REVIEW: The Bridges of Madison County (Signature Theatre)
Preview: Another op’nin, another show! Kicking off Signature’s 2023-24 season is The Bridges of Madison County, a musical adapted from the eponymous romance novel and film from the 1990s. (Jason Robert Brown’s score anchors the piece, having won two Tonys for the music work in 2013). I see this show mentioned a fair bit in the context of its composer, either as one of his more self-indulgent cycles or one of his more sophisticated. For pretext, I don’t hate The Last Five Years, his other pretty popular piece. I don’t think it’s a particularly great musical like some people think but I certainly don’t think it’s as awful as others do either; I’m quite neutral on the JRB train quite simply due to lack of production experience with his work. In this musical, the plot follows a 1960’s Italian war bride who begins a passionate affair with a traveling National Geographic photographer while her family is away. Was Signature’s take on Bridges a good first impression?
Acting: Such an amorous show dictates a strong fulcrum of attraction between its leads. Despite efforts to maximize this, the central romance between Francesca (Erin Davie) and Robert (Mark Evans) feels plastic and cold most of the time. Davie particularly was hurt by shaky accent work which distracted me from an otherwise decent singing performance. My family hosted exchange students from around Europe for five years and Davie’s “Italian” accent from the top of Act I immediately registered as Finnish to me, and if not that, something vaguely not-Italian to others around me. It does stabilize by the middle of Act II, either for accustomment on my part or actual improvement. (This could also be nit-picky, but her early numbers had a particularly aggressive vibrato that I was not a fan of; this definitely improved by the later stages). However, the emotional heart of the production does at least make honest attempts to materialize via the performances. While Evans was a more believably-lovestruck Robert, his character was particularly underdeveloped leaving less expectation to deliver at the same level. Forgettable as well were Francesca’s family, each whom deliver more effort to varying degrees of success; Bud (Cullen R. Titmas), Francesca’s cuckolded husband, was largely shoehorned in and not afforded actual fodder to perform with until the penultimate number, which even still was just barely hardy enough to justify the “best-for-last” notion. Of note though were Rayanne Gonzales as Marge, the neighbor who is the closest thing Francesca has as a friend, and her husband Charlie (Christopher Bloch). Their casual, caring relationship lit up the room whenever they were onstage and it was by far the most enjoyable of the evening. 5/10
Book/Music: Marsha Norman’s book leaves much to be desired, but isn’t to the point that I would say it’s “bad”. What may serve as a passable story for a 90s romance novel, needs more nuance and creativity if adapted to the stage, or else everything looks drab and unfocused. The motivations of the others are never truly fleshed out, in this case. Francesca’s story is ,plain as day: empathetic and pitiful, but her relationships with the others could help fuel so much more story. There are so many doors opened for development that are just never explored, and we’re left with just crumbles of intrigue over its two-act (much too long, I believe) runtime and never satisfies the audience beyond its bursts of intimacy. Musically, Jason Robert Brown does deliver on his typical brand of luscious pop-rock-ballad songwriting. While no song in particular jumps out at me for a listen-through, they do a great job of moving what story there is along in an engaging, thoughtful way. The passion and longing twirl together in divine rhythm and kept me impressed far longer than I was expecting it to — it did win all those awards for a reason, I suppose. 6/10
Production: What this production does best is how director Ethan Heard utilizes its fun diametric staging (Lee Savage). The action ebbs and flows from either end without obscuring anything from the halves of the audience, whose positions facing each other across the action creates an intimate sense of township and togetherness which match the motifs in the story. Creative lighting design by Jesse Belsky (sponsored ~~anonymously~~) paints the periphery of the stage with moody sunrises and vivid melancholy, and the versatile on-stage prop work makes quick work of convincingly turning a house into a barn into a covered bridge. 8/10
VisDev: Signature is not known for its incredible graphic design standards (at least on this blog, sorry y’all), still seemingly stuck in 2007 when it renovated its current space in Arlington. That being said, the program design is actually well designed for Bridges, depicting a passionate tryst viewed only through the side view of an old truck. This is an accurate preparation of the material and I knew exactly what to expect. Pre-show staging is a little less clear, but its warm rusticity and uncommon layout immediately provoke intrigue. 7/10
