THEATER REVIEW:

When you combine the best of Ingmar Bergman, Stephen Sondheim and South Coast Repertory, the result can be glorious. It certainly is in the case of SCR’s season-opening production of “A Little Night Music.”

Dressed to the nines and in superlative singing voice, this “Night Music” fairly flows through the theater, buoyed by some immaculate performances and backed by a deliciously unobtrusive onstage orchestra. The people at South Coast Rep. don’t often do musicals, but when they do, they do them right.

Drawing its story from Bergman’s movie “Smiles of a Summer Night,” this comedy of romantic foibles set in early 20th-century Sweden revolves around a midlife lawyer and his much-younger bride — with whom he has yet to consummate the 11-month-old marriage. Fortunately, an old flame still flickers in the person of a celebrated actress whose touring show has just arrived in town.

The actress, however, also has a sometimes lover — a ballistic military officer with a hair trigger both in and out of the bedroom. And he has a semi-understanding wife, who’s an old school chum of the virgin bride.

Director Stefan Novinski assembles all these diverse elements beautifully in a production as attractive as it is enjoyable, thanks to Sibyl Wickerscheimer’s scenic design and Shigeru Yaji’s elegant costumes. Maestro Dennis Castellano conducts the orchestra upstage left, insinuating the music into the action as smoothly as the five-person chorus, which handles the introduction and transition duties skillfully.

Stephanie Zimbalist, continuing a long family tradition, is a complete triumph as Desiree, the actress with the active love life. Her barbed quips are among the evening’s treasured lines, and she delivers the well-known solo “Send in the Clowns” more as an actress than a polished singer, which further enhances her character.

As the frustrated attorney, Mark Jacoby delivers a pleasingly understated interpretation of a man who’s slowed down a bit but yearns to remain in the game. Carolann Sanita — a lovely, doll-like actress — revels in her naivete as his virginal bride and stirs the forbidden passion of her stepson, a seminary-bound bundle of repressed hormones played with gusto by Joe Farrell.

The storming trooper, who makes no secret of his duplicity at home, is staunchly enacted by Damon Kirsche. Amanda Naughton is a gem as his long-suffering wife who launches her own ill-conceived offensive.

I first saw Teri Ralston as the young ingenue in a Laguna Playhouse production of “The Fantasticks” (I won’t mention the year). At SCR, she’s matured into the role of Madame Armfeldt, Desiree’s mother and wheelchair-bound matriarch, who recounts her colorful past in a splendid solo, “Liaisons.” It’s a terrific performance by an actress (still a Laguna resident) with many original productions of Sondheim shows in her repertoire.

Misty Cotton’s bawdy wench of a maid is a particular delight and the choral quintet — Christopher Carothers, Karen Culliver, Kevin McMahon, Ann Marie Lee and Tracy Lore — enhances the show with melodic zeal.

Musically, the SCR production glides smoothly under Castellano’s baton and Ken Roht’s skillful choreography. Ensemble numbers such as “The Glamorous Life” and “A Weekend in the Country” are staged beautifully and imaginatively.

“A Little Night Music” will have you humming “Send in the Clowns” all the way to your car. It’s a glorious evening of all-too-rare musical theater at South Coast Repertory.

 Powerful comedy in ‘House of Blue Leaves’

The term “black comedy” gained prominence in the 1960s and ‘70s, and John Guare’s breakthrough play “The House of Blue Leaves,” first produced in 1971, could be the poster child for the genre.

It’s highly, even infectiously, comedic to be sure, yet four of its characters are dead at the final fadeout, and their demises are not pretty. It’s a testimony to Guare’s skill and perception that the grotesqueries are smoothly blended with guffaws.

The Newport Theater Arts Center is mounting a rare revival of “House of Blue Leaves,” and it delivers with both comic and tragic barrels. Director Michael Ross has selected an extraordinary cast well-versed in ironic comedy to bring this multiple prize winner back to life.

Set in a chilly Queens, N.Y. apartment, on Oct. 4, 1965 — the day the pope visited New York — Guare’s play focuses on Artie Shaughnessy, a zookeeper with visions of becoming a hit songwriter. Trouble is, most of his melodies sound vaguely like other songs that have become classics.

Artie (Robert Fetes) also has woman trouble — in two doses. His wife, appropriately named Bananas (Harriet Whitmyer) is a major head case with just enough smarts to gum up Artie’s plans. His mistress of two months (Kip Hogan) is a corpulent and caustic cutie who’ll sleep with Artie any time but won’t cook for him until after they’re married (“I want to save something”).

Artie also has a son (James Barrett) — an AWOL anarchist bent on greeting the pope with a homemade bomb. Throw in a big-shot producer, a deaf movie star and three star-struck nuns, and you’ve got a real bag of mixed nuts.

Fetes delivers a knockout performance, bolstered by a strong singing voice that conquers his a capella moments beautifully. Composed of equal parts ambition and frustration, the character is multidimensional and Fetes scores on all levels.

Hogan’s forceful, brassy Bunny Flingus is a richly comedic interpretation, constantly prodding Artie to better himself and use his Hollywood connection to escape his urban prison. Whitmyer also is excellent as Bananas, the pathetic nutty wife who vies for Artie’s attention by imitating a dog and inhabits her semi-catatonic character superbly.

James Barrett has some splendid moments as young Ronnie Shaughnessy, flashing a fiendish grin as he fashions his explosive tribute. Lori Kelley glistens as Corrinna, the stunning but vacuous one-picture movie star rendered deaf by an explosion in that film.

The three nuns — Kathleen Fabry, Roxanne Martinez and Karina Farah — are something of a collective add-on to the plot, but Fabry’s Irish authoritarian and Farah’s cutesy naivete serve the action well. Daniel Lucero completes the picture as a grieving Hollywood producer and Artie’s one-time neighborhood chum, while Hal Golson and William Rumold perform surprising walk-on assignments.

The complicated apartment setting — with its various doors, windows and hallways — is nicely executed by designer Bill Cole and builder Larry Shaughnessy. Mitch Atkins’ lighting and Ron Yee’s sound designs also contribute splendidly.

“The House of Blue Leaves” may belong to the last generation, but it retains much ironic humor for the current one.

WHAT: “A Little Night Music”

WHERE: South Coast Repertory Segerstrom Hall, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

WHEN: Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m., Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., weekend matinees at 2:30 p.m. and Sunday evenings at 7:30 until Oct. 7

COST: $35 - $70

CALL: (714) 708-5555

WHAT: “The House of Blue Leaves”

WHERE: Newport Theater Arts Center, 2501 Cliff Drive, Newport Beach

WHEN: Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m. until Oct. 14

COST: $15

CALL: (949) 631-0288

TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews appear Thursdays.