Project #6: Flexible, option #1

Theatre Review of UTC's Secret Garden

The Secret Garden is an overall beautifully written musical about beauty, love and letting go of the past. A wonderful, powerful and magical story is one in a million. It is about a little girl named Mary who loses both her parents in a cholera epidemic. She is sent to live with her Uncle. Upon arrival, she learns the house is haunted with ghosts from long ago, one of which is her uncle’s deceased wife, Lilly. Lilly shows Mary the location of a secret garden which she died in. Mary with help from hired hands and her sickly cousin, revive the garden and restore happiness to their household. The script is serious and gloomy, but at times has its moments of hilarity and warmth. With opposite characters such as Martha and Ms. Medlock, it brings a sense of love and humanity amidst the dark corners of the human race. This is a good contrast for the audience since no one wants to feel they should kill themselves before act one is over. The music is hauntingly beautiful and captivated me the moment the orchestra started playing. This masterpiece of an arrangement compliments the eerie underlying story of ghosts and memories of the past. It is a strange and dissonant composition which evokes strong emotions, especially during the lovely song "Lilly's Eyes" which brought tears to my eyes. Most pieces even had lyrics overlapping one another giving the feel of urgency and chaos, which most scenes were full of. The characters were wonderfully portrayed with the exception of some. The dialects were also a wonderful accomplishment of these young actors and it made the performance even more beautiful and believable. Some characters however were somewhat overplayed, mostly in the children. Yes, children are over the top and should be played bigger and bolder than most other characters, but beautiful moments were ruined by the over intensity of the childlike behavior. The character Collin was way too much for me to handle. I know one is not supposed to like Collin, but there needs to be a sense of pity for him. Because of his over annoying nature that was being portrayed, I didn’t care if he was healed or not. Bottom line, his character was not very believable and was borderline farce. I didn’t care much for Mary’s character either. She was way too snooty and not loveable in the least bit. She seemed like a brat and I was upset that Lilly would choose such an awful, rude, bratty child to give her garden to. Yes, Mary is spoiled, bratty and annoying at times, but I wish there would have been a more loveable side to her so I could care more about her well being and be excited about the fact she was to inherit the garden from Lilly. Martha’s performance stood out among the rest. Everything about her and her character development was wonderful, loveable and heart-warming. I found myself becoming excited when she was to come on stage. It seemed like she knew her character very well and she made the entire audience love her. Her physicality she brought to the stage matched everything about Martha the audience discovers. Martha’s performance was downright exquisite. The singing throughout the show was incredible and brilliant. “Lilly’s Eyes” was overall the most enchanting song out of the entire performance. I was half ready to burst from my seat to give a standing ovation. The roar of applause afterward told me the rest of the audience felt the same. There were a couple of songs I didn’t care for. The contrast between Lilly’s and Collin’s voice in “Come to my Garden/Lift me Up” did no justice for that song. I wish Collin’s voice was somewhat fuller and even toned. It is rare to have a gifted ensemble such as this musical did. Not one person stood out among the rest and they all sounded like angels singing those beautiful songs. This show was completely amazing and beautiful. I caught myself thinking about the show a week after I had been to see it. Although there were some slight technicalities that I do not share the same opinion on as most, this show was beautifully directed and performed and deserves the best recognition.