With Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music back on Broadway, and the legendary Elaine Stritch having joined the cast as Madame Armfeldt, the New York Times looks at the women to have taken on the iconic role; the Times also profiles the small London theater where this revival began. The San Jose Mercury News calls the cast album "extra-clear and intimate." The BBC Proms celebrates Sondheim's music this Saturday; The Times of London calls him "the man who has revolutionised the musical ... sardonic, jaded—and touched with genius."

Natalie Merchant brought her Leave Your Sleep tour to the Chicago Theatre for what the Chicago Tribune calls an "uplifting show," in which Merchant's "multimedia presentation enchanted with childlike wonder and wide-eyed imagination." The Tribune cites her "refreshing enthusiasm and approachable demeanor" and, most important, her "tender, intimate voice."

Audra McDonald performs in the Aspen Music Festival's Season Benefit this weekend. Her performance at The White House's A Broadway Celebration airs October 20 on PBS; she'll be on PBS again November 24, when Great Performances airs Lincoln Center's Stephen Sondheim: The Birthday Concert. "The brilliance of Audra McDonald," says the Boston Globe in a review or her recent Tangelwood recital, "is not just her ability to move through" the many styles comprising musical theater, "but that one never notices the change of channel."

Punch Brothers' US tour takes them far north to the Alyeska Resort in Alaska this weekend. The Huffington Post compares the band to the Beatles as artists who "redefine a genre of music for the ages," calling Chris Thile "a compositional genius" and saying all five band members "play with an energy and a passion of trailblazers." Billboard says the band "is building a case for bigger fame" with their new album, Antifogmatic.

Natalie Merchant's summer tour continues this week, as she and her eight-piece band head to Philadelphia, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis. Merchant will sign copies of her new album, Leave Your Sleep, at Borders in Chicago on Thursday. The Chicago Sun-Times says the album "is as gorgeous as it is ambitious ... Leave Your Sleep reawakens the soul to the spirit of poetry."

Laurie Anderson played the fourth and final concert in her brief tour with music from her album Homeland at The Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia, on Friday. The Washington Post calls Homeland "one of her best ... more contemplative, as well as prettier than Anderson's best-known work." She will sign copies of the new album at Other Music in New York City on Wednesday.

The new film I Am Love, featuring the music of John Adams, has now opened in movie theaters across the US, with still more to be added in the coming weeks. The Huffington Post says that wonderful as it is, what "was truly powerful was the music used in the film." The Arts Desk calls the soundtrack album "an excellent single CD introduction to one of our greatest modern composers," complete with "impulsive, inventive and melodically rich post-systems gems."

Performances of the Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music resume on Broadway, with Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch taking on the roles originated in the revival by Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury. The San Francisco Chronicle describes the play as "an irresistible waltz through some of Sondheim's most memorably melodic songs" and gives "wild applause" to the cast album featuring Zeta-Jones and Lansbury, calling it "a treasure."

On the latest edition of NPR's All Songs Considered, host Bob Boilen and his regular cast of contributors sort through the "crush of great new music" coming out this summer, choosing "some of the upcoming albums they're most looking forward to." Robin Hilton, the show's producer, chooses Familial, the forthcoming debut solo album from Philip Selway.

The film I Am Love features the music of John Adams, which plays an important role in the "sumptuous, operatic, and swooning" film, says NPR's Fresh Air. Director Luca Guadagnino "suffuses everything with beauty, be it Yorick Le Saux's fluid cinematography, the richly textured music by John Adams or the outfits especially designed for Swinton by Jil Sander and Fendi." Variety features an article about the director's love of Adams's music. The Epoch Times praises the soundtrack as a "collection of some powerful music by an important voice in American music."

The Punch Brothers played the "American Roots, New Shoots" series at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah, New York, this past weekend, in a mini-festival showcasing "new perspectives on traditional American music." The New York Times describes the "supremely entertaining" show as "cleverly splintered and episodic, with touches of breathless emotion and ... humor."

Drowned in Sound gives Laurie Anderson's new album, Homeland, an 8 out of 10, citing its "glittering 11-minute centrepiece, ‘Another Day in America,'" featuring her male alter ego, Fenway Bergamot, as exemplary of Anderson's ability to address challenging subjects with wit. Homeland, the review concludes, is ultimately "a record made up of journeys, through poetry, morality, America, through sound itself."