Kelli O’Hara and Patrick Wilson in Lerner & Loewe’s Brigadoon
Come ye from the hills, come ye from the mills; come all ye bairn and men from the West Side, the Village, the suburbs and points further if you can make it over the weekend. Brigadoon, that magical musical about that magical village in the Highlands of Scotland, is at City Center as an addition to the regular Encores! season. One of the very finest musicals of Broadway’s so-called golden age—fitting in line, chronologically, between Carousel and South Pacific—Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner’s Brigadoon is considerably less visible nowadays. This is a delicate fantasy filled with heavy-stepping dance, and unless those elements are handled skillfully (read magically) the show can appear a twee tired. At City Center, thanks to the ministrations of Christopher Wheeldon (of An American in Paris) and a knockout singing and dancing cast, magical is the word.
High among the numerous attractions of the evening is—no surprise here!—the voice and acting and all-round presence of Kelli O’Hara as Fiona MacLaren, the lass who’s patiently waiting for her dearie. (Don’t let “dearie” induce a fear of quaintness; there’s nothing of the sort on view.) O’Hara is her usually perfect self as she unfurls a string of golden songs. She also seems fresh and refreshed; unlike South Pacific or The King and I, Brigadoon has five main characters—so Kelli can charm her way through without having to carry the entire evening. Playing opposite her, as the wearily-unsettled American Tommy Albright, is Patrick Wilson. He appears to have forsaken musical comedy since his auspicious contributions to The Full Monty and the 2002 Lincoln Center Oklahoma! His voice, though, easily and rapturously scales the Loewian heights. Hearing Wilson and O’Hara sing “Heather on the Hill” and “Almost Like Being in Love” and “There But for You Go I” is musical theatre nirvana.
Aasif Mandvi offers strong support in the non-singing comedy role of Jeff, Tommy’s sardonic fellow traveler; and Stephanie J. Block rocks the house as Meg Brockie, Brigadoon’s one-woman welcoming committee. Lerner gives her two rollicking comedy songs, one about her adventurous love life and the other about her parents’ drunken wedding, and Block belts them to City Center’s top balcony. (Block is very good throughout, although one wonders if her character’s stage time has been trimmed.)
Aasif Mandvi and Stephanie J. Block in Lerner & Loewe’s Brigadoon
Most remarkable—at least, if it weren’t for O’Hara and Wilson—is the Harry Beaton of Robert Fairchild. The longtime New York City Ballet star proved his Broadway mettle as the lead in An American in Paris. In Brigadoon, the spurned-in-love Beaton doesn’t sing; but he dances, and how. Fairchild presents an anguished, tortured soul, fitting equally well in 1750 Scotland and modern Manhattan. The dancing, as devised by Wheeldon and executed by Fairchild, tears up the stage with stark emotionalism. Fairchild—who gives a fine acting performance as well—is joined by a large dance corps, featuring extra special work from Patricia Delgado as his dance partner and in the solo “Funeral Dance.” The results can bring a gulp to the throat: so this is how dance revolutionized the Broadway musical at mid-century. (Agnes de Mille, of Oklahoma! Carousel and Brigadoon, is given title page credit although it is unclear if any of the evening’s work—the “Sword Dance,” say—retains her steps.)
Present the original score intact and as written, and you can appreciate the full glories of Loewe’s work. He was a meticulous composer, very much in control of all musical aspects. Under Rob Berman’s typically expert hand, everything comes powerfully through from the orchestra (playing Ted Royal’s original orchestrations) and the singers. And while many current-day revivals see fit to toss the old dance arrangements so as to allow today’s choreographers to have free reign (or something to that effect), Brigadoon demonstrates just how thrilling it can be when the choreographer works from the originals. (These seem to have been a collaboration of Loewe and Trude Rittman; the composer took credit for the excellent vocal arrangements, but there was no dance credit). Everything musical, here, sounds glorious. What’s more, Lerner’s comedy comes across with a light touch. The pair’s later opus, My Fair Lady, will be on display at Lincoln Center Theater in March.
Robert Fairchild in Lerner & Loewe’s Brigadoon
“What a night this has been, what a rare mood I’m in!” ticketholders will most assuredly enthuse as they float out of City Center in the mist, “why it’s almost like being in love.” Being in love with the Broadway musical, that is.
The Encores! production of Lerner & Loewe’s “Brigadoon” opened November 15, 2017 and continues through November 19 at City Center