Peters, Stritch deeply interesting in 'Night Music'

It is possible to fantasize more perfect re-castings than Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch as mother and daughter in Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music."

But I can't begin to imagine more deeply interesting ones. (Neither could Stephen Sondheim, whose idea this was.)

And that's more than enough for another trip to the Walter Kerr Theatre, where two of Broadway's most gifted, genuinely beloved veterans have succeeded Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury in last season's revival of Stephen Sondheim's wicked and gorgeous 1973 musical about sophisticated liaisons in a luxurious 19th century Swedish night.

Of course, Trevor Nunn's production is just as visually drab, skimpy and underwhelmingly cast. And, even with the introduction of two more galvanic Sondheim masters, the musical splendor remains muted by another of those scandalously reduced orchestras that Broadway producers try to pass off these days as innovation.

Still Peters fits exquisitely into the toughening but still luminescent skin of Desiree, the world-wise actress who discovers that an old love (the dashing Alexander Hanson) brings new vulnerability. Where Zeta-Jones' portrayal, for which she won a Tony, had the swagger of a slightly vulgar dancehall girl, Peters builds delicately and wittily on her own theater persona-a mature woman (in terrific voice) who knows when to recall and when to forget the old kewpie doll adorableness. And though I prefer "Send in the Clowns" with its sardonic distance, a weeping Desiree does have startling honesty.

Then there is Stritch, amazing at 85, cast wildly against type as the aging high-class courtesan. Where Lansbury played her imperiously dry and delicious, Stritch creates an eccentric, poignant, hard-boiled American-the sort of tough broad who attracted more men and riches with smart drollery than shrewd coquetry. Stritch - with her comic mouth and serious eyes - had a few hesitant moments with her lines at Saturday's matinee, but she talk-sang "Liaisons" with impeccable rhythmic and emotional timing.

Peters has not been in a Broadway show since 2004. Stritch hasn't been near one since 2002. The show's best-known lyrics ask about "losing my timing this late in my career." These two have hardly missed a beat.