Love, Loss and Local Color Make a Bluegrass Musical ‘Bright Star’ Is Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s New Show
Charles IsherwoodSeptember 29, 2014: Darkness and light are blended in even proportions in Bright Star, a sepia-toned new musical by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell making its premiere at the Old Globe theater. The characters in this musically vibrant if overstuffed show, set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina during two separate decades of the 20th century, endure hardship, heartache and almost melodramatic loss. But, as the title suggests, their eyes remain fixed not on the black canopy of night but on the beacons of hope that pierce it. A telling song from the second act reminds us that no matter how gray the future seems, the “sun is gonna shine again.” The shining achievement of the musical is its winsome country and bluegrass score, with music by Mr. Martin and Ms. Brickell, and lyrics by Ms. Brickell. The complicated plot, divided between two love stories that turn out to have an unusual connection, threatens to get a little too diffuse and unravel like a ball of yarn rolling off a knitter’s lap. But the songs — yearning ballads and square-dance romps rich with fiddle, piano and banjo, beautifully played by a nine-person band — provide a buoyancy that keeps the momentum from stalling.
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