Brigadoon reviews round-up – Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre London

"Why did we ignore this glorious classic musical for 35 years?"

"Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre proves a perfect setting for this revival of Brigadoon"

"Brigadoon has enchantment in its bones, demanding its audience buy into the idea of a magical Highland village that emerges from the mist for just one day every 100 years. That is considerably easier to do with an outdoor venue in which the falling dusk during evening performances is an inbuilt part of the scenery. And if Drew McOnie’s effervescent yet punchy production... relies on admittedly flimsy source material, then so be it. This show is delightful."

"There’s a hint of Powell and Pressburger’s 1946 film A Matter of Life and Death to Rona Munro’s new adaptation"

"Reality and dream co-exist in both uneasy and bewitching ways in this sensitive update, even as it unapologetically rests on Lerner’s undeniably barmy book"

"McOnie’s production retains Brigadoon’s old-fashioned MGM musical quality with beautifully choreographed Oklahoma!-style scenes"

"There are some fine performances – notably from Gilli Jones as a puppyish Charlie and Jasmine Jules Andrews as Fiona’s spirted sister Jean"

"... as that dusk falls, Munro’s ending neatly resolves the plot, while leaving a few unsettling questions lingering in the night air."

"Truly a place for fairy magic"

"This new take on Lerner and Loewe’s rarely staged Scottish Highlands-set musical is a charmingly whimsical treat"

"With a new script by Scottish playwright Rona Munro, this production has been made more authentic and, under the direction and choreography of Regent’s Part Open Air Theatre’s artistic director Drew McOnie, it’s charmingly whimsical."

"There are fine performances all round, but Myers is a revelation as gutsy flirt Meg"

"It’s a tight, traditional production – winningly so – with Agnes De Mille’s original dances interwoven with McOnie’s sprightly ballets"

"Certainly, the conceit of Brigadoon requires as much suspension of disbelief from its audience as its pilots, but as David Colvin and Robin Mackenzie’s bagpipes ring out from atop a rocky hill, this cordial haven seems as vivid a place as any. Heck, you might just find you want to stay."

"Brigadoon is a musical great – this sparkling revival proves it"

"After 35 years, the musical has found a perfect new home in Regent's Park"

"The last major London revival was more than 35 years ago, a bewildering fact given that this ebulliently tuneful musical, which premiered in 1947, comes from that glorious post-war golden era of Broadway shows, in which the hope of a weary world was channelled into some of the most glorious song and dance the theatre has ever seen."

"Playwright Rona Munro has adapted Lerner’s original book and her firm but gentle tweaks work splendidly well."

"McOnie, a choreographer by trade, offers a sumptuous spectacle of movement, including a ceremonial sword dance at the wedding."

"There can be no faulting any of the performances, yet two in particular sparkle. Gilli Jones makes a notable stage debut as irrepressible bridegroom Charlie... Nic Myers raises warm laughter as the enthusiastic Meg"

"Dreamy escapism in the heart of Regent’s Park"

"... the drizzle just added to the sense that the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre is the perfect setting for Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s 1947 musical"

"It is a truly magical evening. Drew McOnie’s first production as director and choreographer since he took over Regent’s Park this year has a shining clarity of purpose. With the help of a book by Rona Munro that keeps the emotion but strips away the sentiment, the production sweeps along on a wave of luscious songs"

"It’s full of subtle tributes to the Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse film that is its best-known incarnation."

"Danielle Fiamanya’s clear-voiced, kind and determined Fiona"

"The movement, as you would expect given his dance background, is superb and sometimes carries the weight of the story."

"It’s a wonderful piece of escapism for a summer night, an affectionate embrace of a musical, drizzle or no drizzle."

"It's a neglected classic for a reason"

"There are some fine performances here, but it’s an effort to tough your way through the more saccharine moments"

"Though it’s charmingly and stylishly done here, Brigadoon is what’s known in the theatre world as a justly neglected classic."

"Director and choreographer Drew McOnie’s revival... just about works thanks to some fine performances, spirited choreography and a strikingly effective Grand Designs set by Basia Bińkowska. But it’s an effort to tough your way through the more saccharine moments."

"McOnie starts strong, calling the fantasy world into being with bagpipers and drummers trooping through this lush and leafy auditorium."

"But the strongest songs are the comic numbers The Love of My Life and My Mother’s Wedding Day, sung by Nic Myers’s pertly up-for-it Meg"

"McOnie’s production is a pleasant diversion that sits well in this arboreal venue, which delivered a bout of authentically Scottish drizzle on press night. But the plot, the characters and the score of Brigadoon melt away like Scotch mist."

