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"  When critics rank the all-time best musicals, titles like Gypsy, West Side Story, and Carousel often head the list. And sure, they&amp;#039;re great\u2014which is why they&amp;#039;re often revived. But it&amp;#039;s only this month, 36 years after its debut, that perhaps the most perfect tuner of all, A Little Night Music, gets its second run on Broadway, in a production starring Catherine Zeta- Jones and Angela Lansbury. Perfection turns out to be a trap: The story of bungled turn-of-the-nineteenth-century romantic pairings may offer pure delight to an audience (&amp;quot;whipped cream and knives&amp;quot; was one description) but it&amp;#039;s hell to put across. (See, or rather don&amp;#039;t, the unfortunate film version, starring a wooden Elizabeth Taylor.) For one thing, there&amp;#039;s the never exceeded but exceedingly complex score by Stephen Sondheim, largely spun in variations of three-quarter time, effortlessly innovative, touching throughout, hilarious as needed. (&amp;quot;The hands on the clock turn/ But don&amp;#039;t sing a nocturne just yet.&amp;quot;) And then there&amp;#039;s the intricate story, prudently adapted by Hugh Wheeler from Ingmar Bergman&amp;#039;s Smiles of a Summer Night. In the annals of unlikely sources for fine American musicals, from Hungarian surrealist plays to Victorian penny dreadfuls, surely a Swedish art film ranks high. And yet it&amp;#039;s the rich humanity of Bergman, filtered through the breathtaking wit of the songs, that makes Night Music unique in the canon. When everything aligns correctly, it is a series of romantic pairings\u2014sadness and comedy, music and story, heart and head\u2014that for once get resolved with joy. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/music/reviews/a10654/a-little-night-music-385356/?src=global_footer>