Playhouse plants an enchanting 'Garden'

By Tom Titus
Daily Pilot
February 25, 2005

 

Any stage production adapted from a novel is bound to be particularly demanding on the show's technicians, if only because of its multiple setting requirements, and a project like "The Secret Garden" presents even further complications.

 

The Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse does not offer one of the comparatively enormous stages, such as those found in Huntington Beach or Laguna Beach, and to mount this large a show in this small a venue would seem fraught with peril. Yet director Ryan Holihan and his industrious cast and crew have found a way to make the show work, and work quite nicely.

 

"The Secret Garden," Marsha Norman's musical adaptation of the classic novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, is a haunting blend of the real and the unreal as characters struck down by cholera in the opening scene return, garbed in white, as dream figures influencing subsequent events. Among the ghostly troupe is Lily, wife of an English nobleman, who died in childbirth and who exerts a particularly powerful influence.

 

The story, however, centers on young Mary, a rather strident young girl whose parents were among the cholera victims. Sent to live with the aforementioned nobleman, her uncle, Mary discovers the secret garden of the title and changes many lives in the process.

 

Alyson Fainbarg, a diminutive college student easily credible as a preteen lass, renders a touching and powerful performance as Mary, whose bratty nature melts into a splendid sense of humanity with the help of several house servants. Mary's transformation parallels that of the garden, also nurtured with tender care after a prolonged period of neglect.

 

As her grieving uncle, Marc Montminy is quite convincing, holding Mary at arm's length while he nourishes his memories of the lovely Lily, beautifully played and sung by Laura Lindahl. The requisite "heavy" in the piece is the uncle's physician brother, Jason Holland, who covets both Montminy's estate and his abbreviated life with Lily, and whose remedies for his stricken nephew may not be in the lad's best interests.

 

Spirited performances come from Cynthia Acevedo as Mary's maid, Michael Dale Brown as the wise old gardener, Enrique Munoz Jr. as the enthusiastic young gardener and, particularly, Barbara Duncan Brown as the no-nonsense housekeeper. Chandler Stager grows in the role of Montminy's ailing young son.

 

Director Holihan also has designed the settings -- an intricate compilation of set pieces, which appear from and disappear into the wings, propelled by an active backstage crew and the actors themselves. A large cast is almost mandatory for this sort of production, if only to effect the numerous scene changes.

 

The intricate movements of the dream figures through the live action are nicely choreographed by Megan Endicott Morrow, whose parents Kathy and Steve Endicott head the backstage crew as stage managers. Musical direction by Stephen Hulsey and Ryan Hood's lighting effects further enhance the production.

 

Musically, there are few numbers which genuinely stick to the ribs, but the duet by Montminy and Holland, "In Lily's Eyes," is a dramatic show stopper, as is Acevedo's inspirational solo, "Hold On." Lindahl's vocalizing in her duets with Montminy also touch the heart.

 

Many hands and talents have gone into making this "Secret Garden" bloom at the Civic Playhouse. They illustrate the good things that may occur in small staging venues.

 

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot.