With music and book by Steve Martin and music and lyrics by Edie Brickell, BRIGHT STAR is based on an original story by Martin and Brickell and features direction by Walter Bobbie.
Inspired by an astonishing true event, the wholly original new musical BRIGHT STAR tells a sweeping tale of love and redemption set against the rich backdrop of the American South in the 1920s and 40s. When successful literary editor Alice Murphy meets an ambitious young soldier just home from World War II, their connection inspires Alice to confront a shocking incident from her past. Together they discover a long-buried secret with the power to transform their lives.
..Bright Star now opens with an establishing song called 'If You Knew My Story.' It's super-catchy, and Carmen Cusack, whose role in the proceedings we do not yet comprehend, sings the hell out of it. But unfortunately it does its 'show the audience what to expect' job too well. With banal, self-cancelling, upbeat lyrics...it mostly shows us that we are going to have, in Bright Star, a banal, self-cancelling, upbeat musical, the kind that wants to demonstrate a lot of heart without actually having one. Which is not to say it has no smarts and no value. There's a lot to like in Bright Star and a lot to admire in the way it was made...How the stories intersect with the songs is the larger problem here. The mostly bluegrass score, with country, gospel, and a little swing thrown in, sounds great...but almost always does exactly the opposite of what a story-based musical requires.
Director Walter Bobbie's production in the Cort Theatre, where the musical had its official opening Thursday night, retains the intelligently spare look of the incarnation in the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater. (It's also tauter - about 10 minutes shorter than it was in Washington.) Evoking a bucolic North Carolina of the 1920s and '40s, set designer Eugene Lee deploys a skeletal cabin on wheels as the visual centerpiece, in which the band, expertly conducted by Rob Berman, sits and strums Martin and Brickell's amiable tunes, albeit with some oddly-set lyrics. It's also worth noting that one of the biggest hands of the evening comes for the orchestra's playing of the entr'acte, the purely instrumental interlude that greets us after intermission.
2016Â Â | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
2017Â Â | US Tour |
First National Tour US Tour |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Musical | Carmen Cusack |
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Costume Design for a Musical | Jane Greenwood |
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical | A.J. Shively |
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical | Paul Alexander Nolan |
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Music | Edie Brickell |
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Music | Steve Martin |
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Orchestrations | August Eriksmoen |
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical | Nevin Steinberg |
2016 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Carmen Cusack |
2016 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical | Bright Star |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Musical | Carmen Cusack |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Book of a Musical (Broadway or off-Broadway) | Steve Martin |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Choreography | Josh Rhodes |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Costume Design (Play or Musical) | Jane Greenwood |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Director of a Musical | Walter Bobbie |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Broadway Musical | Bright Star |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Score (Broadway or off-Broadway) | Edie Brickell |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Score (Broadway or off-Broadway) | Steve Martin |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Book of a Musical | Steve Martin |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Bright Star |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Orchestrations | August Eriksmoen |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre | Steve Martin |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre | Edie Brickell |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical | Carmen Cusack |
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