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"Who wants to live in New York? Who wants the worry, the noise, the dirt, the heat? Who wants the garbage cans clanging in the street? Suddenly, I do!"—Stephen Sondheim, "Opening Doors" (from "Merrily We Roll Along")Whenever show folks address the subject of moving to New York, there's a tendency to emphasize the negatives, the challenges, the warnings. Unless you've been living under a rock, you know New York is expensive, competitive, and can really take it out of you; that only a naive and foolish actor makes the move expecting to earn a living; and that the transition—adjusting to the constant schlepping, the crowds, the weather—can be notoriously hard.But there's another side to the story, a side that emphasizes the adventure, the excitement, and the love affair that stage actors have with the city that is, inarguably, our mecca, a beacon that draws us from all over the world.

Leigh Ann Larkin, Ramona Mallory and Erin Davie attending the 12th Annual Broadway Barks! Adopt-a-thon in New York City.Photo copyright by Sylvain Gaboury / PR Photos. Tony Goldwyn attending the 12th Annual Broadway Barks! Adopt-a-thon in New York City.Photo copyright by Sylvain Gaboury / PR Photos. Hunter Ryan Herdlicka attending the 12th Annual Broadway Barks! Adopt-a-thon in New York City.Photo copyright by Sylvain Gaboury / PR Photos. Bernadette Peters and Mary Tyler Moore attending the 12th Annual Broadway Barks! Adopt-a-thon in New York City.Photo copyright by Sylvain Gaboury / PR Photos. 07/10/2010 - Corbin Bleu - 12th Annual Broadway Barks! Adopt-a-thon - Arrivals - Shubert Alley, Between West 44th and 45th Streets - New York City,...

Catherine Zeta-Jones has won over theatre critics with her Broadway debut in A Little Night Music, but it was her co-star Angela Lansbury who stole the show as the "real jewel" of the musical.

The Welsh beauty stars alongside veteran actress Lansbury in the Stephen Sondheim play, which opened in New York's Walter Kerr Theatre on Sunday.

Zeta-Jones has been applauded by trade paper Variety as "bewitching, confident and utterly natural" in her portrayal of middle-aged actress and seductress Desiree Armfeldt, with writer David Rooney adding, "She breathes a refreshing earthiness and warm-blooded sensuality into the part."

The Hollywood Reporter notes her "beautiful" vocals and "terrific stage presence", while Newsday calls the Chicago! star "earthy and poignant".

But reviewers saved their highest praise for Lansbury, whose performance as Zeta-Jones' mother, Madame Armfeldt, has been branded "the production's real jewel" by Variety's Rooney, while USA Today called her portrayal "incandescent".

The Hollywood Reporter's Frank Scheck writes: "Lansbury uses her well-honed theatrical instincts to perfect effect as Madame Armfeldt, generating huge laughs with her expert delivery of the character's piercing comic barbs."

However, the musical's younger stars, Ramona Mallory and Hunter Ryan Herdlicka, have not fared so well - the Associated Press refers to the actress as "particularly grating", while Herdlicka, as the lawyer's repressed son Henrik, is "close behind".

But the youngsters' performances have done little to detract from A Little Night Music's overall review, under the direction of Trevor Nunn.

The Hollywood Reporter says, "Whatever its flaws, it's nonetheless a welcome return of a show."

A Little Night Music was last seen on Broadway in 1974.

When Hunter Ryan Herdlicka steps on the stage of the Walter Kerr Theatre later this year to make his Broadway debut as the comically depressive seminary student Henrik in a revival of "A Little Night Music," his first song will be "Later," a lament for passions postponed. But nothing is postponing Herdlicka's career. His appears to be one of those rare cases of instant show-business success.He graduated with a Bfa in drama/musical theater from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University earlier this year, and after his college showcase he signed with Dgrw, a boutique talent agency in New York. He moved to the city in late summer and began preparing for a role in "The Greenwood Tree" at the New York Musical Theatre Festival. About two weeks later, he was cast in "A Little Night Music," in which he'll share the stage with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury.Herdlicka knows...