Broadway adapts ‘Madison County’ as musical

INTIMATE MOMENT: Kelli O’Hara & Steven Pasquale. Photo: Joan Marcus

By David NouNou

The score by Jason Robert Brown is lush; Kelli O’Hara is perfection and gives her best performance to date; and Steven Pasquale is a handsome leading man with an exquisite voice. The Bridges of Madison County, whether as a novel, a gloriously filmed movie, or now in its current incarnation as a musical, is essentially a delicate, two-character piece with some background people who happen to be Francesca’s (Ms. O’Hara’s) family, friends and neighbors. However, in Marsha Norman’s tedious and lackluster book, these extemporaneous people now seem more as annoying fillers and pad the show up to two hours and 45 minutes. Way too long for such an intimate musical.

Basically the plot is Francesca, an Italian war bride, came to America and settled down on an Iowa farm and has raised two teenage children. Married for over 18 years, she fulfills her obligations as a dutiful wife. On a particular weekend in 1965 when her family is off to the Indiana state fair, and Francesca stays behind, Robert Kincaid, (Mr. Pasquale) on an assignment to take pictures of the famed Madison County Bridges for National Geographic, gets lost and ends up in Francesca’s driveway for directions. What starts as an innocent flirtation ends in a life-altering love affair. It is Francesca’s dilemma to either follow her heart to live and love the man who brings her back to life, or stay behind to fulfill her obligations as a mother and wife.

Ms. O’Hara’s Francesca is incandescent and by far the best performance of her productive career. She makes Francesca a three-dimensional character with a heart, a soul, charisma, and a voice that is heavenly. Mr. Pasquale matches Ms. O’Hara’s splendid tonal quality, is certainly charming and plausible as to why Francesca would fall for him. He is a bit young for the part, and comes across more as a hunky gas-pump jockey, rather than as a grizzled photographer for National Geographic.

Now comes Ms. Norman’s book, a throwback to 50s and 60s musicals but without the fun, structure or characters. In the old days musicals were almost three hours long. With today’s short attention span, you don’t prolong a show with scenes full of fillers; certainly a good half hour could have easily been cut off this one. She derived a scene from Evita; just as Francesca and Robert are finding each other, she inserts Robert’s wife Miriam across the stage from them with the song “Another Life,” reminiscent of Che’s mistress singing “Another Suitcase in Another Hall.” The beginning of Act II and the finale are even more blatant. Act II starts with a hoedown “State Road 21/The Real World” as did Oklahoma in the song “The Farmer and The Cowman” but not as exhilarating; and the finale, “Always Better,”  is ripped out off Carousel’s “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

What is most perplexing here is the direction of Bartlett Sher. He is a great director; just to mention the revivals in this case (South Pacific, Golden Boy, Awake and Sing) and is a very keen editor. Had Madison County been a 50s or 60s revival, I can see where he would have kept it intact, but this is an original musical that lacked any originality and his editing skills were desperately needed. Mr. Sher is a clean director and always manages to trim the fat to make the show run as smoothly as possible. Wow, was this show full of gristle.

Scene changes as well are supposed to be as seamless and unobtrusive as possible. However, everything from the kitchen sink, to the dining table, and the bed are all rolled on and off stage by actors in the show and not at the most appropriate of times. Worst of all, every time you see the bridges, they are wheeled out as fences by the actors and positioned to represent these majestic bridges that thousands of visitors come to see annually. I don’t know who is to be blamed more: the scenic designer, Michael Yeargan, for not coming up with some exquisite idea and images of the bridges or Mr. Sher for okaying these cheesy sets that cheapen the show in the worst possible manner.

The show is far from perfect, but does have three important elements to be savored: the never-been-better Kelli O’Hara, an equally admirable Steven Pasquale, and a rhapsodic score by Jason Robert Brown.
The Bridges of Madison County – 4 Tony Nominations, including Best Musical Actress – Kelli O’Hara, BEST SCORE- ROBERT JASON BROWN, Best Lighting Design, BEST ORCHESTRATION – ROBERT JASON BROWN.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published February 28, 2014
Reviewed at press performance on February 27, 2014