Carmen Cusack                             photos by Joan Marcus

 

 

                            by Deirdre Donovan

 

Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s Bright Star arrives at the Cort Theatre with a glowing cast and the twangy sound of blue-grass music.  Directed by Walter Bobbie, and set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, it hopscotches between the 1920s and 1940s--and will land squarely in your heart.  

 

Bright Star tells the story of young lovers who are cruelly separated by their parents, only to be miraculously rejoined again at the musical’s end.  With its blue-grass country music and an astonishing Broadway debut by Carmen Cusack (Tony nomination), it is a brilliant new addition to the theatrical firmament.  Cusack has been on board the musical since its first reading and New York workshops in 2013 and at its world premiere at the Old Globe in San Diego.  And now performing eight performances weekly at the Cort, well, she’s simply a wonder to behold.

 

A.J.Shively & Carmen Cusack

 

The story opens in the shady environs of Limbo with a wistful number “If You Knew My Story” sung by Cusack and the ensemble.  It then seamlessly shifts to Hayes Creek in 1945, where we meet the soldier, and aspiring writer, Billy Cane who’s just returned home from World War II.  We learn that he’s been published in Stars and Stripes and now is bent on getting his short stories published in the prestigious  Asheville Southern Journal.  His childhood friend Margo Crawford, who runs the modest bookstore in town, is his number one fan and enthusiastic proof-reader of his work.  True, she has a terrible crush on him.  But she sincerely encourages him to follow his star and give his writing career a go.  He does—and relocates to Asheville, penning new short stories and submitting them to the tough-as-nails editor Miss Alice Murphy (she purportedly once made Ernest Hemingway cry by pointing out that he incorrectly used “their” as a singular pronoun).  Billy discovers Alice has a soft-spot for young writers, however.  She generously reads his fledgling efforts and buys several, telling him that she’s “investing in him.” 

 

And there are more episodes that unspool.  The story swerves to the tiny hamlet of Zebulon, North Carolina, in the 1920s, where Alice is two decades younger—and infinitely more carefree.  She meets the mayor’s son Jimmy Ray Dobbs (Paul Alexander Nolan), who’s fixing an old-fashioned icebox outdoors, and takes a shine to him.  Unsurprisingly, Jimmy Ray is equally smitten by the spunky Alice--and they fall in love.  Things grow complicated, however, when Alice gets pregnant, leaves town, and gives birth to an infant boy in a remote cabin.  The young couple’s fathers--Mayor Dobbs and Daddy Murphy (Stephen Lee Anderson)—go to see their grandson.  But instead of welcoming the tiny scion, they strike a deal to place the baby for adoption and to separate the two young lovers.  Yes, there’s more to the story.  But you’ll have to go to the show yourself if you want to learn how the disparate narrative threads incredibly knit together at the finale.

 

Wayne Alan Wilcox and Carmen Cusack Photos by Joan Marcus

 

The acting is tops.  And Cusack, hands down, is the most watchable.  She is ideally cast as the “lost lamb” of the Murphy family who evolves into a pillar of the Southern literary world.  No, she’s not the only actor strutting her stuff.  Paul Alexander Nolan, playing opposite her as Jimmy Ray Dobbs, is well-cast as the Mayor’s son and Alice’s faithful beau.  Other supporting actors hold their own; one such is Michael Mulheren performing Mayor Josiah Dobbs.  Mulheren turns blustering into an art here, and political wheeling-and-dealing into an exact science.  Special notice goes to A. J. Shively, who plays the wannabe writer Billy Cane and Hannah Elless, as his sweetheart Margo Crawford.  Both inhabit their characters with winning charm.

 

 

Martin (book and music) and Brickell (book, music, and lyrics) are in fine fettle as a team.  Happily, they avoid clichés and the pitfalls of many romantic musicals by never overplaying their hand—or toppling into mawkishness.  They balance the dark with light here and, in populating Bright Star, they mingle the homespun folk with a soupcon of the Southern literati.  Martin and Brickell have garnered Tony nominations for their collaborative work in this piece (Best Original Score), with Martin and Brickell each gaining an additional Tony nod for the book and lyrics, respectively.

 

The musical numbers are a mixed bag.  The most charming perhaps is ”Whoa, Mama, “sung by Cusack and Nolan in a whimsical boy-meets-girl duet in Act One.  Then there’s the heart-melter “Please Don’t Take Him,” sung fiercely by Cusack and Mulheren as both their characters battle over the future of Alice’s infant son.  And when it comes to uplifting numbers, nothing beats the “Sun is Gonna Shine,” resolutely delivered by Cusack and the ensemble in Act Two.  Cusack really shows off her musical chops here, and the song itself is an anthem to the indomitable human spirit.

 

No slouches on this creative team.  Eugene Lee’s sets capture the look of the South from its rustic cabins to the spit-polish lobby of the Asheville Southern Journal, not to mention the magnificent backdrop that evokes a silhouette of the Blue Ridge Mountain range.  And, abetted by Japhy Weideman’s poetic lighting, it will take your breath away.  Josh Rhode’s lively choreography keeps in step with the plucky sound of the bluegrass music.  And Jane Greenwood’s costumes, in their sheer simplicity, are right on the button.

 

Bright Star is a butter-melt-in-your mouth musical.  It has many dark moments —but is ultimately joyous at the finale.  And, as the terrific onstage band plays you out, the spirit of the music is irresistible, as is the play.

 

 

Open run.

At the Cort Theater, 138 West 48^th Street, Manhattan.

For tickets, phone (212) 239-6200 or visit www.teleharge.com.

Running Time:  2 hours: 30 minutes with one intermission.