Theater review: ‘The Bridges of Madison County’ at Fair Park

It may have begun as a sap-laden bestselling novel in 1992, but the musical version of The Bridges of Madison County, which opened Tuesday at the Music Hall at Fair Park courtesy of Dallas Summer Musicals, is surprisingly bold.

“Bold” as in a small-scale, spectacle-free musical with big-scale musical ambitions.

Based on the Robert James Waller novel about an Italian war bride who, for four days, is shaken from her humdrum life as a farmer’s wife in 1965 Iowa by a studly National Geographic photographer, is an awkward fit on the huge stage at Fair Park, which seats more than 3,000. Many would consider the show a chamber musical, except that this tour boasts 17 musicians in the pit, led by music director Keith Levenson.

By current Broadway standards, that’s a big orchestra. Perfect for one of the most respected (but not commercially successful) musical composers of the past 20 years, Jason Robert Brown. His Tony Award-winning score blends intricate folky with lush strings and melodies, and pairs nicely with the book by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Marsha Norman (’Night, Mother, plus the book for the musical The Color Purple), which attempts to zap some of the sap from the source material, and in a different way than the 1995 Clint Eastwood/Meryl Streep film.

Any fears that the musical might become a big, splashy overdone musical — as musicals are wont to do — are quashed with the opening number, To Build a Home, sung by Francesca (Elizabeth Stanley). Though the lyrics are hard to hear, a combo of Stanley’s Italian accent and the size of the hall, the emotion is there. It sets us up for the story of a woman who might daydream of escape from cooking and cleaning for her family, but ultimately decides that the fantasy can wait.

Francesca shares her life with husband Bud (Cullen R. Titmas) and their children Carolyn (Caitlin Houlahan) and Michael (former Dallas actor John Campione, in a terrific turn). But while they’re off at the State Fair, she meets Charlie (Andrew Samonsky), who’s photographing the area’s bridges. When he can’t find one of them, she provides direction — and friendship and an Italian meal. Before long, they’re having an affair worthy of the romance-novel bored housewife trope.

But thankfully, the musical doesn’t veer down that road, thanks to the direction by Bartlett Sher (re-created for the tour by Tyne Rafaeli) and simple, evocative movement by Danny Mefford, who also choreographed the Jack O’Brien-directed tour of The Sound of Music that came to Dallas in November and will be in Fort Worth this year. Michael Yeargan’s scenic design (outlines of roofs and bridges), Catherine Zuber’s costumes and Donald Holder’s lighting add to the keep-it-simple magic.

This small town is a place where “everybody is always working or looking out their windows,” and that’s embodied by neighbors Charlie (David Hess) and Marge (Mary Callanan), who are nosy but refreshingly not judgmental.

The performances across the board are true to these characters whom you might think you’ve seen before but really haven’t. Stanley’s soprano and Samonsky’s tenor soar when necessary and are soft but deeply emotional when need be. Brown is tops among contemporary Broadway composers for letting the music and lyrics say volumes about the characters.

It’s tough to keep the momentum in a musical where the focus is not on pizazz, but on characters, story and complex music for nearly three hours (the same problem of If/Then, which had a Dallas tour stop last week). Bridges manages that task thanks to Brown’s music, which has so many memorable songs, such as Another Life, a beautiful singer-songwriter tune sung by Robert’s ex-wife, Marian (Caitlyn Caughell).

That’s done as flashback—although the beauty of Sher’s production is that the past often shares physical space with the present. Characters from then walk into the space of those in the now, and ensemble members sit on the sides of the stage in chairs when they’re not in the action, observing as if a Greek chorus, reminiscent of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. Like that seminal American play, the second act also features a wedding and a funeral.

It’s a reminder that life goes on and is never meaningless. It can be filled with big, sweeping moments, but the quiet, simple ones will do just fine.

This story was originally published February 5, 2016 at 11:41 AM with the headline "Theater review: ‘The Bridges of Madison County’ at Fair Park."