Brigadoon to be revised, revived? — Page 2

By resolving the Harry Beaton problem at the end of Act I, Lerner didn't leave himself much to work with in Act II.

Except he doesn't resolve the Harry Beaton problem at the end of Act I. It ends with him disrupting the wedding, telling everyone that he will leave the town and destroy the miracle.

Act II opens with the chase scene where they all try to stop him before he crosses the bridge.

I think there's plenty of plot in Brigadoon. That's like saying there's no plot in Our Town or Meet Me in St. Louis.

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Oops, best12, you're right, of course! I put the chase ballet on the wrong side of the act break. (I must have assumed for a moment that all de Mille ballets go at the end of Act I.)

Putting the sequence back where it belongs doesn't add to the plot, but it certainly does make Act II a little less empty.

As for OUR TOWN, its intricacy of character has no equivalence in BRIGADOON; while ST. LOUIS has plot that unrolls in an episodic fashion (I have to admit I know it from the film), as characters fall in love a little more slowly. But maybe if I had seen either as often as I have seen BRIGADOON, I'd be equally impatient.

That said, nobody MAKES me revisit BRIGADOON. I go because I love the score.

To me, Come to me, Bend to me is one of the prettiest melodies in musical theatre

My only exposure to Brigadoon was from a one-hour TV adaptation from around 1960 (I think) starring Robert Goulet and Shirley Jones. I thought it was wonderful, but I couldn't figure out how it would fare as a full-length show as I appreciated the tightness of it. I'm sure this rewrite will do some good things for the show, then. Also, Rachel Rockwell's work is usually wonderful, especially on big musicals like this.

Sally Anne Howe.

Oops, my apologies to Ms. Howes, whose talent I've always been a fan of. She was perfect for the role of Fiona.
Why they cast Cyd Charisse and turned a glorious singing role into a mostly danced role in the MGM film really puzzles me.
Of course even the great Gene Kelly was miscast in that movie.

Sorry, frontrow, but when you explain it, Tommy's departure doesn't make any more sense to me. If Brigadoon is just a dream, why not enjoy it until he wakes up?

Yes, if we step out of the show for a moment, I can understand why a stranger doesn't want to throw away everything and everyone he knows after a single day in town. But if we step back into the show, it was Tommy's own idea in the first place! And after a single walk on the hill!

How has Harry's death changed Tommy's mind? Harry ran away because he was forced to spend eternity without his one true love, but Tommy has found his love in Brigadoon. Why is Jeff's opinion suddenly so important?

I'm not opposed to fantasy, especially in musicals, but BRIGADOON is a fantasy that invents itself as it goes along, so the premise remains pretty thin. ("True love is the greatest miracle of all", indeed!)

To me. Of course, you and others are entitled to feel differently. As I said, none of the book problems keeps me away from the score; but nor does the score blind me to the dead spots in between numbers.

Apparently, I've tipped a sacred cow here. Not to worry, BRIGADOON has been around for 65 years or more; nothing I say is going to stop it (or me from attending).

I apologize, Joe, I didn't mean that post the way it sounded.

I thought we'd reached the point where anything additional I wrote might be argumentative rather than enlightening. So I tried to acknowledge your post with a light quip about tipping sacred cows.

Which apparently came across as condescending instead. I am very sorry.

Obviously, some of us find the book thin while others think is substantial enough to support the glorious score and heartfelt romance. And we'll all be in the same line when tickets go on sale.

Okay, here's the song list, courtesy of IBDB:

ACT 1
Once in the Highlands
Brigadoon
Down on MacConnachy Square
Waitin' For My Dearie
I'll Go Home With Bonnie Jean

Okay, we're almost halfway through the act and none of the leading characters has sung a song. Instead we've heard not one but two vocal "prologues", and three numbers that are gorgeous but do nothing dramatically except establish the atmosphere of Brigadoon and introduce the subplot couple who have no conflict between them.

(ETA best12bars corrects me below and points out that I assigned "Waiting for My Dearie" to Jeannie instead of Fiona. So a major character DOES have a traditional "I want" song early in the first act where such songs normally occur. I appreciate the correction, but I don't think it changes my basic argument that BRIGADOON is mostly color and very little action.)

The Heather on the Hill

Essentially, the action begins here, as Tommy and Fiona are falling in love.

The Love of My Life

Comic relief "in 1": typical of the 1940s and I think the song is very funny, but it's a diversion from, not a furthering of, the plot.

Jeannie's Packing Up
Come to Me, Bend to Me

An entire song about packing. Do I really need to continue my argument? And, yes, Charlie's song is breathtaking, but it's not as if there's any doubt Jeannie is going to "bend."

Almost Like Being in Love

OK, I'll overlook that this was an obvious stab at a pop hit, because it does show Tommy and Fiona growing closer and that's at least a tiny advance in the action.

The Wedding Dance
The Sword Dance

More local "color" and a cliffhanger announcement that Harry has run away! No other action.

ACT 2

The Chase

Best spectacle in the show and, when staged well, thrilling.

There But For You Go I

To me, the loveliest song in the score, and Tommy decides to stay in Brigadoon, so let's give this scene its due.

My Mother's Weddin' Day

See Meg's song in Act I. Still cracks me up, but the plot goes nowhere.

Funeral Dance

More color and atmosphere. No action.

From This Day On

Now for some reason that frontrow understands, Tommy all of a sudden starts taking advice from Jeff. I've never seen a production where this made sense to me except as a device to get Tommy out of Brigadoon and extend the story to full length.

