"It's almost like being in love"
With 24-piece orchestra!
Book and Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner Music by Frederick Loewe Original dances created by Agnes de Mille
June 4-12, 2011 At Cahn Auditorium - 600 Emerson, Evanston, IL
As a heavenly mist caresses the highlands of Scotland, two young Americans embark on an adventure they'll never forget. The village of Brigadoon comes to life just one day every 100 years, but that's all it takes for Tommy to fall in love with the fair lassie Fiona.
All you'll fall in love with the lush score, including:
• Almost Like Being in Love • The Heather on the Hill • Waitin' for My Dearie
Ages 8 and older |
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A reason to dance
By Michael Kotze
American stage lore has it the Broadway musical was born in 1866, when a French ballet troupe, stranded after a theater fire caused the cancellation of their American engagement, found employment in a melodramatic spectacular being mounted at Niblo’s Garden, New York’s most lavishly equipped theater, located (you guessed it) on Broadway.
Brigadoon "Balcony Talk"
Join veteran Chicago actor/director David Perkovich for an illuminating, free discussion about Brigadoon.
This free event is offered prior to Brigadoon at Cahn Auditorium in Evanston on these dates:
• Sunday, June 5, 12:45 pm (doors open 12:30) • Saturday, June 11, 6:45 pm (doors open 6:30) • Sunday, June 12, 12:45 pm (doors open 12:30)
No RSVP needed; just attend any talk date of your choice
Press Release
Contact: Christopher A. Riley Director of Audience and Press Services (847) 920-5354 ext. 10 (press only) christopher@light-opera-works.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 5, 2011
LIGHT OPERA WORKS presents BRIGADOON June 4-12, 2011
Evanston, IL: In BRIGADOON, as a heavenly mist caresses the highlands of Scotland, two young Americans embark on an adventure they'll never forget. The village of Brigadoon comes to life just one day every 100 years, but that's all it takes for Tommy to fall in love with the fair lassie Fiona.
The score, by the creators of MY FAIR LADY, includes the Broadway classics "Almost Like Being in Love," "The Heather on the Hill" and "Waitin' for My Dearie."
BRIGADOON is directed and choreographed by Light Opera Works artistic director, Rudy Hogenmiller and conducted by Light Opera Works music director Roger L. Bingaman.
Casting for BRIGADOON includes Robert Hunt (Tommy Albright), Jennie Sophia (Fiona MacLaren), Clay Sanderson (Jeff Douglas), and Maggie Portman (Meg Brockie).
The design/production team for BRIGADOON includes Nick Mozak (Scenic), Ricky Lurie (Costume), Sienna Macedon (Hair and Make-Up), Charles Jolls (Lighting), Miles Polaski (Sound), Julia Eberhardt (Properties), Katie Beeks (Stage Manager) and Paige Keedy (Production Manager).
The Opening Reception for BRIGADOON is sponsored by Whole Foods Market Evanston.
BRIGADOON is Light Opera Works' first production of 2011. The season will continue with the classic love story THE STUDENT PRINCE (August 18-28), RODGERS & HART: A CELEBRATION (October 2-November 6) and Tony Award winner THE SECRET GARDEN (December 26-January 1).
Discounted season ticket packages are still available.
Ticket prices for BRIGADOON range from $32 to $92. Ages 21 and younger are half price. To order tickets, or for more information, call the Light Opera Works box office at (847) 920-5360 or order 24 hours a day online at www.lightoperaworks.com
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Director/Music Director Biographies
Rudy Hogenmiller (Director and Choreographer) has directed and choreographed many productions for the company including HELLO, DOLLY!, MY FAIR LADY, THE YEOMEN OF THE GUARD, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE, KISS ME, KATE, SOUTH PACIFIC, THE MIKADO and THE SOUND OF MUSIC. He has been recognized with six Joseph Jefferson Awards and 17 nominations for best direction and choreography in Chicago. Hogenmiller has been a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers for more than 25 years.
