Some productions earn a return, and this one did. Cape Town Opera’s A Little Night Music sold out performances and sent audiences out telling everyone who had not yet been. Weekend Special called it ‘a multifaceted gem of music and theatre alike’. It comes back for those who missed it, and for a good number who want to see it again.

Set in Sweden in the early 20th century, the story turns on the actress Desirée Armfeldt and the tangle of people orbiting her: Fredrik Egerman, a former lover now married to a much younger wife who will not go to bed with him; Anne, said wife; and Count Carl-Magnus, a jealous dragoon currently involved with Desirée. A weekend at Desirée’s mother’s country estate brings them all under one roof, where misunderstandings multiply, old feelings resurface, and several people arrive at the sharp realisation that they have wanted the wrong thing for years.

The score is the reason it lingers. Sondheim took his title from Mozart and wrote almost every number in triple time, so the whole evening moves with the lilt of a long waltz, elegant on the surface and wistful underneath. Harold Prince, who directed the Broadway premiere, described the show as “whipped cream with knives”, which remains the best four words anyone has found for it. Nowhere is that truer than in ‘Send in the Clowns’, sung by a woman who has finally understood the cost of her own timing. Second chances are the subject of the show; this is yours.