The Metropolitan Musical Company of SA Inc. The Arts Theatre. 9 May 2013
Every so often it is important to take Brigadoon out of mothballs and remember why it is kept in mothballs. It's because it is a quaint old period piece with one good song and a fair few dirges. The cast has to assume Scots accents and tartans. And, there are lots of bagpipes.
It's not an easy show to mount or to do well. Hence, its notorious nick name of "Bridge of Doom". The Met, however, has braved it. They have filled The Arts Theatre's pit with a very nice orchestra indeed, under the baton of Gordon Combes. This strength underscores the show with some solid class.
Brigadoon is a 1947 Lerner and Loewe confection, touted as "a beguiling Scottish musical” and its rather sweet love story is adorned by masses of choral and choreographic enhancements.
It is a show very much of its time.
Some of the songs are dirge-like and some fairly bland and formulaic. One suspends all disbelief as one watches the fantastical time warp tale of two New York tourists toting guns through the Scottish Highlands, presumably stalking deer. Minus the guidance of ghillies, they stumble into a village which, under a witch's curse inflicted in the 1700s, may come to life just for one day every 100 years.
When the show was first produced, there was some kerfuffle about this concept being taken from European folklore. Interestingly the recent Adelaide Festival show, from Edinburgh, The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart, ventured into a similar theme - an annual Devil's night in the Borders. Who knows? There may be magic out there. But not in this production.
The talented Leonie Osborne has directed The Met's revival most valiantly. Despite sturdy stalwarts such as Barry Hill, it is hard to rally a high proficient cast of such grand scale on the amateur stage and this one is patchy, albeit hard-working, likeable and good-spirited. Its members are clad in assemblages of tartan that would turn a Highlander pale, the company excusing its improvisations as lack of availability of the real thing. The mustard and poo-brown outfits of the American interlopers are plain strange - as is the rather clunky set whence one can't help but see the cast coming and going from the wings.
The show's season has time to run so first night nerves will wear off and the ensemble will grow snappier with their cues. The big strength of the production lies in the principals - the very lovely soprano, Elizabeth Riley totally enchanting in the lead as Fiona MacKeith and the delightful tenor, Daniel Fleming, positively charming as Tommy Albright. They most ably manage to hold up the big numbers, among them ‘Almost Like Falling in Love’, which emerged from the early Broadway and West End seasons of the show to become a popular standard.
There's some good choral work, too. But, in the end of the mythical day, Brigadoon's mothballing should align with its plot.
Samela Harris
When: 9 to 18 May
Where: The Arts Theatre
Bookings: metmusicals.com.au
