Song of the Day: The Glamorous Life

I just recently finished a production of A Little Night Music at Light Opera Works here in Chicago. I played Bertrand (a servant) and also understudied the role of Henrik. It was a good experience and it marked my first professional show in Chicago post graduation. I will be doing The Pirates of Penzance with them at the end of the year and I look forward to working with the company once again. It's no secret that Sondheim is my favorite composer and his work on A Little Night Music is some of his best (I think it would be impossible for me to rank his scores). But strangely enough one of the best songs from the show was cut early in the process. It was titled The Glamorous Life and was to be sung by Fredrika, Desiree's somewhat abandoned daughter. The song is a pretty emotional one expressing feelings of abandonment and depression, laced with sympathy and Sondheim's characteristic wit. The song was obviously cut for pacing purposes, as it doesn’t fit with the flow of the show. It also would have given Fredrika and Desiree's relationship a much darker edge that would not have necessarily fit with the broad comedic strokes already at play. Regardless of that though, the song is a beauty and lucky for everyone that Audra McDonald has made it a staple of her concert career singing it quite frequently. Here is her beautiful rendition of the song that she sang at a concert on New Years Eve a couple years ago. Enjoy.

Note of Interest:  The song WAS included in the dreadful 1977 film version of A Little Night Music.