Prairie Fire Theatre Stages Folksy Musical in ‘Bright Star’
Wendy Marck, center, as Alice in “Bright Star,” is shown during a recent practice.
Reposted from The Pantagraph
By Nancy Steele Brokaw
Prairie Fire Theatre’s “Bright Star’ is a banjo-strumming, fiddle-playing, romantic musical set in North Carolina in the 1920s and 1940s. It’s as easy to like as slab of warm blueberry cobbler from the corner café.
The authors are Steve Martin, better known as a comedic actor, and Edie Brickell, of former pop chart fame. “Bright Star” hit Broadway like a gentle breeze in 2016, confused some critics, and picked up five Tony Award nominations.
Like so many of the stories we love (think of Frodo and Dorothy Gale), this story has a circle shape. Characters start out in one place, journey through terrible and wonderful adventures, and eventually find their way back home, bruised and wise and content.
The seed of the “Bright Star” plot is the 1902 folk song “Iron Mountain Baby,” which is a true accounting of a newborn boy who survived being thrown from a train in a suitcase. The story centers on that baby’s mother, Alice, portraying her as an unempowered teen and then, 20 years later, as editor of a prestigious literary magazine.
“Bright Star” is a multilayered tale of pain, forgiveness and redemption told in the sentiment-soaked style of a melodrama. The accessible songs range from moving ballads to tender duets to foot-stomping hootenannies (choreography by Jessica Riss-Waltrip).
The singing is phenomenal. One after another, this large cast, many of whom are university vocal faculty, deliver top-notch performances.
Musical director Charlie Berggren masterfully plays piano and directs the live seven-piece band, scattered around the stage.
Director Scott Susong had his hands full orchestrating the many transitions that let the action bounce back and forth between two time periods. That effort is enabled by a rotating skeletal cabin on wheels (set design by Karla Baily-Smith with lighting by Jaden O’Berry) and the dozens of pitch-perfect costumes by Opal Virtue, some of which get changed on stage.
Wendy Marck, as Alice, pulls off the tricky job of playing both a traumatized teen and an emotionally restrained career woman. Her opening song, “If You Knew My Story,” sets up the whole show. Nole Jones, with a voice as towering as the Smoky Mountains, plays Jimmy Ray, the well-intentioned baby’s dad. His rendition of “Heartbreaker” is memorable. Jeff Miller forcefully plays Jimmy Ray’s father, a narrow-minded, ambitious, small-town mayor who kidnaps the baby, while singing “A Man’s Gotta Do.”
Kristian LaVeque is the innocent Billy, an aspiring writer just back from World War II, who has a strange hold on Alice’s heart. Tenor Kenny Prince plays Daddy Cane with believable goodness. Eden Susong is charming as Billy’s girl. Claire Flynn and Stephen Nickisch provide comic relief as office staff. Bob Mangialardi and Cristen Monson deliver powerful vocals as Alice’s parents and are featured in the show-stopping ensemble number “Please Don’t Take Him.”
Prairie Fire is known for presenting lesser-known shows with professional-quality singing and live orchestras. “Bright Star” is all of that and more. It shines brightly like, well, a star and casts just the light we need to end our summer.
Illinois Prairie Community Foundation awarded a Mirza/Arts & Culture Grant to Prairie Fire Theatre to help fund this program. If you would like to support programs like this, please donate online.