Roger L. Bingaman (Music Director) conducts the 24-piece orchestra. Bingaman made his first appearance on the Light Opera Works podium in 1997, conducting THE MERRY WIDOW. Since then he has conducted many Light Opera Works productions, including HELLO, DOLLY! CAROUSEL, THE YEOMEN OF THE GUARD and I DO! I DO!, as well as BEAUTIFUL HELEN OF TROY, THE STUDENT PRINCE, SWEETHEARTS, NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY, SOUTH PACIFIC, 110 IN THE SHADE, KISS ME, KATE, BITTER SWEET, OKLAHOMA!, GIGI, IOLANTHE,THE MUSIC MAN, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, MY FAIR LADY, and THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE. Bingaman has been director of the apprentice program and chorus master for the Sarasota Opera since 1998.
Cast Biographies
Robert Hunt (Tommy Albright) appeared as Javert in the 2006-2008 Broadway revival of LES MISERABLES. Other New York credits include JERRY SPRINGER, THE OPERA at Carnegie Hall, and leading the original Off-Broadway casts of BOOBS! THE MUSICAL and HAVE A NICE DAY. Robert toured as Javert in LES MISERABLES, as Smudge in FOREVER PLAID, and with the 2009-2011 Lincoln Center Theater production of SOUTH PACIFIC. He has been seen at the Ravinia Festival, Wolf Trap, Goodspeed Opera House, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, Atlanta Theatre of the Stars, and Barrington Stage Company, where his roles have included Jud Fry in OKLAHOMA! (opposite Kelli O'Hara), the title roles in JEKYLL & HYDE, Whizzer in FALSETTOS, Joe Hardy in DAMN YANKEES, and Jack Seward in the U.S. premiere of DRACULA, A CHAMBER MUSICAL. This is his Light Opera Works debut.
Jennie Sophia (Fiona MacLaren) makes her Light Opera Works debut in BRIGADOON. She has appeared locally in PASSION and HOW CAN YOU RUN WITH A SHELL ON YOUR BACK? with Chicago Shakespeare Theater, CIRCLE OF FRIENDS with American Girl Theater, and as Lilli Vanessi in KISS ME, KATE with Circle Theatre. Her favorite regional credits include BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (Belle), THE SECRET GARDEN (Lily), and FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (Hodel) at the Round Barn Theatre, as well as numerous productions at the Wagon Wheel Theatre, including THE SOUND OF MUSIC (Maria), OKLAHOMA! (Laurey), GUYS AND DOLLS (Sarah Brown), PICNIC (Madge), and the title role in CINDERELLA.
Clay Sanderson (Jeff Douglas) returns to Light Opera Works, where he previously appeared in THE MIKADO. Other credits include NOISES OFF (Theatre at the Center), VOLPONE (City Lit Theater), CYRANO DE BERGERAC, LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, BETRAYAL (Oak Park Festival Theatre), THE WEIR (Seanachai Theatre Company), GUYS AND DOLLS, FOOTLOOSE, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (Wagon Wheel Theatre), THE SHAPE OF THINGS, TWELFTH NIGHT, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST (Festival 56), and KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN (Bailiwick Repertory Theatre). He holds an MFA in Acting from The Theatre School at DePaul University.
Maggie Portman (Meg Brockie) was last seen as Rumpleteaser/Demeter in CATS with Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre. She twice won the Non-Equity Jeff Award for Best Actress in a Principal Role - Musical, in 2010 for her portrayal of Florence in CHESS and in 2009 for Eva Peron in EVITA, both with Theo Ubique. Some of her favorite roles also include Squeaky Fromme in ASSASSINS, and Evelyn Nesbit in RAGTIME, both with Porchlight Music Theatre. In 2005, Maggie co-founded Li'l Buds Theatre Company, a Chicago nonprofit children's theater. She is currently managing director of this Edgewater-based company, which holds classes, workshops, and residencies at Chicago area schools, as well as producing two mainstage shows a year. This is her Light Opera Works debut.
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Light Opera Works is a resident professional not-for-profit theater in Evanston, founded in 1980. The company's mission is to produce and present musical theater from a variety of world traditions. All productions are presented in English, with foreign works done in carefully edited modern translations. Maximum scholarship is employed to preserve the original vocal and orchestral material as well as the spirit of the original text whenever possible. Audiences have come to know that at Light Opera Works they will experience repertoire often unavailable on the stages of commercial theaters and opera houses, in modern productions with professional artists and full orchestra.
