A pair of magnetic, gorgeously sung lead performances bring out the best in Jason Robert Brown and Marsha Norman’s The Bridges of Madison County. The makeshift production design it’s been given by Chromolume Theatre Company and some occasionally clunky staging not so much.

And that’s a shame because Los Angeles hasn’t seen composer-lyricist Brown and book writer Norman’s exquisite take on Robert James Waller’s novel since its magnificent National Tour played the Ahmanson back in 2015 a year after its shamefully short 137-performance Broadway run.

As in the Clint Eastwood-Meryl Streep starrer that broke audiences’ hearts, Bridge The Musical introduces us to Francesca (Rachel Wirtz), a WWII war bride who left her native Naples for the corn fields of Iowa when she married American GI Bud (James Esposito) at war’s end.

Still, when your native city has been bombed to smithereens and your fiancé has been one of WWII’s countless casualties and a heart-of-gold American has proposed marriage, what other choice have you but to travel 5000 miles and begin a new life?

As the years pass by, you learn English, raise two teenage children, and become a part of a community that has accepted you with gratifyingly open arms.

Then comes the fateful day your husband and your two teenagers (Chris Gutierrez and Abby Espiritu as Michael and Carolyn) head off for three days at the national 4H fair and a handsome National Geographic photographer named Kincaid (Kyle Critelli) shows up on your doorstep asking for directions to one of Madison County’s famous covered bridges.

 Talk about a recipe for passionate romance, steamy sex, and the need to choose between the life you’ve built and a dazzling new one if only you are willing to accept the consequences.

Though Brown’s Tony-winning score sounds curiously more like Adam Guettel’s for The Light In The Piazza and Floyd Collins than his Parade, The Last Five Years, or Honeymoon In Vegas, with melodies as exquisite as those he’s written for Francesca and Robert to sing, this reviewer for one has no complaints about the similarities.

Norman’s book grabs us from the moment Francesca’s and Robert’s eyes first meet, and by beefing up the roles of the Iowa farm community who’ve been Francesca’s friends and neighbors these past two decades, she makes it even clearer than Waller’s novel or the Clint Eastwood-Meryl Streep movie adaptation just what Francesca would be leaving behind should she and Robert take a life-changing romantic plunge.

All of this added up to a musical whose National Tour stars Elizabeth Stanley and Andrew Samonsky had me sobbing my heart out at the Ahmanson ten years ago in a musical I’ve been aching to see performed here in L.A. ever since.

Still, as grateful as I am to have been given that opportunity and as smitten as I was the moment the drop-dead gorgeous Wirtz began recounting Francesca’s story in her delicate, expressive soprano, not to mention the romantic-sexual sparks she and the hunky, power-piped Critelli ignited from the moment he crossed her doorstep, I couldn’t help wishing the entire production was at the level of excellence it its two stars.

That’s not to say that Chromolume artistic director Esposito isn’t a fine choice to play Bud, or that Gutierrez and Espiritu don’t make for a pair of spirited teens, or that the hard-working supporting cast doesn’t feature Mary Zastrow’s highly entertaining take on Francesca’s nosy neighbor Marge (who turns out to be much more that what meets the eye) and David Michael Trevino’s Most Supportive Husband Ever take on Marge’s hubby Charlie.

Lina VanGerpen sing Marian’s “Another Life” in a soprano to rival Wirtz’s, Renee Cohen is a big-voiced State Road Singer, and Andrew Landecker ably completes the multi-tasking ensemble.

Finally, it’s nothing short of miraculous how music director Richard Berent has combined live keyboard accompaniment (joined by Xinqian Li on guitar) with prerecorded tracks to suggest Brown’s Tony-winning orchestrations of his Tony-winning score.

Still, though Richard Van Slyke’s direction definitely has its effective moments, he is stymied throughout by a scenic design (by Esposito) that requires way too much awkward moving about of barebones set pieces (including a ramshackle door frame and a double bed that took so long unfolding and refolding and left the theater in uncomfortably dead silence during more than one time-consuming effort).

 And it doesn’t help that a black-wall backdrop seems woefully ill-suited for a musical that cries out for a set that gives some sense of the blue skies and green-and-yellow corn fields of the state Francesca now calls home.

Thank goodness then for the rich, warms hues of Antonio Cruz’s lighting design and for the just-right Iowa-wear that costume designer Shon LeBlanc has provided the cast.

Intimacy director Ariella Salina Fiore deserves bonus points for this one. Esposito is sound designer. Mara Aguilar is production stage manager and Kyle Lukas is assistant stage manager. Ken Werther is publicist.

 I could not be more enraptured by The Bridges Of Madison County’s two charismatic stars or by the pair of heartbreakingly moving performances they deliver.

If only Rachel Wirtz and Kyle Critelli were breaking hearts in a more professional staged production than the one now playing at the Zephyr.

Zephyr Theatre, 7456 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles.
www.chrtheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
July 18, 2025
Photos: Nico Montelibano

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Tags: Chromolume Theatre, Jason Robert Brown, Los Angeles Theater Review, Marsha Norman