Kate’s Score: 3.5 Tears For Lost Loves
Francesca, a war-bride has spent eighteen years carving a life for herself and her family in Iowa. Then one day, whilst her husband and children are away at the State Fair, a National Geographic photographer drives down her driveway. Lost in more ways than one, Robert’s quest for directions leads them both straight to each other’s hearts. If you have ever read the book, or seen the film, you recognise the story of a love too late; The Bridges of Madison County.
Like Casablanca, it is an iconic story of a mature love affair in which selflessly, the participants choose the lives of others over their own. Fran and Robert give themselves to a four day liaison which is never sordid but always full of wonder. It is a delicate, fragile story of a love that has only a tiny tear in the fabric of time in order to be. Why Marsha Norman (book) and Jason Robert Brown (music and lyrics) thought it necessary to force the story into a musical form, is something of a puzzle – unless it was to cash in one a fan base? For in effect, the music and lyrics are rather ordinary. There is not one number which stands alone, where you leave the theatre humming under your breath. One suspects that if The Bridges of Madison County (the musical) has enjoyed box office success, it is the appeal of the story, not the work of Norman and Brown.
As Francesca, Kate Maree Hoolihan delivers a sensitive, charming performance. The homesickness for Italy simmers underneath the lightness and humour of her approach to everyday life. As her soulmate Robert, Ian Stenlake is every inch the global roaming photographer; calling forth images of Robert Capa and Neil Davis. Both these leads have the presence and the voices. They are just not given the material to with which to shine. A phlegmatic Charlie (Michael Beckly) and busybody Marge (Beth Daly) bring welcome comic relief to the storyline; although superficially at odds, their relationship is an authentic one, proving that it does not have to be exotic to be real.
The Hayes is a challenging space for a musical, and it is a credit to the parade of designers that they manage to create new ways of staging musicals in such confined spaces. This design (James Browne) begins with the covered bridges concept with the re-arrangement of pieces cleverly forming interiors. But when a script is so filmic it demands constant changes of location, designers and directors need to be quite inventive and imaginative in dealing with those dreaded transitions. Tied to this particular vision, we missed the opportunity to explore the vastness and emptiness of the Iowa plains which form the backdrop to this story.
The musical team under the leadership of MD Geoffrey Castles defy the odds again, making a band of five sound like an orchestra of twenty.
I remain unconvinced that the Bridges of Madison County needed to be a musical. And that once it was, that the Hayes needed to do it. There are problems with the adaptation that even bringing our best talent to the stage cannot solve. Perhaps not the best choice when so many past productions have given them the opportunity to present so imaginatively and so well.
As Francesca observed – if one is where one wants to be, there is no need to reach for anything.
Kate Stratford, Theatre Now
Grant Leslie Photography
6 Mar – 5 Apr 2020
Venue:Â Hayes Theatre
Theatre Company: Matthew Management and Neil Gooding Productions
Duration: N/A
Full Price $69.00
Concession $64.00
Group $62.00
Tues 6:30 pm
Wed – Sat 7:30 pm
Sat 2:00 pm
Sun* 1:00 pm
Sun* 6:00 pm
Wed** 1:00 pm
*3.00pm performance only on Sunday 29 March | no 6.00pm performance on Sunday 5 April
**only available for 25 March & 1 April
Book By Marsha Norman, Music & Lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, Based on the novel by Robert James Waller
Based on the best-selling novel, and developed by the Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning creative team of Jason Robert Brown (The Last Five Years, Parade, Songs for a New World) and Marsha Norman, The Bridges of Madison County captures the lyrical expanse of America’s heartland along with the yearning entangled in the eternal question of, ‘What if …?’
Francesca Johnson is an Italian immigrant housewife living a happy existence on a farm in the American Midwest. However, when her family go off to the 1965 State Fair, she meets Robert Kincaid, a National Geographic photographer on assignment filming bridges in the area. Their initial friendship develops into a brief but passionate affair which has devastating consequences on all of their lives. The winner of the 2014 Tony Award for Best Score and Orchestrations, this sweeping romance about the roads we travel, the doors we open and the bridges we dare to cross will leave audiences breathless.
Director Neil Gooding
Musical Director Geoffrey Castles
Choreographer Leah Howard
Set Designer James Browne
Lighting Designer Phoebe Pitcher
Assistant Director Madison Lee
Starring: Kate Maree Hoolihan, Marin Crewes, Anton Berezin, Beth Daly, Barry Mitchell, Katie McKee, Grady Swithenbank
By arrangement with Music Theatre International (Australia)