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Light Opera Works’ mission is to produce musical theater from a variety of world traditions, to engage the community through educational and outreach programs, and to train artists in musical theater.
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Chicago Sun-Times
June 7, 2011
By Hedy Weiss
Recommended
'Brigadoon' delights in lively revival
In 1946, before that ever-sophisticated Broadway team of Lerner and Loewe collaborated on “My Fair Lady” and “Camelot,” they wrote the gorgeously tuneful musical “Brigadoon,” the story of two disillusioned American guys who head off on a hunting trip to the Scottish Highlands and become strangely lost in a mythical village that appears only one day every hundred years.
The show — part world-weary lament, part adult fairy tale — is about love and marriage in all its guises. And it weaves its particular magic with the help of elaborate dance sequences (originally choreographed by Agnes de Mille) based on traditional flings and country reels, with plenty of kilts, bagpipes, home-brewed whiskey and that “heather on the hill” tossed in for good measure.
Listening to the Light Opera Works revival now at Evanston’s Cahn Auditorium, you might well wonder why this musical is not produced more often. For not only does it have a glorious score (“Almost Like Being in Love,” “From This Day On” and many less familiar charmers), but also it comes with a book that is urbane and cuttingly witty, as well as romantic.
The current revival, directed and choreographed by Rudy Hogenmiller, is beautifully sung, with a large orchestra under Roger L. Bingaman’s direction giving it a deservedly lush sound. But while Hogenmiller’s choreography is first-rate, his direction has a rather wooden, strictly by-the-book quality. It’s not that some radical rethinking of this classic show is needed, but even a slightly more contemporary approach to the sharply written scenes would make it feel fresher.
It all begins as Tommy Albright (Robert Hunt, whose powerful voice rings out in “There But for You Go I”) senses something is wrong with his plans for marriage to a New York socialite and hints at his uneasiness to his pal, Jeff Douglas (Clay Sanderson), a cynic and alcoholic.
While hunting in the Highlands, the men realize they’ve arrived in a place that’s not on any map, though when Brigadoon suddenly emerges out of the mist — and its inhabitants appear in 17th century dress — the two simply assume a local festival is in progress. Only later will they learn about the little “miracle” they have stumbled upon.
One wedding is already planned for this rare day in Brigadoon. It is between the pretty Jean MacLaren (Emily A. Rogers, a lovely dancer) and the lad all the girls adore, Charlie Dalrymple (Brandon Moorhead has the looks of a local golden boy, with a golden tenor to match). Their union is the final straw for Harry Beaton (the physically daring Bobby Johnson), who adores Jean and now feels wholly trapped in the village.
Meanwhile, Tommy meets Jean’s strong-willed older sister, Fiona (Jennie Sophia, a winning actress with a splendid voice), who refuses to settle for just any man. And they have an instant meeting of hearts and minds, though the circumstances for a future are more than a little problematic.
And then there is Meg Brockie (Maggie Portman, who easily lights a fire on any stage). She is hot to snag any man, and seizes on the reluctant Jeff. Portman has especially great fun with the delicious patter song, “My Mother’s Weddin’ Day.”
A number of the character roles are deftly played, as is a bagpipe. Erin Clyne captures the mournful spirit of Maggie Anderson, whose love for Harry is unrequited. The big chase scene, over the craggy landscape of designer Nick Moran’s set, has great energy. And Ricky Lurie’s costumes cover the full spectrum of tartan plaids.
Still, it is hard not to wish this “Brigadoon” had woken up in the 21st century rather than the 20th.
