Tony Winner Deanna Dunagan, Formerly of Osage County, Will Go Swedish in A Little Night Music

By Kenneth Jones
03 Feb 2012

Deanna Dunagan
Deanna Dunagan

Tony Award winner Deanna Dunagan, the Chicago star who played the strained, cancerous and addicted matron Violet Weston in Broadway's August: Osage County, will be Madame Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's A Little Night Music in the Chicago area this spring and summer.

Writers' Theatre in Glencoe, IL, will stage the Tony Award-winning musical based on Ingmar Bergman's "Smiles of a Summer Night" May 1-July 8. William Brown directs. Musical direction is by Roberta Duchak. Opening is May 10.

Dunagan, who won the 2008 Tony Award as Best Actress in a Play, plays Night Music's wise and salty Madame Armfeldt, who bemoans the loss of artistry in love affairs. Her Swedish estate, acquired through a lover, no doubt, is the Act Two setting of the musical.

The cast of the sophisticated waltz-time musical about how love makes fools of people will also include Jonathan Weir as Fredrik Egerman and Shannon Cochran as Desiree Armfeldt, plus Brianna Borger (Petra), Shannon Corey (Fredericka Arnfeldt), Brandon Dahlquist (Count Malcolm), John Finley (Frid), Kristen French (Anne Egerman), Cory Goodrich (Malla), Royen Kent (Henrik Egerman) and Tiffany Scott (Countess Malcolm).

"Set in turn of the century Sweden, A Little Night Music is a sumptuous musical celebration of love," according to Writers' Theatre notes. "Desirée Armfeldt has always captured the hearts of men. When both of her lovers — and their wives — show up for a weekend in the country, the boundless possibilities of an old romance and newly awakened passions bring endless surprises."

The design team includes Kevin Depinet (scenic), Jesse Klug (lighting), Rachel Anne Healy (costumes), Andrew Hansen (sound) and Nick Heggestad (properties).

For more information, visit www.writerstheatre.org.