Through Sat 10/31
A winsome and beautiful ghost, a very real little girl (quite bratty at times), and charmingly upbeat servants highlight the Great Lakes Theater’s The Secret Garden, currently at PlayhouseSquare’s Hanna Theatre. The musical, featuring just as much misery as the theater’s other production this season, King Lear, has a much better resolution. The Secret Garden continues through 10/31 (good Halloween matinee choice for a favorite youngster?).
If you’ve forgotten the magical book that inspired this heart-warming musical, it might be a good idea to reread The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett before you go. (There’s a free copy online at Google Books.) I wish I’d read it again just before I went because although I knew the general premise, I had trouble making sense of the opening dream sequences.
The story takes place when the British Empire still ruled much of the world. Young Mary Lennox, who knows nothing but life in India, must move to Misselthwaite Manor in Yorkshire when cholera kills her parents and all their household. Her new home, ruled by her distant, often absent, Uncle Archibald Craven (a stern, suffering Stephen Mitchell Brown) has had no joy since her Aunt Lily died. Gradually Mary finds the house’s secrets: a garden, a sickly cousin and a friendly robin — and in so doing, greatly improves her lot and that of others.
And all takes place under the watchful, loving presence of dozens of ghosts, most especially the loving Aunt Lily (the beautiful Jillian Kates). Kates’ lyric and lovely voice enhances every scene she’s in as she watches over her grieving husband and the son who never knew her.
The two children in starring roles really are children, but their vocal polish and acting chops belie that fact. As Mary, 11-year-old Giovanna A. Layne makes us feel she truly is a self-centered brat and this makes her gradual transformation into a lovable young person all the better. Warren Bodily makes us believe he is the sickly cousin Mary finds confined to his bedroom and his joy at the story’s conclusion is infectious.
Also outstanding are the Yorkshire help: Dickon (the engaging, friendly Colton Ryan) who shows Mary how to hear what the birds say and how to work in a garden and, most important to Mary, the kind maid Martha (the super-sweet Sara Masterson) who teaches Mary how to live without servants and (most importantly) how to laugh.
Laura Perrotta as a very, very strict guardian and Tom Ford as the scheming Dr. Neville Craven provide just the right touch of indifference to childish feelings. They make the plight of our Mary seem dire.
Direction by Victoria Bussert brought out the pathos and the joy inherent in the story. Choreography by Gregory Daniels (especially the Indian dancing) and a small but mighty orchestra directed by Joel Mercier added splendid color and life. Book and lyrics are by Marsha Norman with music by Lucy Simon.
Bottom line: It was a glam evening full to the brim with story and delight. The only negative is my own fault: I’d imagined a delightful garden would appear in the final scene — video projections, a pot plant, something? — but the only garden was in my imagination. Perhaps, after all, that should be enough.
Cleveland, OH 44115