Chicago Theatre Beat
June 5, 2011
By Larry Bommer
The plaid kilts are in full swirl, the tamoshanters twirling, the “rs” rolling, and the heather in full bloom in Rudy Hogenmiller’s ravishing revival of Lerner and Loewe’s early and evergreen hit. A justified hit in 1947, Brigadoon artfully confronted post-war doubts about whether progress was possible: The legend of Brigadoon -- a miraculous Scottish village that escapes the contagion of any century by skipping 100 years with each "day" -- remains a powerful fantasy. Will jaded Gothamite Tommy Albright escape an overwrought era by renouncing New York and his manipulative fiancée for the lovely lassie Fiona who dallies in the merry meadows beyond the heath? You bet your bagpipes.
If the dream isn’t potent enough, Frederick Loewe provides his soft-focus persuasion -- the buoyant "Almost Like Being in Love," the almost folkloric "Come to Me, Bend to Me," the enchanting “Heather on the Hill,” and the melting melody of "Waitin’ For My Dearie." As the cross-century lovers, Robert Hunt and Jennie Sophia really do make beautiful music together. (The singing overall creates two of Light Opera Works’ finest hours.) Given Loewe’s score as much as Lerner’s deft dialogue, their cross-century courtship seems equally factual and fairy tale.
Playing the village Romeo who goes home with Bonnie Jean, eager Brandon Moorhead gamely tears into the Highland flings, Scottish reels and sword dances that embellish Agnes DeMille’s original dances (crisply preserved by director Hogenmiller with zealous accuracy). Indeed, this could be Light Opera Works’ most danced production, with everything but a dream ballet discharging all the energy the townsfolk must release after a century of unintended slumber. Roger L. Bingaman’s superb orchestra captures every nuance of one of Broadway’s unsurpassable scores, a particular blessing when a company like Court Theatre thinks it can reduce Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess to a 5-piece band.
Bringing a rhapsodic myth down to earth are two ribald characters: as Tommy’s cynical companion, a deliciously dry Clay Sanderson delivers a cutting running commentary on the mushier events around him. His deadpan deflations helpfully undercut the tremendous sentimentality of the story and songs. Playing Brigadoon’s official bad girl, Maggie Portman has contagious fun with Meg’s patter songs "The Love of My Life" and "My Mother’s Weddin’ Day." Portman’s superb diction delivers every hilarious line of Lerner’s always sprightly, inventive lyrics. Most remarkable, the Scottish accents convince or, at least, don’t confuse.
Kudos also to Ricky Lurie’s completely convincing Scottish/folk/18th century costumes, accurate to the occasion and even to the clan. Nick Mozak’s simple set, a glen with a mountain backdrop that efficiently allows the town to materialize from the mists, is playfully lit by Charles Jolls -- the village fair or the girls’ dance to “Come to Me” resemble one of Watteau’s fetes champetres. You can’t wait another 100 years to see this too-transient Brigadoon, a dream musical to utterly entrance the summer of 2011.
Chicago Reader
June 9, 2011
By Dan Jakes
The plot doesn’t hold up under scrutiny but, thanks to Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s sweeping score, I couldn’t care less. With the help of rich interpretation from conductor Roger Bingaman, Light Opera Works’s production of the 1947 musical fantasy paints a lush aural picture of the Scottish landscape. Clay Sanderson and Robert Hunt make an amiable pair as two American travelers who stumble upon the enchanted village of Brigadoon. The whole cast is exceptional, but no one shines more than Maggie Portman – a firecracker both vocally and comedically as Sanderson’s overeager love interest.
Chicago Classical Review
June 6, 2011
By Lawrence A. Johnson
Though less often staged these days than My Fair Lady or Camelot, there is a gentle charm and bittersweet quality about Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon, the duo’s first great Broadway success, that brings the 1947 musical closer to the world of European operetta than its successors.
There’s also striking musical sophistication in Frederick Loewe’s melding of Scottish thematic motifs within the texture of the music and a tightly woven nexus between song and dance that wouldn’t be seen again on Broadway until West Side Story a decade later. Not to mention the fact that Brigadoon includes such American songbook classics as "Waitin’ for my Dearie," "The Heather on the Hill," "Come to Me, Bend to Me," and "Almost Like Being in Love," all in the first act alone.
Light Opera Works is opening its 2011 season with Lerner and Loewe’s musical fable of the mysterious Scottish village that comes to life only once every hundred years and how the American tourist Tommy Albright loses his heart to a young Scottish lass, Fiona MacLaren.
