Music stronger than story in ‘Bridges of Madison County’
Some musicals don’t deserve their musical scores.
The latest case in point: “The Bridges of Madison County,” which continues at The Smith Center through Sunday.
Composer Jason Robert Brown won a well-deserved Tony Award for his lush, strikingly versatile score, plus a second Tony for his orchestrations.
Far and away, Brown’s music is the best thing about “The Bridges of Madison County.”
All too often, however, watching “Bridges” feels like watching a thoroughbred racehorse pull a plow.
Sure, it gets the job done. But you can’t help wishing the thoroughbred had something better to do that better matched its talents.
At least this “Bridges” improves upon its source material: Robert James Waller’s bathetic 1992 best-seller about the brief, life-altering love affair between a National Geographic photographer and an Italian-American housewife in 1965 Iowa.
As in “Bridges’ ” 1995 movie adaptation (which starred Meryl Streep and director Clint Eastwood), watching two able actors breathe life into Waller’s cliche-ridden characters is a lot less daunting than scaling the original author’s purple mountains of prose.
Also as in “Bridges’ ” movie version, the stage musical shifts the novel’s focus from dashing photographer Robert Kincaid (a soulful Andrew Samonsky) to Francesca Johnson (wry, resigned Elizabeth Stanley), who’s been withering away in Winterset, Iowa, ever since she left Naples at the end of World War II with her genial GI husband Bud (Cullen R. Titmas).
Back in Iowa, Bud went back to farming. Which makes Francesca just plain Fran, a farmer’s wife devoted to their kids — feisty Carolyn (Caitlin Houlahan) and rebellious Michael (John Campione) — and her role as always-there homemaker.
That is, until the fateful day Bud and the kids leave for an extended state fair trek, leaving Francesca home alone — at least until the even more fateful moment Robert wanders onto Francesca’s porch, asking directions to a certain covered bridge he hopes to photograph.
Almost instantly, romance blooms between the trapped housewife and the forever-wandering photographer, who discovers a new perspective when he stops viewing life through a lens and focuses instead on Francesca’s eyes.
Yes, “Bridges of Madison County” is just that sappy. But, after all, it’s Iowa — you can’t escape the corn.
Fortunately, Brown mitigates the mush — somewhat — with lilting, resonant songs that range from folksy to pseudo-operatic.
Both Stanley and Samonsky negotiate “Bridges’ ” expansive musical territory with heartfelt urgency. (Although Stanley’s flowery Italian accent occasionally blurs the clarity of Brown’s lyrics, especially in the opening number, during which she describes her journey from Italy to Iowa.)
But Brown and librettist Marsha Norman (a Pulitzer Prize-winner for her harrowing play ” ‘night, Mother” and a Tony-winner for her “Secret Garden” book) feel compelled to overpopulate “Bridges,” undercutting its only-two-people-in-the-world romanticism.
Sometimes that strategy works — especially when showcasing homespun neighbors Marge and Charlie (veterans Mary Callanan, a former Vegas “Mamma Mia!” regular, and David Hess), who deliver welcome comedy relief and belt out two of the show’s best songs (the soulful “Get Closer” and the rousing “When I’m Gone”) to boot.
And sometimes “Bridges of Madison County” just spins its wheels, delaying the inevitable moment when Francesca must deal with her dilemma: should she stay or should she go with Robert.
Thanks to director Bartlett Sher (Tyne Rafaeli restaged his work for the show’s national tour), some of that wheel-spinning proves relatively painless.
Throughout, Sher achieves an almost cinematic flow as the tale unfolds, aided by Michael Yeargan’s understated sets and lighting designer Donald Holder’s ever-shifting Iowa skies.
Evocative as they are, those glimmers of beauty and grace remind us, yet again, that “The Bridges of Madison County” doesn’t always deserve the artistry it displays.
Read more stories from Carol Cling at reviewjournal.com. Contact her at ccling@reviewjournal.com and follow @CarolSCling on Twitter.