But Tommy and Fiona part, so there's a plot step here.

Come to Me, Bend to Me (Reprise) Fiona MacLaren
The Heather on the Hill (Reprise) Fiona MacLaren
I'll Go Home With Bonnie Jean (Reprise) Charlie Dalrymple
From This Day On (Reprise) Tommy Albright and Fiona MacLaren
Down on MacConnachy Square (Reprise) Townsfolk

In fairness, Tommy's return to Brigadoon makes more sense to me that his leaving in the first place, perhaps because this scene reminds us how well the Brigadooners all sing! The scene is short enough, however, that frankly I forget that six months are supposed to have passed. To me, Tommy seems to be popping back and forth across the Atlantic like a marionette.

Finale

To sum up, great score. (What a shame that Fritz Loewe preferred casinos and women to writing music!) But when all but two numbers in Act I are devoted to characters who do basically nothing, and the other two numbers are given to two of the thinnest characters in musical theater history (Tommy and Fiona), I think the book is "slight" at best.

P.S. My husband still talks about a production in the round that he saw in the 1960s, which he claims is one of the most exciting evenings he has ever spent in a theater. So maybe we should think of BRIGADOON more as we think of opera: phenomenal music and great spectacle, so who cares if the libretto is slight?

Updated On: 2/1/13 at 10:03 PM

As for the "realism" of Tommy going back to NY when he loves Fiona, I think he behaves completely "realistically" in this fantasy scenario.

He has known Fiona for exactly one day. Forget the fantasy part that he's trying to accept that she's from a town that existed 200 years ago.

How many people do you know who have thrown their entire lives away (knowing they'll never see them again) in favor of a new life with a person they've known for less than 24 hours?

His doubt and his return to NY are absolutely truthful responses.

EDIT: I'm also beginning to think the people criticizing the structure and story of this show have never seen a decent production of it. It's a difficult musical to pull off. If the cast's acting (not singing, but acting) isn't first-rate, it doesn't work. They have to believe in the "magic" of this story themselves, or the audience will never buy into it. The challenge is up on stage first, or the suspension of disbelief is too much to expect. But I can tell you if/when you do see a really good production of it, there is definitely "magic" in it. I count it as one of the most powerful stage musicals I've ever seen. (And it was a local production that did it for me.)

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Updated On: 2/1/13 at 07:32 AM

Best12, you are absolute right, as usual: I overlooked "Waiting for My Dearie". It isn't action, but it is exposition and comes at the point where musical theater characters normally sing such songs. My bad and thank you for the kind correction.

Frankly, in my mind I gave that song to Jeannie. Which makes no sense now that you correct me, but it's indicative of how thin the characters are to me. Except for Meg's two comic relief numbers, most of the songs could be sung by anyone, as far as I'm concerned. (For the record, I've seen the show at least 10 times, the last time about a year ago. Have I ever seen a first-rate production? Perhaps not.)

I want to compare BRIGADOON to OKLAHOMA! here, but I suppose the latter is the gold standard and any comparison would be unfair.

Yeah. Brigadoon is from an era where the rules were different. Where structure meant less than "overall feel," and when music still trumped book unequivocally.

It's always interesting when you look at a show and realize how not "well-made" it is. For instance, "The Wizard of Oz." Last musical number in the whole thing is "King of the Forest," which comes near the start of Act 2. After that it's all book until the end. Not even a finale save an orchestral underscore, and no curtain song.

darquegk---I think Wizard of Oz was a groundbreaker for many reasons, especially since it did in 1939 exactly what Oklahoma! did on the stage three years later: all songs and dances must advance the plot or develop the characters or both.

If they didn't, they were cut.

Wizard of Oz actually had three musical numbers filmed and then cut after King of the Forest. Two were reprises (Over the Rainbow, sung by Dorothy in the Witch's castle, and Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead, which was a big triumphant procession after they returned to the Emerald City. The other number was the big song/dance "The Jitterbug." They also cut the extended Scarecrow's dance because it slowed the story down and wasn't needed for balance. (Each of Dorothy's three friends gets something "extra" as they enter the story. The Scarecrow has his song, but he is also in the story the longest and has the most screen time. The Tin Man gets an added dance that wins over the hearts of the other two and they decide to invite him along while he's dancing, and the Lion, who has the least amount of screen time, gets his own separate number, If I Were King of the Forest. That was all done for balance of the three main supporting characters.

But the Wizard of Oz pretty much turns into an action movie after they are sent by the Wizard to kill the Witch. Any song or dance at that point would seemingly slow the action down and lessen the urgency of what they were trying to do, and that's why they were edited out.

I love that it leaves the structure sort of off-balance (after balancing much of the earlier journey so well). It makes things seem more unexpected and less planned out. Some of my favorite musicals do the "unexpected" rather than the expected (well, I guess we better sing or dance about something now, or I guess we better stop and do some talking now).

Two other great examples of odd structure are 1776, where 40 minutes go by in the middle of Act I without a single number (during the first big continental congress scene), and An American in Paris, where there is no spoken dialogue or song for the last 22 minutes of the film. The entire story is resolved in the dream ballet, followed by a short scene with no dialogue. The end.

Gav, it's funny how you mention some of these "thin" books that actually happen to be some of my favorite librettos ever written for musical theatre: Guys and Dolls, Kiss Me Kate. Brilliant stuff. To each his own, I suppose. I find few today that match them. Most don't even come close.

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Updated On: 2/2/13 at 06:34 AM