One of Stephen Sondheim’s most beautiful works waltzes onto the stage when AFD Theatre presents “A Little Night Music,” opening May 2 at 22 Academy Street in Arlington. Performances are Friday May 2, 9, and 16 at 8 PM, Saturday May 3, 10, and 17 at 8 PM, and Sunday May 4, 11, and 18 at 4 PM. A talk-back with cast and production crew will follow the May 4 matinee performance. Tickets for AFD’s production of “A Little Night Music” are $25 and may be purchased online at www.afdtheatre.org or by calling the box office at 781-646-5922.

Based on the Ingmar Bergman film “Smiles of a Summer Night” and with music by Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler, “A Little Night Music” centers on the tangled trios of relationships formed by actress Desiree Armfeldt and the men who love her: a lawyer by the name of Fredrik Egerman and the fiery Count Carl-Magnus. When the two men join Desiree and her family at a weekend in the country at Desiree’s mother’s estate, mysterious possibilities bring new romances and second chances.

Joe Stallone is directing the production. J. Parker Eldridge is musical director and Dan Marshall is choreographer.

Noting that most of the score for “A Little Night Music” is written in triple time or waltz time, Stallone said, “Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler have constructed an elegantly intricate pattern of ‘threes’ not only in the music, but also in the plot, the relationships, the changes in relationships, and in nearly every aspect of this play. It is all about ‘three.’”

“Besides the music being nearly entirely in waltz time or various permutations of triple time, so too is the plot written with ‘three’ as a central theme with variations,” Stallone said. “Like the music, the plot and the characters are performing a waltz.”

AFD Theatre is thrilled with the cast of “A Little Night Music,” who bring an outstanding array of talents to the stage. Many in the cast have operatic and choral experience and training. The cast includes Margaret McCarty as Desiree Armfeldt, Kathleen Larson Day as Madame Armfeldt, David Warnock as Fredrik, Erin Anderson as Anne, Kathleen Dalton as Charlotte, Justin Budinoff as Count Carol-Magnus, Emily Earle as Petra, Danny Kircher as Henrik, Sirena Abalian as Fredrika, Joseph Germanos as Frid, Anna Catherine Muench as Malla, and Charlotte Kelley as Osa. The show features a singing quintet played by Connell Benn, Laura Proctor, Karen Fanale, Ian Flynn, and Allan Hunter.

“We are so blessed to have a cast that is so very talented, dedicated, and experienced.” Stallone said after a recent rehearsal. “The material—on all fronts, music, dance, and script—is quite demanding, and they are mastering it with their finely honed skills and abilities.”


“A Little Night Music” is AFD Theatre’s final production of the season. The theatre’s 2014-2015 season begins in October with “Avenue Q,” winner of the Tony for best musical, best score, and best book. In January 2015, AFD Theatre will present “Good People,” a drama by David Lindsay-Abaire about  the class divide between those who make it out of the blue-collar Irish neighborhood of South Boston and those who find themselves left behind. In April, the theatre will present “Nine,” a Tony-award-winning musical about a celebrated film director and his attempts to come up with a plot for his next film. The 2014-2015 season will close in June with “Quartet,” a play about retired opera singers caught up in plans for the annual gala at the retirement home to celebrate Verdi’s birthday.

AFD Theatre is online at www.afdtheatre.org and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AFDTheatre. AFD Theatre is handicapped accessible. Assisted-listening devices are available. Arlington Friends of the Drama, now known as AFD Theatre, was founded in 1923 and is one of the 10 oldest continually operating community theater groups in the country.