lady invited my brother plus one, and "Mamma Mia" when my sister Trici visited. Both were fun nights out but neither left my Jazz hands wagging for more. Still, when a couple of family friends visiting from out of town invited me to see a show Saturday night, I eagerly accepted. Despite my lackluster track record, there's something so New York about seeing a live show on Broadway, and I, like Frank Sinatra, want to be a part of it (...New York, New York).

We had tickets to "A Little Night Music" starring Catherine Zeta Jones and Angela Lansbury, who I knew only and affectionately as Mrs. Potts from "Beauty and the Beast."

The rainy Saturday night came and I hopped a cab to the Walter Kerr Theater on 48th Street. I met my friends at the door and we weaved through the crowd to our amazing third row seats. If this was the show to change my mind about Broadway, these were the seats to do it in. I was close enough to see the microphones pinned into the actor's wigs, the tight laces of the women's corsets, the fringe on their petticoats, the heavy makeup on their faces, and, most interesting, the side of the stage where the conductor directed the band.

Nearly three hours later, the last bows were bowed, the curtain dropped and there I stood in ovation, clapping eagerly- a changed woman. I loved it.

"A Little Night Music" is an English play set in turn-of-the-century Sweden that follows the complicated love triangle, even square, of several different couples. Catherine Zeta Jones is especially endearing as a quick-witted, middle-aged actress known for stealing husbands. She's beautiful in person and even has the chops to sing "Send in the Clowns" (the Barbara Streisand song that apparently came from this play). Angela Lansbury (whose voice I really couldn't disassociate from Mrs. Potts) is also fantastic as her sarcastic mother.

I can't really offer too much more of a review as I really don't know musicals well, but I can say that I was thoroughly entertained. Bravo, and all that.