{"id":237210,"date":"2014-10-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-03T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/martin-and-brickells-bright-and-charming-star\/"},"modified":"2014-10-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-10-03T07:00:00","slug":"martin-and-brickells-bright-and-charming-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/martin-and-brickells-bright-and-charming-star\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin and Brickell\u2019s bright and charming star"},"content":{"rendered":"

World premiere musical is based on true events<\/strong><\/p>\n

Charlene Baldridge<\/p>\n

The Old Globe assembles a solid company directed by Walter Bobbie for the world premiere of Steve Martin and Edie Brickell\u2019s original musical, \u201cBright Star.\u201d The production plays through Nov. 2 on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage, best known as the Old Globe Theatre. This review is based on the invited press performance of Sept. 27.<\/p>\n

\"Carmen<\/a>
Carmen Cusack as Alice Murphy and Wayne Alan Wilcox as Jimmy Ray Dobbs in the world premiere of\u00a0Bright Star. (Photo by Joan Marcus)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Martin\u2019s heartfelt book is based on a true incident, and as they say, truth is stranger than fiction. The co-written music is awash in country and bluegrass, so much so that at the evening\u2019s end one feels as if one had been to Branson or the Grand Ole Opry. Part of Eugene Lee\u2019s facile set is a rustic, rolling bandstand containing most of the nine-member orchestra, dressed as citizens and led by Music Director Rob Berman, who is also the vocal arranger.<\/p>\n

The sweet story\u2019s drawback (one might call it treacle if one enjoyed it less) is its transparency. Once the first act\u2019s set up, numerous intertwined characters in two separate decades (1923 \u2013 24 and 1945 \u2013 46) is delivered, it\u2019s likely that the astute onlooker has guessed the rest. All that remains is to poke one\u2019s seatmate and say, \u201cSee? I told you so.\u201d This is not to say the show should be coy about its denouement or should be changed. Its unsophistication is part of its charm, but will it survive Broadway?<\/p>\n

Perhaps the story is as honest and refreshing, as dark and light as its engagingly earnest, mostly fully fleshed characters steeped in the world of Eudora Welty and Carson McCullers. This is a land where villains are unusually devious and one\u2019s social improprieties are public knowledge. This is especially true in Hays Creek and Asheville, North Carolina, where the action is set.<\/p>\n

\"A.J.<\/a>
A.J. Shively as Billy Cane in Steve Martin and Edie Brickell\u2019s Bright Star, a new American musical. (Photo by Joan Marcus)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A brief chamber music prelude, brilliantly written, sets up the possibility this could be a tragedy. Debarking the train at Asheville in his unadorned WWII private\u2019s uniform, 22-year-old Billy Cane (A.J. Shively) has miles to go before he arrives home to reunite with his father (Stephen Bogardus), to tell him of his decision to become a writer. Beloved of Margo Crawford (Hannah Elless), who runs the local bookstore in their hometown, Billy soon departs for Asheville, where he aspires to be published in the prestigious Asheville Southern Journal, run by the no-nonsense Alice Murphy (Carmen Cusack).<\/p>\n

The 1923 \u2013 24 plot involves Alice\u2019s romance with Jimmy Ray Dobbs (Wayne Alan Wilcox), son of corrupt and over-protective Zebulon mayor Josiah Dobbs (Wayne Duvall), who thinks he knows what is best for everyone. Five additional actors \u2014 Jeff Hiller, Kate Loprest, Stephen Lee Anderson, Patti Cohenour and Libby Winters \u2014 portray magazine staff and family members, all of whom are given full character and in some cases even a song. These, plus an ensemble of 11 and the two-era action provide a complex situation and a dizzying array of characters whose motivations are not always clear. It\u2019s almost \u201cThe Winter\u2019s Tale\u201d of musical theater.<\/p>\n

\"SSDN<\/a>Virtues: the singing, particularly that of Cusack, who moves easily from uptight, demanding boss to girl in love. Her voice has a slight country bleat, excellent tone and diction. The others are all better than adequate, with Hiller providing needed comic relief. The drawback: Most of the 17 songs, which include solos, duets and ensembles, sound alike.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the show\u2019s got heart. In addition to Lee\u2019s ingenious set, other assets include Jane Greenwood\u2019s costumes, Japhy Weideman\u2019s lighting, Nevin Steinberg\u2019s coherent sound design, and Josh Rhodes\u2019s choreography. Despite their frequent travels the orchestra apparently has a great time. Peter Asher is musical supervisor and August Eriksmoen orchestrator.<\/p>\n

\u2014Charlene Baldridge has been writing about the arts since 1979. Her book \u201cSan Diego, Jewel of the California Coast\u201d (Northland Publishing) is currently available in bookstores. She can be reached at charb81@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

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World premiere musical is based on true events Charlene Baldridge The Old Globe assembles a solid company directed by Walter Bobbie for the world premiere of Steve Martin and Edie Brickell\u2019s original musical, \u201cBright Star.\u201d The production plays through Nov. 2 on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage, best known as the Old Globe Theatre. […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":237211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Martin and Brickell\u2019s bright and charming star","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}