BRIGHT STAR coming to Broadway

[WayTooBroadway]

Posted: 6/16/15 at 10:05am

Bright Star, a musical by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, aims for Broadway after stop in DC: http://nyti.ms/1J1OHQu

[GreasedLightning]

Posted: 6/16/15 at 11:04am

This sounds like it could be wonderful!

[Kad]

Posted: 6/16/15 at 11:39am

I loved Martin's score for As You Like It in the park a few years ago, so I'm excited to see what he does with an actual musical.

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 6/16/15 at 11:49am

The music is great. The problem is with the book.

[Mystic Pasta]

Posted: 6/16/15 at 12:13pm

I had a chance to see this at the Old Globe.  I thought the entire premise would have been better served as a play.  There are lot of beautiful songs but the songs don't move the book forward.  The score basically repeats what happens in a book scene but in a singing form.  Tedious and overwrought is how I would describe Bright Star.  It has flickers of charm but mostly you want it to wrap up more quickly.  It reminded me of Ghost Brothers of Darkland County.  Good music but not something you want to listen to more than once.

[ChiTheaterFan]

Posted: 6/16/15 at 12:16pm

The article mentions book revisions and continuing development work. Do those who have seen it think the book problems are fixable? I'm intrigued and I love this style of music. It would be nice if they can improve the book. 

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 6/16/15 at 12:34pm

I saw the reading at Vassar a few years back. I do not think the book problems are fixable as the problem is just the story. It's not a particularly musical story. Mystic Pasta's observation about the San Diego production seem in line with that, as well.

[ChiTheaterFan]

Posted: 6/16/15 at 12:53pm

Bummer. Well, sounds like the music is good so maybe this falls into the category of shows I'll see if I get the chance but with low expectations for the story. 

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 6/16/15 at 1:00pm

Mystic I watched the "sizzle" reel of the Globe production and thought, "Oh, it's Ghost Brothers of Darkland County without murder, mayhem and ghosts!"

Also, I know it's racist to notice there are no black people in the ginormous cast of white people, so I won't mention it.

[Phillypinto]

Posted: 6/16/15 at 1:11pm

They had a nice pull quote from the Times! I hope they can fix the problems!

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 6/16/15 at 1:41pm

I don't remember the time period, but it's set in North Carolina. As if black people didn't live in North Carolina.

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-81541379/

Eta:

Charles McNulty of the LA Times:

"Martin and Brickell's inexperience in writing a musical reveals itself most conspicuously in what they choose to dramatize. The old rule of thumb that showing is preferable to telling doesn't apply in cases of extreme melodrama, and in several instances, it would have been less embarrassing to simply report on what happened, leaving it to our imagination to somehow make the events seem credible and focusing our attention on the emotional fallout of these astonishing developments.

OK, as I have stressed, this is a musical that takes place just after the Second World War, but it might as well have been written at the conclusion of the Civil War. One assumes that this was deliberate, but some of the more farfetched features of the tale could be toned down without the loss of narrative magic."

Updated On: 6/16/15 at 01:41 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 6/16/15 at 1:43pm

Soldier back from WWII (the big one), so, no black people then.