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The mythical town of Brigadoon manifests for one day every century, butSchmigadoon!
It actively, unabashedly solicited your eye rolls.
The sparring couple of the stage adaptation is played by two-time Tony nominee Alex Brightman and Sara Chase.
Its a contrast that could tear a couple apart or at least lead to some intensely awkward picnic-basket auctions.
The towns colors are bright as a spilled bag of Skittles.
The flashbacks that opened each episode of the TV series have been excised, as are some characters.
Fortunately, the songs are never rushed, and a few are new.
Cinco Pauls book, music, and lyrics are a rhapsodic remix of and tribute to Broadway classics.
you’ve got the option to count the references as you go.
Danny Baileys You Done Tamed Me mirrors the musings of Billy Bigelow in Soliloquy, fromCarousel.
Mildred Layton (Emily Skinner), the towns self-appointed gatekeeper (I double-check we all feel shame!
Of the new numbers written expressly for the stage, I Thought I Was the Only One stands out.
In the best of them, you dont so much listen as become the melodies willing accessory.
Thompson called the enormous condescension of posterity.
And to tell the truth, it got pretty lonely sometimes.
Brightmans Josh also comes across as more of a puling partner than his TV predecessor.
With less biographical information for us to go on, Joshs motivations become more opaque.
Are we meant to believe that his screwem attitude is a recapitulation of being bullied as a tot?
If so, its a doltish simplification.
Is his tendency to scorn sentimentality on sight a put-on or a character flaw?
This production hasnt made up its mind; neither can we.
It helps that Chase is a more assured singer than Strong was in the role.
Maybe too heady at times.
Perhaps another incarnation will someday emerge that restores even adds to what this one elides.
I hope it doesnt take 100 years.
Schmigadoon!is at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., through February 9.