There are small quibbles to be had about the Evanston company’s production, which opened Saturday night at Cahn Auditorium. But for the most part LOW’s Brigadoon provided the vocal heft, romantic charm and humor to bring this classic American musical to vibrant life.
The clear star of the show was Jennie Sophia as Fiona MacLaren. In her company debut, she brought a sweet soprano, adorable Scottish accent and touching sincerity to Fiona MacLaren, the Scottish girl who bewitches the lost American.
Also making his company debut was Robert Hunt who made a forthright and vocally imposing Tommy, selling the big vocal moments and blending well with Sophia in their duets.
Maggie Portman flirted with excess at times as the lubricious Meg Brockie but the petite soprano has a powerhouse voice and put across her two comic numbers ("The Love of My Life" and "My Mother’s Wedding Day") with great energy and panache.
As Charlie Dalrymple, tenor Brandon Moorhead delivered "I’ll Go Home with Bonnie Jean" with ringing top notes and brought just the right tender intimacy to "Come to Me, Bend to Me," one of Lerner and Loewe’s most beautiful inspirations. As his betrothed Jean, Emily A. Rogers made an aptly guileless ingenue and graceful dancer in the ballet sequences.
Clay Sanderson brought a wry sardonic tone to the proceedings as Tommy’s bibulous slacker friend, Jeff Douglas. Bobby Johnson showed himself an impressive dancer and acrobatic presence as the jealous outcast, Harry Beaton. Jerry M. Miller was an avuncular Mr. Lundie.
The opening-night performance was largely free of glitches apart from a couple electronic mishaps and a decidedly ragged opening chorus. Some of the supporting characters’ Scottish accents seemed to come and go, but more problematic was the inconsistent projection of words by a few of the principals with some of Alan Jay Lerner’s wittiest lyrics being swallowed up at the end of phrases.
Artistic director Rudy Hogenmiller handled the staging and choreography with his usual verve and finesse, bringing fine fluency to the transitions between vocal and dancing sections. There were a few ensemble lapses opening night, but Roger L. Bingaman conducted in the pit with vitality and a true idiomatic style and Ted Royal’s original Broadway orchestrations sounded terrific.
ChicagoCritic.com
June 4, 2011
By Tom Williams
Highly Recommended
Soaring score charms and sweetly depicts Scottish culture
Brigadoon, a 1947 Broadway musical and a hit 1954 film with Gene Kelly, with fabulous Scottish influenced music by Frederick Loewe, has emerged into a tuneful evening of musical theatre at Cahn Auditorium. This sweetly charming ethnic fable contains wonderful dances and several exquisite romantic ballads.
Two Americans are on a hunting trip to the rural highlands of Scotland when they encounter a heavenly mist that carries them into a quaint old fashion Scottish village filled with folks dressed in traditional 18th Century costumes complete with kilted men and bonnet wearing women. There is a charming spirit in this village deftly depicted by the ensemble numbers “Brigadoon” and “Vendors’ Calls.” The atmosphere of a quaint time when folks got along and peace prevailed as the villagers get ready for a wedding with songs like “Down on MacConnachy Square,” “Waitin’ for My Dearie’ – that finds Fiona (Jennie Sophia) and the girls wishing for a mate.
The groom, Charles (Brandon Moorhead) and the men sing the rousing dance tune “I’ll Go Home with Bonnie Jean.” After the love-starved American, Tommy (the golden-voiced Robert Hunt) and the sensual Fiona flirt producing sparks, they sing the enchanting romantic “The Heather on the Hill’ that affirms their mutual interest.
Maggie Portman plays the comic love-starved maiden with aplomb as she bring the house down with “The Love of My Life.” Tommy and Fiona seal their love with the duet “Almost Like Being in Love” – the most famous song from the show. Hunt and Sophia marvelously nail this terrific tune -- sparks do fly!
Brigadoon is a fine ethnic dance show that beautifully showcases traditional Scottish step dancing and sensual ballets in “Jeannie’s Packin’ Up’ and the showstopping “Wedding Ceremony/Sword Dance and Reel.”
