With music and book by Steve Martin and music and lyrics by Edie Brickell, BRIGHT STAR is based on an original story by Martin and Brickell and features direction by Walter Bobbie.
Inspired by an astonishing true event, the wholly original new musical BRIGHT STAR tells a sweeping tale of love and redemption set against the rich backdrop of the American South in the 1920s and 40s. When successful literary editor Alice Murphy meets an ambitious young soldier just home from World War II, their connection inspires Alice to confront a shocking incident from her past. Together they discover a long-buried secret with the power to transform their lives.
'If you knew my story, you'd have a good story to tell,' sings Alice (Carmen Cusack) in the introductory number of Bright Star. But would you know how to tell it? That's where Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, cowriters of this gawky tall tale, fall short...Bright Star aspires to be what the older Alice asks from a young fiction writer (A.J. Shively): 'a sweeping tale of pain and redemption.' But it cries out for an editor's sharp blue pen. Sweeping? In lieu of the color that the story seems to call for, Walter Bobbie's production is often actively plain, as though trying to hide its central bathos in beige. Painful? For the audience, perhaps, thanks to shoddy craftsmanship that saddles likable, plucky bluegrass music with lyrics that run from workmanlike to egregious. It does, however, have a genuine redeeming feature in Cusack...Cusack is distinctive and immediately interesting, convincing at playing Alice at both ages, with a voice that is full of beautiful surprises.
It doesn't shy away from the cornball or the unapologetically sentimental. And, yes, the plot is implausibly romantic and hinged on coincidence. Along with all that, however, 'Bright Star' is also downright wonderful -- a multichambered sweetheart of an original that Steve Martin and Edie Brickell created for Broadway from little more than a 1902 news item about a lost baby and an unbridled love of American roots music...At first, all the 'sun's gonna shine' and 'a man's gotta do' songs seem awfully simple and self-explanatory...But as the relationships deepen and darken, the show -- directed with a lack of cynicism and lots of rolling wood furniture by Walter Bobbie ('Chicago') -- grows with the complexity of a juicy short story. The large cast is uniformly appealing, with choreography that brings a haunting moodiness to the square dances and jitterbugs. Then there's the score, which builds with rhythmic surprises, melodic complexity and the deep satisfaction of humming and plucking strings.
| 2016 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
| 2017 | US Tour |
First National Tour US Tour |
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Musical | Carmen Cusack |
| 2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Costume Design for a Musical | Jane Greenwood |
| 2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical | A.J. Shively |
| 2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical | Paul Alexander Nolan |
| 2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Music | Edie Brickell |
| 2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Music | Steve Martin |
| 2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Orchestrations | August Eriksmoen |
| 2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical | Nevin Steinberg |
| 2016 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Carmen Cusack |
| 2016 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical | Bright Star |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Musical | Carmen Cusack |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Book of a Musical (Broadway or off-Broadway) | Steve Martin |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Choreography | Josh Rhodes |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Costume Design (Play or Musical) | Jane Greenwood |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Director of a Musical | Walter Bobbie |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Broadway Musical | Bright Star |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Score (Broadway or off-Broadway) | Edie Brickell |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Score (Broadway or off-Broadway) | Steve Martin |
| 2016 | Tony Awards | Best Book of a Musical | Steve Martin |
| 2016 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Bright Star |
| 2016 | Tony Awards | Best Orchestrations | August Eriksmoen |
| 2016 | Tony Awards | Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre | Steve Martin |
| 2016 | Tony Awards | Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre | Edie Brickell |
| 2016 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical | Carmen Cusack |
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