Video: See Ruthie Ann Miles and Kerstin Anderson Sing 'Every Day a Little Death' From A Little Night Music

Tony Award winner Ruthie Ann Miles has become something of a Stephen Sondheim aficionado. While reclining on the coach at the Playbill office, she spots a throw pillow displaying six of Sondheim's shows: "I did the top three. I love this," she exclaims: Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park With George (both on Broadway), and, currently, A Little Night Music. Those plus the revue Sondheim on Sondheim makes the current Lincoln Center concert production of Night Music her fourth Sondheim show. "I want to do all of them," she remarks.

Above, see Miles and Kerstin Anderson sing "Every Day a Little Death," accompanied by Josh Kight on piano, in an exclusive performance for Playbill. A Little Night Music in Concert is running at Lincoln Center June 27–29.

While A Little Night Music is Miles' fourth Sondheim show, it is Anderson's first. At least, her first complete one; as Anderson says, "I sang selections from Sunday in the Park With George in front of the painting [A Sunday on La Grande Jatte] in Chicago."

Proclaims Miles, impressed: "It counts, it counts, it counts."

But for both of these actors, it will be their first time (along with many others) singing this particular version of A Little Night Music. The concert—which also stars Cynthia Erivo, Marsha Mason, Susan Graham, among other Broadway stars—is the first time audiences will hear Little Night Music played by a staggering 53-piece orchestra. EGOT winner and frequent Sondheim collaborator Jonathan Tunick re-orchestrated the show's score to expand it from 25 pieces to 53. So fans can hear new, sumptuous versions of favorites such as "The Glamorous Life," “The Miller’s Son," and, especially, "Send in the Clowns." John Doyle also provided a revised book, with some cuts to speed the action along to keep the focus on the songs.

Jason Gotay, Kerstin Anderson, Ruthie Anne Miles, Shuler Hensley, and Marc Bruni Paul Aphisit

READ: Inside Orchestrator Jonathan Tunick's Project to Make Sondheim's Scores Sound Bigger

Talking to Miles and Anderson on June 26, it's only been three days of rehearsal—they haven't even sung with the full orchestra yet. But already, this process has given them a new appreciation for the show.

For Miles, not being familiar with Night Music aside from the songs, it's made her realize just how many complex female characters there are in the show (and they each get an iconic song).

"As a young woman, you can follow one female-identifying part and travel through a whole life," explains Miles. "They can start as Fredrika. They could also then take their career to Petra. They can take their career to Anne. Then they can make their career as Charlotte. Then they could make their career as Desiree. Then they could play Madame Armfeldt." She then adds, marveling, "[Sondheim] wrote very complex, very fleshed-out, full characters, especially for women." As part of her prep for the performance, Miles watched the 1955 Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night that the musical is based on.

Anderson hasn't seen the show live, though she did go to the New York Library for the Performing Arts to see the 2011 revival of the musical starring Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch. In the show, Anderson plays Anne, a young, starry-eyed newlywed, who is given a reality check by Miles' Countess Charlotte, whose husband cheats on her and who is longing to be seen in her marriage again.

"This process has been wonderful in getting inside of the music in a way that I haven't done before," says Anderson. "It just combines two things that [Sondheim] does so beautifully: the witticism of all the lyrics, but then also the gut-wrenching—like 'Every Day a Little Death,' it just speaks to the pain and the heartache of being a human and of love. It's the bouncy, witty lyrics and the, like, ouch!"

Miles chimes in, "And the actual heartbreak of what is happening, the underbelly of every single character."

Nods Anderson, "It's really remarkable. It's remarkable."

A Little Night Music in Concert will be directed by Marc Bruni. Josh Prince will choreograph. It will include vocal direction by Rob Berman, lighting design by Ken Billington, and sound design by Dan Moses Schreier. The associate producer is Michael Harrington, and the consulting producer is Ted Chapin. A Little Night Music In Concert is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International.

Visit ALittleNightMusicConcert.com.