Fiona (Georgina Onuorah, alternating with Danielle Fiamanya) is the sister of the bride, resigned to never finding a love of her own until the American turns up and piques her curiosity. In part because she doesn't appear to know what an American is.
It turns out Brigadoon is an 18th century town that, thanks to a spectacularly misconceived attempt to keep the residents safe from war* has been enchanted by nonspecific forest entities to only exist for 24 hours every hundred years. So Tommy has less than a day to decide if his feelings for Fiona are strong enough for him to stay for the rest of his life†.
In a way I can see the motivation for choosing this show - a dance-heavy musical is a good way to showcase a choreographer taking charge of the venue, while bagpipes and drums in the mist are a good match for a place that gets more atmospheric as the sun goes down. The latter means it starts well, as drummers and pipers slowly descend through the audience setting an air of mystery, and the cast are in good voice and dancing up a storm throughout (McOnie's choreography incorporating Agnes De Mille's original dances.) The trouble is the show itself, which there's only so much the production and performers can do with.
I only know Brigadoon by reputation and was expecting it to be cheesy, but not prepared for quite how twee and bland it is - there's a couple of good songs including its most famous number "Almost Like Being in Love," but nothing to get too excited about. Apart from a fun song where Meg lists her ex-boyfriends and why they dumped her while simultaneously trying to seduce Jeff, there's little attempt at humour, and on the flipside the engegement with themes of war and loss are barely surface-level. It all feels very dated despite a new rewrite from Rona Munro, who's perhaps been brought in to provide a bit more of an authentic Scottish element. Although that can only take you as far as the variable accents will let it. To be fair Brigadoon's imaginary, who's to say its native accent isn't an enchanting Aberdeen / Kilkenny / Chicago / Lagos mix?
I appreciate that this is pure post-war escapist whimsy, so maybe my problem is entirely down to the fact that I couldn't for one moment get over the fact that actually experiencing life in Brigadoon would be an existential nightmare: A life where every morning you're catapulted 100 years into an unknown future, where you can't leave without severe consequences but, as per the entire premise of the show, the outside world can come in. Best case scenario is that the airmen are the last visitors ever and you spend the rest of your life passing cloth backwards and forwards, more likely it's less than a week from the residents' perspective before Brigadoon pops up in the middle of a grey megacity of the future and the police immediately gun everyone down because they think they're spies who've somehow teleported in.
The only character who seems to view this as a curse rather than a blessing is Harry (Danny Nattrass,) but he's also an incel who wants to destroy the whole town because bride-to-be Jean (Jasmine Jules Andrews) won't fuck him, so he's not exactly someone the audience can unambiguously relate to. Basia Bińkowska's set provides an exciting multi-level setting for the big dance numbers even if the dark grey wood with gardens planted on top of it makes it look like Brigadoon's popped up in the Barbican Centre. Ultimately this seemed to go down a storm with most of the audience, but if like me you struggle to buy into its brand of whimsy this is indeed more of a curse than a miracle.
Brigadoon by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe in a version by Rona Munro is booking until the 20th of September at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park.
Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes including interval.
Photo credit: Mark Senior.
*it's only day 2 from their perspective and already a war has literally fallen out of the sky into their lives
†which will be very short if he's hurtling towards the heat death of the universe at the rate of 100 years per day
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