THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 13, 1994 TAG: 9410130047
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, THEATER CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines
A SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS fantasy with lassies a-leapin' and a bagpiper a-pipin' is the fourth season opener for Commonwealth Musical Stage, an outfit that has turned audiences' craving for musicals into one of the area's most pleasing and surprising theatrical success stories.
It was inevitable, given CMS' apparent headlong rush to do EVERY classic Broadway hit that it would eventually try ``Brigadoon.'' The risk, though, is not minor. This is a heavy dance show, and this company has traditionally been strong in vocals and orchestrations and weak in acting and dance.
Happily, the ominous challenge of recreating the Agnes de Mille choreography has been met. The company's managing director, Jeff Meredith, has wisely chosen a choreographer, Donald Brenner, to direct the production. The result is a seamless merging of dance with music in the true tradition of the genre known as ``musical play.''
Led by an agile Kent R. Collins, who does the famous sword dance and works overtime throughout Act I, the dancers fare well in creating a Scottish idyll. There are several conventional, if pleasant, maiden round dances. More distinctive, and demanding, is the tense chase in the forest that opens Act II. With torches flaring, it is fiercely dramatic. The funeral dance, with the dour bagpipe in the background, brings an ominous feel to the proceedings. Collins is quite grand in the sword dance.
The company produces its usual fine vocal renditions. The chorus is unusually well-rehearsed. William Broderick is in fine voice, if a little stiff as an actor, as Tommy, the New Yorker who, with his friend Jeff, stumbles on a mythical Scottish village. Having survived ``Dorian,'' the notorious musical version of ``Picture of Dorian Gray'' in New York, he has easy going here and is especially reflective with ``There but for You Go I.''
He falls in love with a winsome local lassie, played with lyrical soprano grace by Mary Grace Gordon, who scored earlier as Anna in the company's ``The King and I.'' As written, this role is more regal than warm. It is perhaps a product of the script that ``Brigadoon'' is more charming for its mood than for its storytelling ability.
The mood is one of plaid fantasy, ably suggested by a likeably down-to-earth contribution from Bill Barnard as Mr. Lundie, the local soothsayer. It is he who is saddled with the longish exposition in which we learn that the village of Brigadoon comes to life only one day every 100 years and that it will vanish forever if any resident leaves. Love, though, can conquer any mere miracle. The plot is from ``Germelshausen, an 1862 German story, and was a bit much to buy even in post-World War II, when this musical was first produced.
But no matter, the score has enough lilting qualities to sweep us along with it. Broderick and Gordon soar with the familiar ``Almost Like Being in Love'' and ``The Heather on the Hill.''
As comic relief, though, Marya Spring is no relief in her role as a loose lassie who seems obsessed to the point of near-nymphomania with bedding the visiting Jeff. Her renditions of ``The Love of My Life'' and ``My Mother's Wedding Day,'' meant to be raffish songs, are more monotone croaks. She is not the only one to become overly obsessed with the ``brrrrrs'' of Scottish brogue. Some of the accents are indecipherable. David Frisinger, as the New York sidekick who remains skeptical about the whole Brigadoon myth, has some of the funnier lines and lets them work for themselves.
Collins, while a fine dancer, steps flagrantly out of character for an early folk dance in which he drops his character's surly exterior. After the happy-time number, he steps back into the role, but the inconsistency is diverting.
This is one of the more handsome productions of CMS' history. The costumes, by Page McGrath and the production design, credited to Ernest W. Schmidt, are colorful and devoid of the garish Broadway look that sometimes afflicts this production. It is always difficult to know, though, what has been rented and what has been created. In any case, this is a fine-looking show.
The Virginia Beach Symphony Orchestra is one of the largest ensembles any musical play could possess. This is a much larger orchestra than in most Broadway pits. Musical Director David S. Kunkel pleasingly defers to the singers, who are also aided by an amplification system that makes them heard, even if in strangely varying degrees. It seems that they occasionally move closer to hidden microphones, and we suddenly get a rush of more sound.
No one expects innovation from a production of ``Brigadoon.'' Our greatest hopes would be a production that can make us feel comfortable and allows us to relax and revel in this familiar score. This is amply supplied. This ``Brigadoon'' firmly testifies that Commonwealth Musical Stage has matured in its theatrical craftsmanship. As a kilted Highland flinger, this one is a highly pleasant evening. ILLUSTRATION: THEATER REVIEW
What: ``Brigadoon,'' a musical presented by Commonwealth Musical
Stage. Music by Frederick Loewe and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Who: Directed and choreographed by Donald Brenner, featuring
William Broderick, Mary Grace Gordon, David Frisinger, Marya Spring,
Kent R. Collins, Jennifer L. Wilkins, Bill Barnard
Where: Virginia Beach Pavilion Theater
When: Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m., Sunday at 2
p.m.
Tickets: $15-$30, available at the box office or all branches of
First Virginia Bank of Tidewater. For information, call 340-5446
by CNB