The Divalicious Divas of A Little Night Music
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Zimbalist, Ralston,Jacoby
Photo by Henry DiRocco
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By Rob Stevens
Costa Mesa’s South Coast Repertory is getting a jump on celebrating the 35th Anniversary of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music which opens September 14th. It is amazing to discover that this musical, one of Sondheim’s most accessible and light-hearted, has never had a Broadway revival since its debut in February, 1973. Perhaps this production and this cast will get producers thinking. The original production won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical and for Sondheim’s score--his third consecutive win, and ran for 601 performances before launching a National Tour.
One of the members of that original cast is back in ball gown for SCR’s production. Teri Ralston was one of the quintet of singers who acted as a Greek Chorus to the action in Hugh Wheeler’s adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s 1956 film Smiles Of a Summer Night. Ralston was appearing in her second Broadway production and second Sondheim musical in three years, having originated the role of Jenny in 1970s Company. “I had just come back from doing Company in London when Stephen asked me to join him at backers’ auditions for his new musical. It was a joy to be the first to hear these songs and then to sing them for others.” Ralston understudied Lois Nettleton in the 1991 Center Theatre Group’s production in Hollywood, but never got to go on as Desiree. “She never missed a performance, but we had such great rehearsals.” Ralston later directed (earning one of her record seven Robby Awards in the process) a dazzling production of the show in Thousand Oaks starring Amanda McBroom, George Ball, and Dale Kristien. In this latest production, she is playing the role of Madame Armfeldt, indelibly linked to its creator, Hermione Gingold. “I was surprised when I got the call from SCR saying they wanted me for the role. I just had Hermione so in my mind. But reading the script and then rehearsing, I’ve found my own way into the role. I’m really loving it now, and it’s a role I can play for a long time to come, as I age into it. It’s been amazing to come back to this show over the years and to see it from so many different perspectives.” Although not officially one of SCR’s founding members, Ralston was there at the start. “I was a student at San Francisco State where Martin (Benson) and David (Emmes) and the others were. I was invited to join them during the summer. They were in a little space on Broadway in Long Beach. I was in The Hostage and Major Barbara. We all lived in one big house, Martha McFarland, Art Koustik, and others. And we all did everything. I don’t sew but I ended up as head of costumes. Then I went back to college and they went on to found South Coast Repertory.” Ralston has been back to SCR over the years: (Jacques Brel, Side by Side by Sondheim, Sunday in the Park with George and the World Premiere of Prelude to a Kiss). She also teaches for them at times. She is currently bi-coastal, performing and teaching in New York, where she will be doing her cabaret act for the first time at the Metropolitan Room, January 7 & 13.
Stephanie Zimbalist is best known for her television appearances, especially the series Remington Steele, but theater is where she spends and has spent a lot of her time. She has an amazing range, from light hearted comedy to heavy drama to musicals, winning awards for The Rainmaker and Sylvia, among others. This writer saw her professional stage debut at the Mark Taper Forum in The Tempest, directed by John Hirsch and also her professional musical debut in Festival, co-starring Gregory Harrison, Bill Hutton, “and a young actor who is now the fabulous Brian Stokes Mitchell” at Hollywood’s Las Palmas Theatre. But I missed her newsboy in Gypsy. “That was my first appearance in a play at the Brown Lodge Camp in Vermont.” She later played Louise in that Sondheim musical at boarding school. She toured opposite Tommy Tune in My One and Only, and her last musical was Sondheim’s Follies, directed by and co-starring Teri Ralston at the Barclay Theatre in Irvine, along with Julie Wilson, Betty Garrett, and John Raitt. The SCR credit is one she has wanted on her resume “but I last auditioned in the late ‘70s for Loose Ends. My agent submitted me for the role of Desiree, and I already had a job at Santa Barbara’s Ensemble Theatre in Sara Ruhl’s The Clean House. I had spent a small fortune and three weeks preparing for an audition for the National Tour of The Light in the Piazza and then was destroyed when I didn’t get it. I went into this audition on a lark, sang “Little Lamb” a capella, and got the role. I had to pull out of the other play, directed by my dear friend Jenny Sullivan, but it’s a wonderful group of people to work with here at SCR, all very nice and accommodating.”
Misty Cotton will also be making her SCR debut as Petra, the lusty maid and was submitted by her agent. “I am really thrilled to be working at such a highly respected theatre. The cast is really great and I am honored to be working with such an experienced and talented group.” The Broadway vet (Miss Saigon) has worked mostly in musical theatre in Southern California, from the Starlight Bowl and Moonlight Amphitheatre in San Diego to Burbank’s The Colony where she played Violet in Sideshow, “the best time I ever had in a show.” Lately she seems to be playing a lot of “naughty” girls--Nancy in Oliver, Petra, Kate in Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party, a role that won her a fourth consecutive Robby Award. “I certainly agree I have been finding a niche and I love playing “bad girls.” Although I think that could be interpretive. I loved my experience playing Kate; it’s actually one of my favorite musical theatre scores. I had a good time playing Vienna in Johnny Guitar last year at the Utah Shakesperean Festival.” Cotton has previously appeared in productions of A Funny Thing, Company, Anyone Can Whistle. “I find Sondheim challenging in different ways than other composers but I also feel that he makes your job as an actor easier. The material is so well written that if you communicate the lyrics and take the journey with them, they almost--dare I say--act themselves. He gives you so much to work with that it’s a gift. Of course, some of those slightly different notes, rhythms and lyrics can be crazy making!”
It looks like this trio of musical divas will be up to the challenge of Sondheim’s all-waltz score (every song is in ¾ time), and this A Little Night Music will have audiences humming for some time.
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