"Lerner & Loewe’s preposterous musical romance gets a slick book update from Rona Munro but is still absolutely nuts"

"There is some very stiff competition, but I think Lerner & Loewe’s Brigadoon might well stand as the maddest musical of all time, certainly in terms of seriously intentioned mainstream work."

"Really though I think Munro is here because she’s a bloody good playwright and her comprehensive rewriting of the story of the two Americans who happen to stumble across Brigadoon gives the absurdly flyweight musical a bit of genuine heft."

"I know I should probably be taking the plot on the chin and waxing lyrical about the sumptuous score... Basia Bińkowska’s gorgeous heather-filled set and Drew McOnie’s fluid, dance-filled direction. But the plot is so transfixingly outlandish that I spent a lot of the second half trying to do maths on my notepad."

"... ultimately the plot was remains too casually goofy to really have you feel invested in anyone’s relationships."

"Atmospheric and imaginative reworking of timeless musical"

"Two airmen stumble on a magical lost village in this exuberant production at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London"

"All was mischievously in tune with this playful and imaginative reworking of the Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe musical."

"Director and choreographer Drew McOnie makes smart decisions that deepen the story, with Scottish playwright Rona Munro tweaking the book to add layers of darkness and meaning."

"The changes suffuse the story with a tender yearning to escape war and grasp happiness and peace... The adaptation emphasises the keen sense of transience and allows for the possibility that this could all be a fever dream in the minds of the injured airmen."

"Louis Gaunt and Danielle Fiamanya bring a lovely chemistry to their deepening love affair as Tommy and Fiona"

"It’s not a great musical — certainly not on a par with last summer’s hit Fiddler on the Roof — but McOnie and his team find within it a timeless message."

"A rare return to Scotland’s Shangri-La"

"The pipers process through the Regent’s Park auditorium in Drew McOnie’s charming if meandering new production"

"This production — the first from the venue’s new artistic director, Drew McOnie — uses a new adaptation by Rona Munro... The results are less sentimental, but still haven’t solved the problem of how to inject pace, not to mention plausibility, into a meandering book. There’s enough to admire all the same."

"The dozen or so musicians led by the MD Laura Bangay generate just the right mix of velvet and tartan"

"But if we get a charming pair of central lovers in Louis Gaunt and Danielle Fiamanya (who is sharing the role of Fiona with Georgina Onuorah), the storyline still sags."

"... every time you hear the lush opening bars of Come to Me, Bend to Me, you’ll find yourself humming Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Music of the Night. All that fresh Scottish air plays tricks on the mind."

"Strange fable feels out of step with the times, however beguiling its dance may be"

"Odd in parts, but this revival sits sumptuously against its magical woodland setting"

"Director and choreographer Drew McOnie’s outdoor revival of the 1947 musical Brigadoon opens with just the kind of stirring moment you’d expect from this retro Scottish fantasia."

"There are abundant opportunities for the dance scenes that made his [Drew McOnie's] name, and he lovingly recreates and reimagines golden age Hollywood choreographer Agnes de Mille’s balletic sequences of yearning and skittish flirtation. Lerner and Loewe’s score is sumptuously romantic, too, and beautifully rendered here by a sizeable orchestra placed centre stage."

"Still, no amount of sylvan magic can hide the fact that this is a very, very silly kind of story."

"Numbers like “Almost Like Being In Love” and “Waiting For My Dearie” are full of wistfulness and longing, while Nic Myers has a huge amount of fun with the role of frisky Meg, who steals Jeff’s shoes in an attempt to trap him in her bed."

"... a tweaked ending lands a little strangely, too: perhaps the magic here isn’t heightened enough to make sense of this story’s dream-like logic."

"It’s a strange fable that feels out of step with the times, however beguiling its dance may be."

"There's no heat in the heather in this tame revival"

"This version of Lerner and Loewe’s musical has plenty of energy – bagpipes, big voices, drumming galore – but surely it needed more of a story update?"

"Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s postwar musical might seem like an incredulous romance but it holds great potential for updating in its central concept."

"Rona Munro’s adaptation does not make enough of this potential, although there is initial promise."

"Instead this too tame, too purposeless revival seems simply to be a love letter to Scotland with bagpipes and drumming galore. Granted, that is part of atmosphere-building but there is little of substance beneath it. So it swims in its own aspic rather like Brigadoon itself."

"The cast is filled with strong singers, albeit approximate Scottish accents, but the songs sound anodyne and generic"

"So it is song and dance in search of a story. No miracles happen here, sadly."