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The Australian production of The Secret Garden is everything, and more, it promised to be _ an enchanting adaptation, for children of all ages, from Frances Hodgson Burnett's children's novel by Marsha Norman (book and lyrics) and Lucy Simon (music).
Music theatre took a giant step forward with this exquisite tale of the triumph and power of love, wrapped in a glistening score of the most amazing musical hues.
Heidi Landesman's fantasy set design under its honni soit qui mal y pense (shame to him who thinks evil) banner and redolent of Alice's Wonderland, becomes a spellbinding place under Rory Dempster's illumin
ation which cast pallid hues on the living, sepulchral glows of the dead.
The partnership of Susan H. Schulman (director) and Michael Lichtefeld (choreographer) has shaped this material into a wondrous, winsome totality.
They create a true ensemble, from the lustrous performances of Anthony Warlow (Archibald Craven), Marina Prior (Lily), Philip Quast (Neville Craven), June Salter (Mrs Medlock), Susan-Ann Walker (Martha), Tom Blair (Dickon) to each and every splendid dreamer-spirit.
Sarah Ogden almost steals the show as the irrepressible Mary Lennox, a charmer who moves with graceful, disarming naturalness, forcing life back to her pompous crippled cousin Colin, played by Ross Hannaford.
One magical moment follows another, culminating in the bewitching transformation of the garden, but the 'Come Spirit, Come Charm' scene and dance is richly unforgettable.
Behind it all Simon's music, conducted by Brian Stacey, shimmers and captivates, music from the heart's core, music that breathes love with every note, that falls so simply and appropriately into the rhythm of the text.
You hear shades of 'Tara's Theme' (from Gone with the Wind), of Simple Gifts, of exquisitely patterned folk melodies blending Celtic idiom with Indian.
You marvel at the metaphor of earth, seed and rejuvenation, delight in the elegant dove-tailing of vocal lines and your toes tap to the gentle rock beat in music of the pivotal Martha character, delineated so sympathetically by Walker.
Above all there is, as in Bizet's opera The Pearl Fishers, a sumptuous male duet for the Craven brothers, 'Lily's Eyes', which becomes an eloquent, passionate statement from the Warlow-Quast partnership in this joint Queensland Performing Arts Trust-Lyric Opera of Queensland-John Frost production. A few hours of heavenly bliss not to be missed.
© Queensland Newspapers
