Picnic at Hanging Rock Off-Broadway Reviews

Bell’s book and lyrics often struggle to reflect the seductive eeriness of its source material, with lines that feel overly literal or dependent on the rhyme scheme. The simplicity distracts from a story that relies on ambiguity; how can we accept the mystery of the vanishing girls when so many other plot points are stated directly to the audience?

The storytelling can be herky-jerky and hard to follow in places for those unfamiliar with the material, and the songs seldom do much to advance the plot (and sometimes end abruptly or anticlimactically). Also, we meet a lot of girls — too many to keep track of, though they do blend beautifully in group choral numbers.

The plot and characters are equally muddled, with a run-here, run-there, run-anywhere brand of direction that reveals the show hasn’t quite figured out what to do after the girls disappear, or how to recast or progress the film’s open frame of reference. Instead, it hits the main plot points while frustratedly banging its head against all of Picnic’s familiar mysteries. (Important note: this was the show’s second New York performance, so maybe it will evolve over time.)

Two outstanding actor/singers make this Picnic a must-see, despite its unwieldy bulk. Gillian Jackson Han plays Miranda, a free-spirited, nature-loving senior girl who befriends the outcast Sara (Sarah Walsh), a damaged, asocial charity case. Miranda tends to the misfit as she would an ailing plant.

The intriguing Hanging Rock allure has been adapted as a musical, book and lyrics by Hilary Bell and music (and arrangements) by Greta Gertler Gold, and directed with somber celebratory flourish by Portia Krieger. Although comparison with previous formats may be uncalled for, they are also inevitable. The stage version has much to recommend it, but there are troublesome drawbacks.

Ms. Bell’s book inserts flashbacks to add drama and, at times, blur the lines between reality and reflection, while Ms. Gertler Gold’s winding, often meandering tunes and arrangements provide dissonant harmonies. The singing, accordingly, can sound purposefully shrill, as if the gifted players have been instructed to sustain a mix of tension and terror.

This Picnic At Hanging Rock staging yearns to scale a further mile, like the girls who pine from an escape from time and the inevitable doom of growing up. Though the show is imperfect, the finale “Time and Place” peaks among the many harmonies, with an entire ensemble ensnared and enchanted by the Rock.

While it makes sense for these creators to go big (the story is concerned with millions-of-years-old earthen enigmas, after all), “Picnic at Hanging Rock” struggles to move us through its points of action with enough nuance. Its bevy of female roles still make it an exciting accomplishment, one that seems destined to live on in future productions or school stages. But in the show’s effort to tell a vast mystery, it forgets the importance of clarity.