Gorgeous bluegrass melodies, a leading lady’s incandescent star turn, all-around terrific supporting performances, ingenious staging, and a plot straight out of a 1930s/40s Hollywood weeper will have you crying joyful tears that Musical Theatre West has made Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s Bright Star its 66th season opener.

 Meet 38-year-old Asheville, NC literary journal editor Alice Murphy (Anna Mintzer), whose long-ago teenage romance with small-town scion Jimmy Ray (Devin Archer) may have met with the approval of her parents (Ted Barton and Rayna Hickman) but not with Jimmy Ray’s father (Sean Smith as power-wielding mayor Josiah Dobbs), whose retaliatory actions turned a sunny teen into the hard-edged all-business adult she is today’s 1945.

 Meanwhile, young G.I. Billy Cane (Taubert Nadalini) has returned from WWII with dreams of literary stardom, dreams briefly dampened by Daddy’s (David Atkinson) news that the soldier boy’s beloved mother has been “taken away” by a midnight visitor.

Since the much-renowned Asheville Southern Journal seems as good a place as any to jump-start a career in creative writing, Billy leaves behind pert local librarian Margo Crawford (Paige Herschell) and heads off to the biggish city where he makes it past editor Alice’s assistants Daryl Ames (Ryan Dietz) and Lucy Grant (Rachelle Rose Clark) to meet the lady herself and impress her with his storytelling promise (and a brand-new letter of recommendation from long-ago deceased Thomas Wolfe).

Though said letter fails to fool seen-it-all Alice, Billy’s chutzpah does, and wonder of wonders she actually likes one of his stories, leaving our handsome young hero hopeful that he may one day see his name in the prestigious literary journal and provide Alice with her next published writer.

 Already a feel-good crowd-pleaser in its 2014 Old Globe World Premiere, Bright Star’s 2016 Broadway debut scored it five Tony nominations including Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Score.

Now, two years later, Bright Star arrives at Long Beach’s Carpenter Performing Arts Center with Richard Gatta adeptly recreating director Walter Bobbie and choreographer Josh Rhodes’ supremely imaginative original vision.

 Though Bright Star’s rather pedestrian lyrics remain the show’s weaker element (“She’s gone. She’s gone.” “A man’s gotta do, what a man’s gotta do, when a man’s gotta do, what he’s got to.” “You can’t take him. He’s my baby. You can’t take my baby boy.”), the melodies Martin and Brickell have written are blessed with one bluegrass hook after another.

 Bright Star transitions seamlessly from the 1940s to the ‘20s and back again on Eugene Lee’s expansive Broadway set, one whose mobile, multipurpose “bandstand” houses five of the production’s ten-musician orchestra* under Dennis Castellano’s expert musical director’s baton.

 Meanwhile, multitalented ensemble members Richard Bulda, David Kirk Grant, Rachel McLaughlan, Scott McLean Harrison (Max), Kevin McMahon (Stanford Adams), Mackenzie Perpich (Florence), Tanner Rampton, and Nikki Elena Spies (County Clerk) serve as Bright Star’s ever-present North Carolinian Greek chorus, observing, participating, and occasionally even pulling the strings while dancing to Rhodes’s mesmerizing choreography, as original as Broadway choreography gets.

 Following in Carmen Cusack’s Tony-nominated footsteps is no easy task, but one that the radiant Mintzer aces from the get-go, creating two absolutely distinct Alices, both the lovestruck teen and the life-hardened adult, while revealing powerful acting chops to match her exquisite pipes.

Southland star Archer’s Jimmy Ray is so irresistible, it’s no wonder Alice is smitten while Nadalini more than fulfills the promise of four years of USC musical theater leads as the infectiously boyish Billy opposite Herschell’s perky charmer of a Margo.

The equally splendid Atkinson, Barton, and Hickman prove that parents can be as warm and loving as Smith’s deliciously dastardly Daddy Dearest is not.

 Last but not least, Dietz and Clark provide sassy, citified comic relief while making “Another Round,” Bright Star’s politically incorrect song-and-dance celebration of alcoholism and its many rewards, a show-stopping treat.

 Jane Greenwood’s pitch-perfect period Broadway costumes, Michon Gruber-Gonzales’s spot-on hair and wigs, Jean-Yves Tessier’s striking lighting, and Audio Production Geeks, LLC’s crystal-clear sound design add up to a Broadway-caliber production design all the way.

Margaret Kayes is stage manager and Shay Garber is assistant stage manager. Kevin Clowes is technical director.  Matt Terzigni is production manager.

Kudos to Musical Theatre West for taking a chance on a show its familiarity-loving subscriber base may not know from Adam, a risk that more than pays off in the masterful staging of a largely undiscovered gem. Bright Star shines brightly indeed.

*Jeness Johnson, Nate Laguzza, Julie Lamoureux, Nolan Livesay, Evan Marshall, Ryan O’Connell, Carlos Rivera, James Saunders, Max Wagner, and Will Wu

Musical Theatre West, Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center, 6200 Atherton St., Long Beach.
www.musical.org

–Steven Stanley
October 20, 2018
Photos: Caught In The Moment Photography

Tags: Edie Brickell, Los Angeles Theater Review, Musical Theatre West, Steve Martin