(ORADELL, NJ) -- Bergen County Players (BCP), one of America's longest-running little theater companies, will close its 92nd season with Stephen Sondheim’s Tony award-winning A Little Night Music at the Little Firehouse Theatre in Oradell from May 3 through June 1, 2025. With music and lyrics by Sondheim and a book by Hugh Wheeler, lovers reunite, passions reignite, and new romances blossom in 1900s Sweden.
On a magical night that “smiles three times,” an aging actress, a married virgin, a sex-starved divinity student, a jaded lawyer, and a buffoonish Count find themselves hilariously tangled in a web of love affairs. Sondheim created a stunning theatrical experience when he took Ingmar Bergman's 1955 comedy of manners, Smiles of a Summer Night, and turned it into a musical where confusion rules, jealousies flair and sexual passions reign. Sondheim’s ravishing score, set entirely in variations of waltz time, explores the universal subject of love across the generations. Sondheim’s harmonically advanced score and masterful orchestrations include his famous “Send in the Clowns.”
Critics call A Little Night Music "an adult musical, civilized, sophisticated, enchanting" ... "a stylish celebration of romantic love.” Brendan Gill of The New Yorker says it "comes as close as possible to being the perfect romantic musical comedy."
With direction by Steve Bell, musical direction by Victoria Casella, and choreography by Diana Baer, A Little Night Music is full of hilariously witty and heartbreakingly moving moments of adoration, regret and desire. The original Broadway production of A Little Night Music opened at the Sam S. Shubert Theatre February 25, 1973. The production, directed and produced by Harold Prince, played 12 previews and 601 performances before closing August 3, 1974. The musical earned 12 Tony Award nominations, winning six including Best Musical.
Show times are Friday and Saturday nights at 8:00pm and on Sundays at 2:00pm, but there will be no performances on Memorial Day Weekend (May 23-25). Tickets are $32, can be purchased online at www.bcplayers.org, by calling 201-261-4200 or by visiting the box office at 298 Kinderkamack Road in Oradell during regular box office hours.
Director Steve Bell of Hackensack is a BCP Life Member and three-time past President. His directing credits include Rent, 33 Variations, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Harvey, The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940, The Drowsy Chaperone, Curtains, The King and I, and Urinetown, to name just a few. BCP audiences have enjoyed his performances in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Fantasticks, It Shoulda Been You, Guys and Dolls, Anything Goes, The Full Monty, Into the Woods, A Year with Frog and Toad, and Follies (Perry Award winner), among others. He has served as musical director for numerous shows, including A Christmas Carol: The Musical, Ragtime: The Musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Pippin, Cabaret, Man of La Mancha, The Music Man, and Company.
“Inspired by the number three, Sondheim set for himself the challenge of writing the entire score based upon variations of the waltz,” remarked Bell. “As the characters’ stories span several generations, from the young, to the fools and to ‘those who remember,’ there is a way into this story for everyone. I have certainly found more in the text and score every time I’ve worked on it.”
A Little Night Music’s talented cast of 16 includes Brooke Olivia Ginsberg of North Caldwell as Fredrika Armfeldt, Marian McCabe of Tappan, NY as Madam Armfeldt, Eric Najimian of Verona as Frid, Damon Quattrocchi of Stony Point, NY as Henrik Egerman, Katherine Hope Stelma of Bloomfield as Anne Egerman, Sean Lynch-Littlejohn of Ridgewood as Frederik Egerman, Katrina Michalewski of Hoboken as Petra, Sky Monroe of Morristown as Desirée Armfeldt, Brendan Lynch-Littlejohn of Ridgewood as Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm, Nina Lionetti of Westwood as Countess Charlotte Malcolm, and Lori Feiler-Fluger of River Edge, Paul Foster of Tenafly, Tara Hutchison of Hillsdale, Bryan John Morris of New Milford, Robert G. Ouellette of Westwood, and Rachel Silverstein of Carlstadt as the Liebeslieder Singers.
The production team is comprised of Jen Bancks (Producer), Michele Roth (Production Stage Manager), Carey Gsell (Assistant to the Director), Victoria Casella (Musical Director), Diana Baer (Choreographer), Nikki Alvarado (Assistant to the Choreographer), Gerard Bourcier (Set Design/Construction), Marci Weinstein and Carey Gsell (Set Décor), Allan Seward (Lighting Design), Kathleen Ruland (Lighting Operation), Tim Larsen (Sound Design), Barry Reed and Kelly Gebman (Sound Operation), Lynne Lupfer, Bunny Mateosian, Susan Kaufman, and Felicia Benson-Kraft (Costumes), Anne Powers (Dresser), Laura Dinoia and Margie Druss-Fodor (Properties), Marisa Gore (Make-up), Larry Greenwald, Jill Hendrickson, Randi Kestin, and Debbie Zika (Crew), Richard Frant (Photographer), James Lugo (Member-at-Large), Barbara Mintz (Workday Photo Board), and Marci K. Weinstein (Program Bios).
TICKET AND SCHEDULE INFORMATION
* All performances take place at The Little Firehouse Theatre at 298 Kinderkamack Road in Oradell, home to the Bergen County Players since 1949. Show times are Friday and Saturday nights at 8PM and on Sundays at 2PM, but there will be no performances on Memorial Day Weekend (May 23-25).
* All tickets for A Little Night Music are $32. Tickets can be purchased online at www.bcplayers.org, by calling 201-261-4200 or by visiting the box office at 298 Kinderkamack Road in Oradell during regular box office hours. Visa, Master Card, and American Express are accepted.
* Those interested in Group Sales or benefit theater parties can call (201) 261-4200 (option #6)
* BCP offers seating to accommodate patrons who are mobility impaired and can transfer from a wheelchair. These seats can be purchased by calling the box office at 201-261-4200 and will be released for public sale two weeks prior to performance.
* BCP’s popular Questions & Artists talkback session with cast and crew will be held following the performance on Friday, May 9.
* Advance discount tickets for students aged 25 and under with proper ID are available for $19 by phone or walk-up at every performance, pending seat availability. Not available online. There is a limit of one discount ticket per student ID.
* Rush discount tickets for students aged 25 and under with proper ID are available for $10 at the box office window, starting 30 minutes prior to curtain. There is a limit of one Rush ticket per student ID and cash is the only payment method accepted.
* Parking is free for their patrons at the Park Avenue municipal lot, across the street, one-half block north of the theater, as well as street parking on Kinderkamack Road and various side streets, including municipal lots behind Town Hall and the Library on Church Street. All locations are within easy walking distance.
Bergen County Players, Inc. is a non-Equity, non-profit community theater company dedicated to presenting quality productions for the enrichment of the community.
PHOTOS by Richard Frant
