Desiree, ironically playing a sexually irresistible countess, exchanges amorous glances with Fredrik and delivers her lines in an overtly suggestive tone, confirming Anne's suspicions as true.

Following, Fredrik tries to explain how much he loves Anne, fending off Desiree's interjecting quips, but he ultimately reveals his sexual frustration ("You Must Meet My Wife").

The first international production opened at Her Majesty's Theatre in Sydney, Australia in November 1973, with a cast including Taina Elg, Bruce Barry, Jill Perryman, Doris Fitton, Anna Russell and Geraldine Turner.

[13] The musical premiered in the West End at the Adelphi Theatre on April 15, 1975, and starred Jean Simmons, Joss Ackland, David Kernan, Liz Robertson, and Diane Langton, with Hermione Gingold reprising her role as Madame Armfeldt.

A revival opened in the West End on October 6, 1989, at the Piccadilly Theatre, directed by Ian Judge, designed by Mark Thompson, and choreographed by Anthony Van Laast.

It was directed by Sean Mathias, with set design by Stephen Brimson Lewis, costumes by Nicky Gillibrand, lighting by Mark Henderson and choreography by Wayne McGregor.

The production was directed by Trevor Nunn, with musical supervision by Caroline Humphris, choreography by Lynne Page, sets and costumes by David Farley and new orchestrations by Jason Carr.

The cast included Hannah Waddingham as Desiree, Alexander Hanson as Frederik, Jessie Buckley (Anne), Maureen Lipman (Madame Armfeldt), Alistair Robins (the Count), Gabriel Vick (Henrik), Grace Link (Fredrika) and Kasia Hammarlund (Petra).

[15] This critically acclaimed[16][17][18] production transferred to the Garrick Theatre in the West End for a limited season, opening on March 28, 2009, and running until July 25, 2009.

The 2008 Menier Chocolate Factory production opened on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre in previews on November 24, 2009, and officially on December 13, 2009, with the same creative team.

New York City Opera's production in August 1990 and July 1991 (a total of 18 performances) won the 1990 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival and was telecast on the PBS show Live at Lincoln Center on November 7, 1990.

[citation needed] The cast included both stage performers: Sally Ann Howes and George Lee Andrews as Desiree and Frederik and opera regular Regina Resnik as Madame Armfeldt (in 1991).

Kudish, Pawk, Gurwin and Boevers returned alongside Judith Ivey as Desiree, Zoe Caldwell as Madame Armfeldt, Victor Garber as Frederik, Laura Benanti as Anne and Kristen Bell as Fredrika.

The production starred star Susan Graham (Desiree Armfeldt), Cynthia Erivo (Petra), Ron Raines (Fredrik Egerman), Kerstin Anderson (Anne Egerman), Jonathan Christopher (Mr. Erlanson), Jason Gotay (Henrik Egerman), Ellie Fishman (Mrs. Nordstrom), Jin Ha (Frid), Addie Harrington (Fredrika Armfeldt), Shuler Hensley (Count Carl Magnus), Samantha Hill (Mrs. Segstrom), Andrea Jones-Sojola (Mrs. Anderson), Ross Lekites (Mr. Lindquist), Marsha Mason (Madam Armfeldt), and Ruthie Ann Miles (Countess Charlotte).

Cariou, Gingold, and Guittard reprise their broadway roles alongside Elizabeth Taylor as Desiree, Lesley-Anne Down as Anne and Diana Rigg as Charlotte.

Sondheim's liberal use of counterpoint extends to the vocal parts, including a free-structured round (the trio "Perpetual Anticipation") as well as songs in which characters engage in interior monologues or even overt dialogue simultaneously ("Now/Later/Soon", "A Weekend in the Country").

Critic Rex Reed noted that "The score of 'Night Music' ...contains patter songs, contrapuntal duets and trios, a quartet, and even a dramatic double quintet to puzzle through.

When he discovered that the original Desiree, Glynis Johns, was able to sing (she had a "small, silvery voice")[51] but could not "sustain a phrase", he devised the song "Send in the Clowns" for her in a way that would work around her vocal weakness, e.g., by ending lines with consonants that made for a short cut-off.

Midway through the second Act she has deviated from her usual script by suggesting to Fredrik the possibility of being together seriously and permanently, and, having been rejected, she falters as a show-person, finds herself bereft of the capacity to improvise and wittily cover.

That is, what needs to be covered over (by the clowns sung about in the song) is the very intensity, ragged emotion and utter vulnerability that comes forward through the music and singing itself, a display protracted to six minutes, wrought with exposed silences, a shocked Fredrik sitting so uncomfortably before Desirée while something much too real emerges in a realm where he – and his audience – felt assured of performance.

There is also a direct quotation in 'A Weekend in the Country' (just as it moves to A♭ major for the last time in the final section of the number) of Octavian's theme from Strauss' 'Der Rosenkavalier', another comedy of manners with partner-swapping at its heart.

He noted that "the real triumph belongs to Stephen Sondheim...the music is a celebration of 3/4 time, an orgy of plaintively memorable waltzes, all talking of past loves and lost worlds...There is a peasant touch here."

Thus Dorothy Tutin as Desiree, the touring thesp eventually reunited with her quondam lover, is not the melting romantic of previous productions but a working mother with the sharpness of a hat-pin.

The review went on to state that "The heart of the production, in both senses, is Judi Dench's superb Desiree Armfeldt...Her husky-voiced rendering of "Send in the Clowns" is the most moving I've ever heard.

The production is "sparing on furniture and heavy on shadows", with "a scaled-down orchestra at lugubriously slowed-down tempos..." He goes on to write that "this somber, less-is-more approach could be effective were the ensemble plugged into the same rueful sensibility.

That moment, halfway through the first act, belongs to Ms. Lansbury, who has hitherto been perfectly entertaining, playing Madame Armfeldt with the overripe aristocratic condescension of a Lady Bracknell.

Then comes her one solo, "Liaisons", in which her character thinks back on the art of love as a profession in a gilded age, when sex 'was but a pleasurable means to a measurable end.'

Her face, with its glamour-gorgon makeup, softens, as Madame Armfeldt seems to melt into memory itself, and the wan stage light briefly appears to borrow radiance from her.

Bernadette Peters steps into the six-month-old revival of A Little Night Music with a transfixing performance, playing it as if she realizes her character's onstage billing -- "the one and only Desiree Armfeldt"—is clichéd hyperbole.

By figuratively rolling her eyes at the hype, Peters gives us a rich, warm and comedically human Desiree, which reaches full impact when she pierces the façade with a nakedly honest, tears-on-cheek 'Send in the Clowns.