Stephen Sondheim (22 March 1930 – 26 November 2021) is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in 20th-century musical theatre. As both composer and lyricist, he redefined the American musical through works marked by wit, emotional depth and musical sophistication. Beginning his career as lyricist for West Side Story, he went on to create at least 16 full-length musicals — winning an Oscar, eight Grammys, five Olivier Awards and a Pulitzer Prize — and pushing the genre into bolder, more complex territory. 

The century leading up to the period in which A Little Night Music is set was one of enormous change in Sweden. In the early 19th century, Sweden remained a largely rural, agricultural society. As mid-century reforms allowed for increased private land ownership, communal labour became less necessary and many people moved to towns and cities. A series of poor harvests and a struggling agrarian economy prompted more than a fifth of the population to emigrate during the latter half of the century. 

The musical draws on the conventions of farce. Eighteenth-century French farce was immensely popular in Sweden and its exaggerated characters and improbable situations influenced both Ingmar Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night and Sondheim’s adaptation. Yet in A Little Night Music, comedy is not driven by the farcical situations alone. Instead, the real engine of the plot is the folly of the characters’ approach to love — their longing, indecision and misplaced desire — rendered with Sondheim’s trademark elegance and insight.