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The entire company of actor-musicians in the Toronto premiere production of Steve Martin & Edie Brickell’s musical Bright Star.Dahlia Katz/Mirvish
- Title: Bright Star
- Written by: Steve Martin and Edie Brickell
- Performed by: Kaylee Harwood, George Krissa, Scott Carmichael, Nick Dolan, Brendan Wall, Randy Lei Chang and Beau Dixon
- Directed by: Jacob Wolstencroft
- Company: Mirvish Productions and Garner Theatre Productions
- Venue: CAA Theatre
- City: Toronto
- Year: Runs until Nov. 2
“If you knew my story, you’d have a hard time believing me. You’d think I was lying,” sings Kaylee Harwood at the tippy-top of Bright Star, Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s bluegrass musical about love, loss and the pressure-cooker politics of the U.S. South.
Harwood’s voice, silver and silky, is pure luxury. It’s almost enough to distract from an opening number that tells us almost nothing about the story that follows – a story that at various times feels clichéd, sentimental and just plain schlocky.
But when Harwood steps onstage – both for that curious first song and all the times that follow – something happens. Bright Star becomes bigger than itself, a thunderclap of tenderness and depth. In Harwood’s hands, leading lady Alice Murphy isn’t just another underwritten ingenue doomed to the whims of Martin and Brickell’s plot – she’s the whole point. She’s the reason to buy a ticket, and the thing to head home buzzing about when the curtain falls.
The bluegrass musical Bright Star from Steve Martin and Edie Brickell in Off-Mirvish season lineup
Using banjo, mandolin and a wash of southern accents as its canvas, Bright Star tells the tale of Alice and Jimmy Ray Dobbs (George Krissa), two young lovers doomed to spend their lives in North Carolina just after the First World War. Alice is smart; Jimmy is handsome. Their chemistry is palpable, and when a baby comes along, no one’s especially shocked, but something must be done to preserve Jimmy Ray’s future – and his father’s legacy. (Brendan Wall is menacing and crisp as Mayor Josiah Dobbs.)
In a parallel timeline, Alice is a successful literary editor in the 1940s, a no-nonsense lover of words and the grammatical guidelines that string them together. When a plucky young writer (Nick Dolan) appears on her doorstep, stories in hand, she decides to give him a shot – she’s drawn to him in a way even she can’t quite articulate.
In the interest of avoiding ire in The Globe and Mail’s comment section, I won’t spell out what happens next. But Bright Star deals in plot twists so obvious, so meretricious and Hallmark-y, that on opening night you could hear the groans.
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Kaylee Harwood stars as Alice Murphy. The show tells the story of Alice and her lover in North Carolina after the First World War.Dahlia Katz/Mirvish
It’s a piece that occupies an interesting spot in the Broadway canon: Structurally, Bright Star bears far more resemblance to a classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical than the more contemporary shows it competed against at the 2016 Tony Awards, projects such as Hamilton and Waitress. Its lyrics are didactic and literal, plot lubricant for a story that, to its credit, ticks along like a wagon wheel.
But it’s the music – words aside – that makes Bright Star stand out. In the show, the actors and the band are one and the same: Performers wander the stage with guitars and fiddles, dancing and sparring as their fingers tickle piano keys and bass strings. That versatility makes director Jacob Wolstencroft’s ensemble cast even more impressive – at no point does their musical accompaniment obscure their ability to act and sing with gusto. (Kudos, too, to Lisa Goebel’s clever choreography.)
Martin and Brickell’s score is lush and kinetic, a celebration of southern tradition and loose percussion. A few piercing lyrics aside (at one point, “Where’ve you been?” is forced to rhyme with “You should’ve been here helpin’ in the kitchen”), the music is divine.
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Nick Dolan, left, stars as young writer Billy Cane and Yunike Soedarmasto stars as Margo.Dahlia Katz/Mirvish
Performance-wise, Bright Star blazes: Harwood and Wall notwithstanding, Nick Dolan is dandy and light as wide-eyed Billy, and Randy Lei Chang offers sweet comic relief alongside his expert piano and violin skills. Beau Dixon’s scenes, too, are grand – Dixon regularly adds layers of subtext to a script that aches for them.
Krissa’s Jimmy Ray is a more mixed affair: His charisma is just as magnetizing as it was in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, but Krissa feels at times miscast. His Carolina accent repeatedly flutters in and out of his natural cadence, and his voice, while note-perfect and clear, doesn’t always pair well with Bright Star’s requisite twang. Acting-wise, he’s terrific, and pairs harmoniously with Harwood, but the accent in particular imposes a surprising amount of space between Krissa and the character he’s portraying.
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All things considered, Bright Star is quite an achievement. Its cast is cohesive and compelling, its music catchy and well-rehearsed. But it’s hard not to consider whether the same team might have made less tortured magic with better southern-inspired material at their disposal: Jason Robert Brown’s Parade, perhaps? Jeanine Tesori’s Violet? Even Sara Bareilles’s Waitress, in which Harwood played lead role Jenna in Port Hope just months ago?
Still, Bright Star – and especially Harwood – is worth the watch. Just mind the gap from Martin and Brickell’s plot holes as you climb aboard.