Robert Hunt nails the ballad “There But for You Go I.” But time is running out for Brigadoon as the town comes to life just one day every 100 years. The Scottish mythical fable has rules that only love can makes exceptions with as the charming villagers struggle to maintain their existence and live within the magic rules. Can true love lead to an outsider becoming a villager in Brigadoon? Come to Cahn Auditorium to see a lush, lovely and lively Light Opera Works production of Brigadoon. You’ll see and hear the entire score without any cuts and you’ll witness expert dance numbers filled with grace and charm. This wonderful show is in good hands with Rudy Hogenmiller and the creatives at Light Opera Works. The full 24-member orchestra nimbly presents Loewe’s haunting score. It is so refreshing to see classic shows like Brigadoon done exactly like the original productions. This is a fabulous show worthy of an audience.
Chicago Tribune
June 6, 2011
By Chris Jones
Faithful production is a bonnie trip through the heather
There's a full-on “Brigadoon” up in bonnie Evanston, replete with bagpipes, heather, tartans, warbling laddies and lassies and even a wee fog machine backstage belching out some of that special highland mist. Or a reasonable facsimile thereof.
They are not, alas, selling one of my favorite Scottish products in the lobby of the Cahn Auditorium -- the rules of prohibition die hard on a very different northerly shore -- but the 24-piece orchestra in the pit and any score by Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Loewe certainly deserves the respect of sobriety, at a minimum.
Indeed, this entire 1947 musical is treated with a great deal of respect by director Rudy Hogenmiller -- whose production goes further than most for this company in offering an impressively substantial choreographic experience. The blueprint was created by the great Agnes de Mille and, as far as I could tell, all of the dance breaks are there in full, as is the entire entr'acte for your listening pleasure.
If you're looking for a revisionist “Brigadoon,” or a production that finds some arresting visual metaphor to illuminate its themes for a new generation, this is not your show. Light Opera Works operates under constraints, including a limited amount of time in its repressively traditional auditorium and a certain culture of curtain announcements, pauses, sound interference, clearings of throats, traditional scene changes and a general lethargy in getting from one place to another -- or one feeling to another -- that could use an injection of the highland fling.
If this show could only evoke more urgency throughout -- and more fully transmit the truly heart-wrenching personal circumstances that result from visiting Scotland and falling in love with a beautiful girl who only appears for one day in a hundred years, it would really be very good indeed.
It's already very solid. Hogenmiller has achieved a great deal here. The traditional visual look of the piece (Nick Mozak designs) is not far from how it first appeared on Broadway in 1947, and sticklers for detail will note the careful attention paid by costumer Ricky Lurie to the nuance of the tartan. More importantly, the show successfully conveys that crucial contrast between the pair of cynical New Yorkers (played by Robert Hunt and Clay Sanderson, both of whom have down the requisite Sinatra cool) and the fantastical Scots who appear before them in the mist and who seem to be nothing more than apparitions in a dream.
One of the things I've always admired about this particular piece -- which comes, of course, with a buttery score that includes such exportable delicacies as “Almost Like Being in Love,” “The Heather on the Hill” and, my personal favorite, “From This Day On” -- is the self-aware way in which it pokes gentle fun at the way Americans, especially in the post-war years, romanticized bucolic spots in Europe. You can see the whole thing as gentle satire of Scots-o-phelia. Hogenmiller and Hunt could go further in that regard -- the performances are very straight up -- but fans of the piece will appreciate the dignity and, in places, classic beauty of the production. Jerry M. Miller, who plays the mystical Mr. Lundie, has an honesty that's crucial in that regard.
The singing generally is very strong: Hunt booms out the ballads and Jennie Sophia, the young actress playing Fiona, is very sweet and charming, a few minor vocal wobbles notwithstanding. Maggie Portman, who plays the comic Meg Brockie, greatly enlivens the proceedings whenever she appears and the vocal work from the ensemble is first rate. Lerner and Loewe's songs waft from the stage with such timeless potency that you find yourself, well, vowing to take the high road some time soon.
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