With that door open, Massachusetts beckoned recently with North Shore Music Theatre's' production of "A Little Night Music". Still, Ingmar Bergman, set to music, to reduce it to simplistic terms, was my only expectation.

This small theatre in the round has a well-earned reputation for re-inventing Broadway shows in such a way that it is genuinely fun to discover that the original interpretations of a show--the lights, the costumes, the sets, the blocking, the order of scenes, the colour of the music, the feel of the characters--is not necessarily the only one. Sondheim (and Bergman for that matter) require a lot from an audience. The characters are complex, and the detail of development is dense. If you're looking for a lazy afternoon or evening of having everything handed to you on a silver platter and wrapped up in a neat little happily-ever-after package at the end, you'll be out of your element fast.

Probably one of Sondheim's best-known scores, "A Little Night Music" is musically pleasing, and the show can be enjoyed to a certain degree on that level alone. I heard many patrons after the show humming "Send in the Clowns" and muttering that they didn't have a clue what the show was about, but they liked it. But, if you are willing to open yourself to other dimensions, those are there too, in abundance; and the rewards are many.

Seeing the Lincoln Centre production of this show years ago, I was bored out of my mind. I didn't get it then. At the end of this production, I was in tears and in awe at the beauty and brilliance of this work. North Shore, in its small, intimate closeness, gives the characterizations accessibility and a realness that the huge halls of Lincoln Centre can't provide. This may be a regional theatre, but this production did not lack for Broadway calibre performances. Perfectly cast as the Count, Chuck Wagner delivered a somewhat understated, but exquisite performance. Diana Canova, however, nearly stole the show as Charlotte Malcolm, his long-suffering wife, while Donna McKechnie commanded the stage as Desiree. Awkward, eager adolescent Henrik was the artful creation of Adam Monley.

(This review appeared in Masquerade Magazine #39. The editor of Masquerade Magazine is Mike Gibb, Aberdeen, Scotland.