The score to the 1991 Broadway musical “The Secret Garden” deservedly has many fans. The songwriter Lucy Simon (Carly Simon’s sister) penned a lovely song suite rooted in the cultural heritage of the North of England, including “Winter’s on the Wing,” “A Bit of Earth,” “Race You to the Top of the Morning,” “Lily’s Eyes” and (my personal favorite) “Wick.” The show ran for nearly two years and there has long been talk of a much-overdue Broadway revival.
But this is a tricky title for a Chicago storefront like the Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre, given the extensive exterior settings and the need to cast two roughly 12-year-old kids, including one as Mary Lennox, the protagonist of the 1911 Frances Hodgson Burnett novel that served as the source material for Marsha Norman’s script. If you never read the book as a kid, the story involves a young girl who, following the death of her parents, is taken to a creepy Yorkshire manor house run by two rival brothers, one of whom is mourning his lost wife and another who is up to no good. Like many stories of its era, it focuses on the redemptive power of a child and, in this case, that is aligned with the titular garden, so that the musical ends up as a celebration of the natural life force of recovery and renewal.
Director Christopher Pazdernik’s production uses adults in the two kids’ roles (Joryhebel Ginorio plays Mary and Kailey Azure Green is her friend Colin), which is understandable if not ideal. And he’s not much interested in the original historical or cultural context, preferring a more universal form of storytelling, also a valid choice.
But if you’re doing “Secret Garden” in a small space, simplicity is your byword and there’s a lot of extra stuff going on here that does not always work. I’m thinking specifically of some overplaying (always a risk with such emotive material) and the decision to have characters like the servant Martha (Dakota Hughes) interact extensively with the audience, which diminishes the sense of isolation that I think so crucial to the first parts of this particular musical. Hughes does their best to make it work and Martha is a cheery soul but Simon’s kind of score just doesn’t easily work that way and this production often lacks focus. These Yorkshire characters are, for the most part, wound up in their own stultified emotions until mutually freed by the blooming of the spring and the charm of a hopeful kid from the outside. I’d have rather listened to these performers’ strong voices singing this score and focusing on the inner turmoil of their characters and the emotional subtext of the material.
The performer who gets closest to that is Will Koski, singing the role of Lord Archibald Craven made famous by Mandy Patinkin and offering up a performance as rich in emotional underpinning as in musical pleasures.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
Review: “The Secret Garden” (2.5 stars)
When: Through Jan. 5, 2025
Where: Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre, 721 Howard St., Evanston
Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes
Tickets: $30-$60 at 773-939-4101 and theo-u.com
