Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s Brigadoon gets a long overdue makeover at the Pasadena Playhouse, one that updates Lerner’s creaky book while not changing a note of the musical theater classic’ gorgeous score, and the result is the most glorious of revivals.

Lerner & Loewe may be best known for their musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, but years before My Fair Lady, the duo had their first big Broadway hit in 1947 with Brigadoon.

And though Brigadoon will never eclipse Lerner & Loewe’s 1956 masterpiece, it has always had its own decidedly old-fashioned charms along with songs like “Almost Like Being in Love” that have gone on to become standards.

The musical gets its title from a mysterious Scottish village that (according to legend) appears in our world only one day every hundred years before disappearing again into the mist for another century. However, should a resident leave Brigadoon for any reason, the village and all its inhabitants will vanish forever.

Into this magical place stumble two American tourists, Tommy Albright (Max Von Essen) and Jeff Douglas (Happy Anderson), lost in the Scottish Highlands.

Tommy falls in love at first sight with town beauty Fiona MacLaren (Betsy Morgan) while Jeff (in the musical’s original incarnation) gives frisky wench Meg Brockie a tumble. (More about how Silber’s book updates the Madonna/Whore trope later.)

Almost all of Brigadoon’s action takes place on a single day, the day of Fiona’s sister Jean’s (Kylie Victoria Edwards) wedding to Charlie Dalrymple (Daniel Yearwood), joyous news for the townsfolk but less so for Harry Beaton (Spencer Milford), Jean’s spurned ex, whose rejection could have dire consequences for not only Jean and Charlie but for Brigadoon’s very existence.

Unlike David Henry Hwang’s rewrite of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song, Silber doesn’t give Brigadoon a whole new plot.

Instead, she has while savilly rethought some of the musical’s less enlightened moments while updating Tommy and Jeff’s lines to more accurately represent 2026 speech.

Meg, for instance, is no longer a Scottish Ado Annie who “cannae say no” but an older and wiser pub owner who gives Jeff a crash course in the local lingo, and Jeff too is considerably richer here, given a back story that explains his cynical outlook on life.

And if for no other reason than to give Tyne Daly a meaty role to sink her teeth into, reimagining town elder Mr. Lundie as the Widow Lundie adds another strong female character to the mix.

Finally, changing likes like “You’ve got a fine job and you’re engaged to a fine girl and you’re lost in a fine forest” into “You’ve got a killer job, you went to the best schools, you live in the greatest city on earth in a ridiculous apartment.” makes Tommy and Jeff’s dialog sound fresh and contemporary and no longer stilted or dated.

What hasn’t changed at all is Brigadoon’s charm and its wonder and its magic, and with Katie Spellman doubling dynamically as both director and choreographer, Brigadoon 2026 enchants like never before with deeply felt performances and some downright spectacular dancing, whether it’s the full cast kicking up their heels to “I’ll Go Home with Bonnie Jean” or Edwards’ exquisite balletic moves in “Come To Me Bend To Me” or Milford’s thrilling “Sword Dance” or most stunning of all, Jessica Lee Keller’s expression of unspeakable grief in “Funeral,” a performance so heart-wrenching it takes dance to a whole new level of artistic brilliance.

Von Essen and Morgan are utter perfection as Tommy and Fiona, and just wait till they show off heavenly pipes in a “From This Day On” that may well have you wiping away tears.

Anderson’s Jeff may not sing a note but the acting chops he gets to display when revealing why Tommy’s bestie is the way he is are just one reason to cheer Silber’s reconception of the musical’s penultimate scene.

Vivino is as fabulous as she is feisty as the been-there-done-that Meg, Charlie’s “Come To Me Bend To Me” gives Yearwood the chance to show off the most glorious of tenors, and Geoffrey Wade (Andrew MacLaren) and Michael Scott Harris (Archie Beaton) add maturity and gravitas to the mix.

Ensemble members Brian Calì (Angus), Amanda Clement, Sophie Liu David, Evan Kinnane, Maddie Miller Lacambra, Julia Wheeler Lennon, Brian Kim McCormick (Stuart), Gabriel Navarro, Chuck Saccula (Sandy Dean), Amy Smith, and Gil Sweeney are as good as it gets whether vocalizing under Darryl Archibald’s expert music supervision and Brad Gardner’s equally fine music direction or showing off the most accomplished of dance moves, all of the above accompanied by Brigadoon’s magnificent 22-piece orchestra under Gardner’s baton.

Finally, Pasadena Playhouse has once again gone all out to give Brigadoon a production design* that’s so stunning, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it reemerge on a Broadway stage.

Casting is by Ryan Bernard Tymensky, CSA. Jill Gold is production stage manager and Lauren Buangana and Miriam E. Mendoza are assistant stage managers. Davidson & Choy Publicity are press representatives.

There’s a difference between old-fashioned and dated, and until now, the 1947 version of Brigadoon has been both.

It’s still old-fashioned, but now only in the best sort of way, like Oklahoma!, Guys And Dolls, and Gypsy, and at a time when most regional theaters would never even consider staging a rarely revived Broadway classic, let alone do so at a scale rarely matched these days even on the Great White Way, Pasadena Playhouse has done just that and come up with something quite spectacular indeed.

* Jason Sherwood (set), Raquel Adorno (costumes), Albee Alvarado, (hair/wig/makeup), Jaymi Smith (lighting), Danny Erdberg and Ursula Kwong-Brown (sound)

Pasadena Playhouse, 39 South El Molino Ave., Pasadena. Through June 14. Wednesdays through Fridays at 8:00, Saturdays at 2:00 and 8:00, Sundays at 2:00 and 7:30.
www.pasadenaplayhouse.org

–Steven Stanley
May 17, 2026
Photos: Jeff Lorch

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Tags: Alexandra Silber, Lerner & Lowe, Los Angeles Theater Review, Pasadena Playhouse