Broadway Across America: ‘The Bridges of Madison County’
‘Bridges of Madison County’ ravishing, beautiful
“The Bridges of Madison County” is a book beloved by hopeless romantics and derided by those who are allergic to mushy sentimentality, even though they would probably never deign to read it in the first place. The novel’s reputation precedes it.
Broadway’s musical adaptation, with a touring producing that opened Tuesday, Feb. 16, at ASU Gammage in Tempe, doesn’t exactly overturn that reputation. Yet it has a lot more to offer than just the wistful gooeyness inherent in its story about soulmates who discover transcendent love, but maybe (you already know the answer, don’t you?) too late.
Chief among the musical’s virtues is one of the most lushly gorgeous scores in the history of the genre, written, along with the lyrics, by Jason Robert Brown of “The Last Five Years” fame. Brown draws on a variety of styles, not willy-nilly but thoughtfully, even meticulously. Indeed, the entire production is an unshowy triumph of painstaking craftsmanship.
On a plain stage dominated by a windgnarled tree, the show opens with the lonely low moan of a single cello as our heroine, Francesca (Elizabeth Stanley) sings of her life as an Italian war bride in the American heartland in “To Build a Home.” As more and more instruments join in the song, that home begins to take form, with cast members pushing set pieces together to create a humble kitchen in a humble small town in 1965.
While Francesca’s aching arias are operatic, a nod, perhaps, to her origins in Naples, the music shifts to folksy acoustic guitar to announce the arrival of her soon-to-be lover, Robert (Andrew Samonsky), a National Geographic photographer and “old soul” loner. He’s looking for directions to one of the area’s famed covered bridges, and Francesca, with her husband and two children away at the national 4-H fair, doesn’t so much throw caution to the wind as merely nudge it aside to climb into his pickup.
The dramatic beats of their ensuing affair, a gentle sort of whirlwind romance, are fairly predictable, but then this incarnation of “Bridges” does something surprising, overlaying the central story with glimpses into the lives of Francesca’s family and neighbors.
This plays out literally onstage. While Francesca tells Robert about her family, those characters walk into the kitchen for a flashback that takes place simultaneously with the intimate conversation. When the lovers share their first kiss, nosy neighbor Marge crosses right in front of them with a laundry basket before interrupting them with an untimely phone call.
At one point, the new-minted couple lounge alone in bed yet surrounded by the unseen figures of the other people in Francesca’s life.
The evocative staging underlines the choice that she faces, between the life she has built for 18 years and a new one that would require her to leave all of that behind. Thus “Bridges,” in the hands of Brown along with book writer Marsha Norman and (original) director Bartlett Sher, becomes a meditation on human connection: on one hand, the deep, mystical merger of souls that we all dream of deep down, and on the other, the ordinary, sometimes inconvenient bonds that make up our real lives.
Filled with rich, flowing ballads, “Bridges” is far from the whiz-bang bombast of most Broadway shows, but Brown and company things up with occa- Reviewed Tuesday, Feb. 16. Final performances 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 21. Where: ASU Gammage, Mill Avenue and Apache Boulevard, Tempe.
Admission: $25 and up.
Details: 480-965-3434, asugammage.com. sional comic relief and musical detours. There’s a toe-tapping country song at the 4-H fair as well as a roof-raising gospel tune, and the actress playing the frumpy Marge (Mary Callanan) surprises us by giving voice to a jazzy dance number on the radio. All three are standout moments, yet there’s no doubt that the main attraction here is the gorgeous singing of the two leads.
In the 2014 Broadway production, Kelli O’Hara earned rave reviews as Francesca in a performance that was sheer perfection. It would be impossible for Stanley to top it, but she comes close, acting with nuance and singing in crystalline soprano – and, in a rarity in musical theater, sticking with her Italian accent when she does. Samonsky’s warm tenor and subtle twang is a perfect match for his character. It’s a tribute to these actors’ talent, as well as to Brown’s, that their voices blend so seamlessly in their duets.
It all adds up to a ravishingly beautiful musical that, as it winds toward its bittersweet climax, just might coax a tear or two from the most cynical antiromantics in the audience.
Reach the reviewer at kerry. lengel@arizonarepublic.com or 602-4444896. Follow him at facebook. com/LengelOnTheater and twitter. com/KerryLengel .