Tri-M's latest production brings Stephen Sondheim's lyrics to life

Mar. 1—In February, a hound-pit bull mix and four of her puppies got a sneak preview of some of the music featured in Tri-M Productions' upcoming staging of A Little Night Music.

They were in a car with Divara Harper, who took them on the nearly 500-mile drive from the Española Humane shelter, where she works, to the dogs' new home in Phoenix. She used the time to rehearse songs performed by her character, Anne Egerman, one of the principals in the 1973 Stephen Sondheim musical that opens Tri-M's 2024 season.

A Little Night Music is set about 5,000 miles and 125 years from Northern New Mexico, in Sweden around 1900. Five characters called the Quintet function as a Greek chorus, commenting on the play's developments and starting the show with vocal warm-ups that coalesce into song. Other characters enter dancing to a waltz — beginning a theme, as nearly all of the play's music is in 3/4 time, says Tri-M Artistic Director Marilyn Barnes.

Anne and Fredrik Egerman are among five couples featured in the play. Fredrik, a middle-aged lawyer, recently married 18-year-old Anne, who loves her successful husband but isn't attracted to him and remains dedicated to preserving her virginity. Fredrik is played by Brent Black, a veteran Santa Fe actor, while A Little Night Music is Harper's first major role.

A veterinarian at Española Humane urged Harper, a 2018 graduate of the New Mexico School for the Arts, to contact Barnes. Harper had been looking to break into the theater world after her grandmother Janice Dunnington, with whom she shared a love for music, died in April 2023.

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Change of plans ...

A Little Night Music is Tri-M Productions' first full show of 2024. The nonprofit originally planned to present Little Women, but licensing issues forced it to go in a different direction, says Artistic Director Marilyn Barnes.

What it is ...

A Little Night Music was adapted into a 1977 film directed by Harold Prince and starring Elizabeth Taylor, Len Cariou, Lesley-Anne Down, and Diana Rigg — meaning that version was a film, based on a play, based on a film. It was featured in a Broadway revival in 2009. Among the songs is Sondheim's biggest hit, "Send in the Clowns." The musical won six Tony Awards in 1973, including best musical, best original score, and best costume design.

Who's who ...

Other performers are Riley Samuel Merritt as Henrik Egerman; Jessica Cunico as Desirée Armfeldt; Ansley King as Fredrika Armfeldt; Miles Blitch as Count Carl-Magnus; Melissa Riedel as Countess Charlotte; Marina Heaney as Petra; Kathryn Harrell as Mrs. Segstrom; Kelia Ingraham as Mrs. Nordstrom; Kirsten Maestas as Mrs. Anderssen; Enoch Chapman as Mr. Lindquist; and Gilbert Chavez as Mr. Erlanson/Frid.

The orchestra features conductor Kathlene Ritch on keyboard, Ian Davis on bass, Jesse Culberson on drums, Anna Hamrick on harp, Matt Lind playing wind instruments, and Katie Rietman on cello.

Up next ...

Tri-M Productions' next musical is Legally Blonde, running June 13-23.

Showtimes ...

* 7 p.m. Thursday, March 7, through March 9, March 14-16, and March 21-22, and 2 p.m. March 10, 17, and 23

* New Mexico Actors Lab

* 1213-B Parkway Drive

* $30-$50

* trimsantafe.org

"She was always my number one supporter," Harper says. "I just wanted to get used to performing and singing in front of people. So I was shocked when I got the email saying that I had received a role."

It's not just any role, of course. Harper and Black are the top-billed performers in a cast of 14. Barnes contacted Black, whom she got to know when he came to see her productions and vice versa, about the role. Tri-M is aimed at early career professionals but often has roles for older characters portrayed by more experienced actors.

Black, who estimates he's in about three plays a year, is one example. Another is Sally Ritch, who portrays Madame Armfeldt. Kathlene Ritch, Tri-M's musical director, is Sally Ritch's daughter and says her mother has sung and acted in numerous shows since the 1970s. Sally Ritch also taught high school theater; Kathlene was among her students.

"I've loved how the actors are respectful of Brent and especially of Sally," Barnes says. "When she sings, it's like you can hear a pin drop, and then everyone always claps afterwards."

Harper acknowledges she's at the other end of the experience spectrum. A Little Night Music moves to the top of her acting and singing resume, for now. Her friends who urged her to reach out to Barnes have never seen her perform in a professional setting, she says.

"They were super excited," she says. "That made me even more nervous. I got back into it because it's my passion, but also, my grandmother would want me to pursue music. When I was a young girl, she would play, like, [English soprano] Sarah Brightman and other artists and then she'd pause the music and say, 'OK, now sing this next line.' Losing her really made me realize, 'This is what I'm meant to do.'"

Sondheim was famed for communicating deeper meanings about characters via sonically unpredictable songs — the Quintet that narrates A Little Night Music is an example — and witty lyrics. His deft touch with words isn't lost on Black.

"He was famous for being such a puzzler and being into games," Black says. "You can really see that in some of the songs, just the way he backs up on rhymes and then throws a rhythm in to drive it around the edge of it. Sometimes, you don't even realize it until a song is over. His cleverness can be challenging to learn, but it all makes so much sense. There's a lot of humor — a lot of late-night intrigue."

Asked if anything in the musical threatens his control of his emotions, Black says he appreciates its quieter, more somber moments.

"They're not necessarily sad, but they're very contemplative, and that's what I'm enjoying the most," he says. "So I could see maybe getting caught up in a sob or something one night. But I don't think that's going to happen. I have had a few times in my life when I laughed when it probably wasn't the time to laugh, but the audience likes it when you crack up. It's like watching Carol Burnett."

Sondheim died in November 2021, and both Barnes and Kathlene Ritch have reverence for the musical master. Tri-M's production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in late 2022 was a tribute to him.

A Little Night Music is based on the 1955 Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night. Sensibilities that carry the day don't always travel well through time, and Barnes acknowledges some disregard for women in Sondheim's work — but is quick to defend him as both a genius and a human being.

"In some of these different musicals from that era, you kind of see quite a bit of misogyny," Black says. "How intentional that was, who knows, but some things are just shaded in a different way than they would be if they were written today."

Harper's formula for learning her lines: Memorize the music first and the dialogue second. She learned that system while part of Pandemonium Productions, a Santa Fe-based youth musical theater program.

"I learn the songs first because I feel like that's the most informative to the character — not just where the character is right now, but where they're headed," she says. "That helps me put meaning behind the words I'm saying. Words without inflection are just words. So to really understand a character is what makes those words meaningful."