Here's a juicy tale to tell.

Attorney Fredrik Egerman is married to virginal Anne, but they've yet to consummate their relationship after a year together. Fredrik's son Henrik, a divinity student, is in love with his stepmother. A frustrated Fredrik turns for comfort to Desiree Armfeldt, an actress and his former lover. She, however, is having an affair with the very jealous Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm. The Count has an angry wife.

	Matt Polk Robert Newman, best known for his long stint on "Guiding Light," steps out in the role of Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm. Click photo for larger image. "A Little Night Music" Where: Pittsburgh CLO at Benedum Center, Downtown. When: Opens Tuesday; Tues.-Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 and 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. Tickets: $20 to $50; www.pittsburghCLO.org or 412-456-666.

And in this case, the Count is Robert Newman, known to legions of soap opera fans as Joshua Lewis, the flawed hero of CBS's long-running daytime drama "Guiding Light."

Newman is making his Pittsburgh CLO debut Tuesday in Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music," a sophisticated musical comedy based on Ingmar Bergman's only movie comedy, "Smiles of a Summer's Night." It garnered six Tony Awards when it opened on Broadway in 1973 and many Sondheim fans count it among their favorites.

"Carl-Magnus, he's a pompous ass," said Newman, who was looking for a role diametrically opposed to what he is used to playing. "I wanted to do something completely not Josh."

Newman's appearance here -- and a stint last year as Guido Contini in "Nine" at the North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Mass. -- mark his return to musical theater, where his acting career first began two decades ago in college and immediately afterward.

In short order, though, Newman landed the "Guiding Light" role and, between work, marriage and children, found himself doing less singing.

"Somewhere in the mid-'80s, I stopped singing," Newman said. "Then, about 10 years ago, I started slowly but surely doing vocal work again."

Last year, he was finally ready to try the musical stage once again.

"I was purposely looking for something to do," Newman said. "I went to my producers and said, 'I need to get away. And I think I want to do a musical.' "

A colleague told him about the role in "Nine," which was being directed by Barry Ivan, who also is directing CLO's production of "A Little Night Music." Ivan and Newman had met years earlier, and the director remembered that the two had discussed doing a musical together. He put Newman through his vocal paces and cast him.

"I felt pretty good with 'Nine.' It was like putting on a really comfortable old shoe. It felt good to be on stage. It felt good singing on stage. It was a really nice to be stepping back into a musical."

Newman's decision to go back to his roots marks "a recommitment I'm making to the world of theater. It's essential as an actor."

In the case of "A Little Night Music," the draw was Sondheim, who turns 75 this year. Newman is a longtime Sondheim fan.

"I'm really jazzed about it. Just memorizing the lyrics has been a real journey," said Newman, who began several months ago memorizing dialogue, learning lyrics and shaping his character in advance of rehearsals, which began last week. (CLO casts typically rehearse one week before a show opens.)

"It stretches me as an actor, so when I get back to 'Guiding Light,' I'm coming in with fresher eyes all the way around."