The Bridges of Madison County
8 / 10
My eyes rolled a bit, I must confess, at the prospect of a Broadway musical based on Robert James Waller's sentimental 1992 bestseller,The Bridges of Madison County (which also inspired a 1995 film with Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood). But I must also admit that those same jaded eyes, by the end of the show, had misted up more than once; and judging from the waves of muffled sniffles around me, this was not an uncommon response. Marsha Norman and Jason Robert Brown's adaptation earns those tears. The musical's emotion is unapologetically grand, and its love story has a wide, old-fashioned scope. Directed with spare precision by Bartlett Sher-reunited with his most of his South Pacific design team-it's a new work that plays like a classic.
