AWARD-WINNING professional soprano and actress Michelle Todd will play the lead role of Desiree Armfeldt in York Musical Theatre Company’s production of A Little Night Music.
Michelle is the key piece in the casting jigsaw for director Paul Laidlaw’s 40th anniversary celebration of the West End premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s most popular musical, and the spring production comes in the wake of Disney’s new film version of Sondheim’s Into The Woods.
“Michelle has worked with Paul professionally in the past and her casting is an exciting announcement for the company,” says publicist Anna Mitchelson, who will play Countess Charlotte Malcolm.
Born and raised in Nottinghamshire, Michelle studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and has performed as soprano soloist in London’s major concert halls and for BBC Radio 2’s Friday Night Is Music Night.
She has appeared in West End productions of Sondheim’s Follies at the Shaftesbury Theatre, The Sound Of Music at the Apollo Theatre and HMS Pinafore at the Old Vic and has worked extensively in the Middle East, North America and Canada, as well as teaching singing at the Mount Royal Conservatory.
Last summer, she was a guest soprano for a gala concert with the Scarborough Spa Orchestra, when she met Paul Laidlaw, the orchestra’s conductor and director, for the first time.
“We had just finished rehearsing Sondheim’s famous song Send in the Clowns, from A Little Night Music, when Paul asked if I had ever performed the role of Desiree. I wistfully admitted that it was on my dream wish-list,” says Michelle.
“So you can imagine how thrilled I was when Paul invited me to join him and the York Musical Theatre Company for their production. It is a show with romance, great charm, humour and truly glorious music.”
A Little Night Music will run at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, from March 18 to 21.
“The show is grand in every sense of the word from the moving and dramatic score to the lavish period Edwardian costumes,” says Anna.
Sondheim’s musical first opened on Broadway in 1973 and won countless Broadway awards that year including six Tony Awards. Its West End premiere came in 1975 and Dame Judi Dench played the lead in the National Theatre’s celebrated revival in 1995.
• Tickets cost from £16 on 01904 623568 or at yorkmusicaltheatrecompany.org.uk
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