Taking the leap into the timeless (with tartan): Brigadoon at NUOVA Vocal Arts, a review

If it takes a village to stage any Golden Age Broadway musical, consider the case of Kim Mattice Wanat’s production of Lerner and Loewe’s 1947 Brigadoon, the finale of this year’s NUOVA Vocal Arts Festival. The 37-performer cast I saw Wednesday night at the Orange Hub is one of two. And that, my friends, is a veritable World Cup of tartan (costume designer Viola Park).

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Ah, a village…. Brigadoon takes us, along with a couple of New Yorkers on a hunting holiday, right off the grid, to an enchanted 18th century Scottish town that rises from the mists of time, singing and dancing, once every hundred years for one day. Waste no time on the math — or, for that matter, on making sense of a set-up with such convoluted rules it requires an entire character (the village sage Mr. Lundie played convincingly by the newly retired Shadow Theatre artistic director John Hudson) to explain them, before intermission. In this early career hit by the legendary pair of creators, pre-masterworks like My Fair Lady, Lerner’s book is messy, not to say bonkers. And it unravels more and more in Act II.

The NUOVA production doesn’t re-work the original, as Shaw Festival and English revivals have done recently, in order to reference wartime trauma, and the eternal yearning for an peaceful, timelessly retro life. Nope, they’re New Yorkers with rifles slung over their shoulders, who happen upon a charming village that’s opted for collective escapism pending an invasion by witches in 1746.

Concentrate instead, as Mattice Wanat’s production does, on the singing and dancing. Loewe’s ultra-romantic, lush Brigadoon score, brimming with melodies that are now, understandably, classics (Almost Like Being in Love, The Heather on the Hill, Come to Me Bend To Me  among them). And savour, too, choreography by Courtney Arsenault, which salutes the distinctive work of the original choreographer star Agnes DeMille in balletic dance and Celtic-infused dance numbers.

Brigadoon, NUOVA Vocal Arts. Photo by Nanc Price.

NUOVA is designed as a showcase for emerging musical theatre artists from across the country. And among the cast are some lustrous, operatically powerful singers (musical direction by Ryan Sigurdson). When Tommy (Travis Edwards), yearning for love notwithstanding a fiancée back home, and his wry, cynical pal Jeff (Liam Sievwright in a droll, breezy performance) find themselves in Brigadoon, it’s on a wedding day. Charlie, played by a particularly  lustrous-voiced Leo Sigur (I’ll Go Home With Bonnie Jean), and Jean (Charley Fruition) are about to tie the knot. Tommy instantly falls in love with the sweetly grave village maiden Fiona, played by Lauren Reisig who has a soaring crystalline operatic soprano. And when it comes time to depart, Tommy is loathe to return to his old life, unlike Jeff, who’s had an acrobatically comical scene resisting the forceful advances of Meg. She’s the town good-time gal, played by Maya Wright, who has one of those Merman-esque sharp-edged musical theatre voices (My Mother’s Wedding Day).

The outsiders don’t seem particularly amazed by their adventure off the map (Americans making concessions for the weirdness of Scotland?). Jeff assumes he’s having a booze-assisted dream. The thud of emotional reality comes via Harry, a villager furiously disaffected by losing his fiancée to the groom-of-the-day. And Matthew Sabrissa captures his dangerous edge, and takes it into a sword-dance (choreographed by Dawn Moss) that’s one of the show highlights. Another is a funeral ballet, beautifully performed by Alexandra Woodley as grief-stricken, spurned Maggie, when Harry meets his end trying to flee Brigadoon. That’s another rule: strangers can leave; if a paid-up citizen tries to check out, though, the town will disappear forever.

John Hudson, centre, in Brigadoon, NUOVA Vocal Arts. Photo by Nanc Price.

You can see why Brigadoon, famous tunes notwithstanding, isn’t performed a lot. Its moments are scattered. With its ensemble production numbers, involving a lot of gathering and village commerce and bustle, it has an operetta feel. And although Leon Schwesinger’s two-tiered set, lighted glowingly by Ken Matthews, is stylized and simple, there’s a lot of shlepping of set pieces on and off the stage, often in black-outs between scenes. A day in the life of Brigadoon has its longueurs. And any vivid sense of individual characters doesn’t have much of a chance to emerge.

But, hey, the performers, the next generation of musical theatre triple-threats, are here to deliver big songs and dances. That they do, to a lush orchestral soundtrack. And, in an age battered by strife, violence, social discord, the idea of a romantic fantasy bubble created and maintained by true, deep, abiding love, is more seductive than ever. We’re all on the rebound.

REVIEW

Brigadoon

Theatre: NUOVA Vocal Arts

Created by: Frederick Loewe (music) and Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics)

Directed by: Kim Mattice Wanat

Choreographed by: Courtney Arsensault

Musical direction by: Ryan Sigurdson

Where: Orange Hub, 10045 156 St.

Running: through Sunday

Tickets: nuova.bespoketicketing.com in advance, or rush tickets at the door