I saw Bridges of Madison County this weekend. I am a big fan of Jason Robert brown, I always have his music somewhere in a play list but like the rest of his shows I'm just never crazy about sitting through the plays his music finds itself in. Bridges was a bit of an endurance race, I mean crawl, for me. While the melodies and orchestrations were at times transcendent, the actual songs, especially the lyrics were never able to lift a Life Time movie script above the fray. Would love to see him go back to the drawing board with a new book writer and create a two character song cycle for two voices and chorus. Something like a musical "Love Letters". Spend more time letting us know why this guy would fall for such a sad sack. Make some interesting observations about the essence of love and attraction. Oh gosh the staging only added to the morose. I will say that I began to get somewhat engaged late in the game during the double funeral scene and what followed. The song structures started to become interesting and the pace quickened. I will buy the CD - and that does not mean it should win any awards - the true success of a score is how well it compliments the whole. As a member of the team collaborating how could he let the rest of what happened, happen? Dear God what a sad little musical. It's hard to recommend this to anyone but a Broadway regular or a Harlequin romance reader. No doze anyone?
Up In One
