Civic Theatre of Allentown presents the Lehigh Valley premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music,” May 5 - 21, Nineteenth Street Theatre, 527 N. 19th St., Allentown.

In conjunction with its production of Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music,” Civic Theatre of Allentown presents “Sondheim: A Celebration,” 7:30 p.m. May 7, Nineteenth Street Theatre.

“A Little Night Music,” directed by Civic Theatre of Allentown Artistic Director William Sanders, celebrates the 50th anniversary of Sondheim’s “masterpiece in three-quarter time.”

Sondheim created his tour de force when he took the Ingmar Bergman comedy of manners, “Smiles of a Summer Night,” and turned it into an elegant musical in which he wrote the majority of the music in waltz time (three-quarter time).

The musical is best known for the haunting standard “Send in the Clowns.” The title of the musical is a translation of the German name for Mozart’s Serenade No. 13, K. 525, “Eine kleine Nachtmusik.”

The musical opened on Broadway in 1973 and was the winner of four Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Score. It had a Broadway revival in 2009 and was made into a film starring Elizabeth Taylor in 1977. The vocally-demanding show is considered an operetta and has often been done by opera companies.

The story follows the romantic lives of several couples. Fredrik Egerman (Todd Rizzuto) is a widowed middle-aged lawyer who has remarried 18-year-old Anne (Malana Wilson), who is reluctant to be intimate with her husband.

Fredrik’s son Henrik (Anthony Rizzuto) is sexually-repressed but attracted to Anne, as well as Anne’s flirtatious maid Petra (Miki Fuentes).

Madame Armfeldt (Pat Birnbaum) is a former courtesan whose daughter Desiree (Julia Urich) had once been involved with Fredrik and is lover to the married Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm (Will Morris), who flaunts his infidelities to his wife (Cheryl Moritz). Desiree has a daughter Fredrika (Annie Hotz), who may be Fredrik’s child.

The cast includes Jadaline Fontanez, Harrison Denithorne, Bowie Green, Mark Shoemaker, Veronica Cummings, Kate Varley, Sebastian Paff, Carole Silvoy and Jaedon Muhl.

Civic Theatre offers a pay-what-you-can performance May 18.

“A Little Night Music,” 7:30 p.m. May 5, 6, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20; 2 p.m. May 7, 14, 21, Civic Theatre of Allentown, Nineteenth Street Theatre, 527 N. 19th St., Allentown. Tickets: 610-432-8943; https://civictheatre.com/

Civic Theatre of Allentown’s “Sondheim: A Celebration,” 7:30 p.m. May 7, Nineteenth Street Theatre, remembers Sondheim, who died in 2021.

Sondheim is known for writing the music and lyrics for the iconic Broadway shows, “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” “Into The Woods,” “Company,” “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “ Follies,” “Merrily We Roll Along” and “Sunday in the Park with George;” as well as writing lyrics for “West Side Story” and “Gypsy.”

Sondheim won eight Tony Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Tony in 2008; an Academy Award, eight Grammy Awards, an Olivier Award, a Pulitzer Prize, a Kennedy Center Honor and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. There are theaters named for Sondheim on Broadway and in the West End of London.

Members of the Civic Theatre Company present an evening of selections from Sondheim’s shows spanning his nearly seven-decade career in a 90-minute concert.

The evening will include a special announcement about programming at Civic’s Theater514.

The one-night-only event is directed and musically directed by company members Rebecca Pieper, Kate Pistone, Melisa Klausner and Nina Elias.

Performers include Bob Trexler, Julia Urich, Malna Wilson, Mason McGowan, Miki Fuentes, Patrick Mertz, Rowan Huggins and Ryan Doncsecz.

The performers are accompanied on piano by Lucille Kincaid and percussion by Brandon Pieper.

“Sondheim: A Celebration,” 7:30 p.m. May 7, Civic Theatre of Allentown, Nineteenth Street Theatre, 527 N. 19th St., Allentown. Tickets: 610-432-8943; https://civictheatre.com/

“Curtain Rises” is a column about the theater, stage shows, the actors in them and the directors and artists who make them happen. To request coverage, email: Paul Willistein, Focus editor, pwillistein@tnonline.com