From its days when actors performed in T-shirts and with scripts in hand, 42nd Street Moon has traveled a long distance, and its current production of "The Secret Garden" may be its farthest reach yet. In song and style, the musical can be a somber affair, not at all like the toe-tapping affairs that have long been fodder for the troupe, but the considerable resources gone into this admirable production are not always enough to make it an enchanting one.
Large does of enchantment are required to pull forth vibrancy not easily accessible in this adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1911 children's novel. With music by Lucy Simon, and lyrics and book by Marsha Norman, the 1991 musical suffers from claustrophobia at the Gateway Theatre, as Brian Watson's substantial set squeezes most action into an even smaller space than the stage allows. It is a story that takes place on the bleak expanses of the Yorkshire moors, and in a rambling manor of hidden rooms and passages - not to mention the wondrous titular garden - and a slideshow of projections is ineffective at suggesting there is something more on stage.
Misselthwaite Manor is the new home to 10-year-old Mary Lennox, who has been left an orphan when a cholera epidemic kills her parents stationed in colonial India. Her only relative is her dour, reclusive uncle, who maintains the manor as a mausoleum to his late wife, and who agrees to become Mary's dutiful guardian as long as he need not emotionally engage. Left to her own devices, and abetted by several sympathetic servants and a hefty dose of magic, Mary's explorations into forbidden areas bring forth rebirth both spiritual and botanical.
The songs are largely moody variations of English folk tunes and ballads that the cast performs earnestly and connects with occasionally. The libretto moves slowly, at times cumbersomely, and then bursts into sudden rushes. Director Dyan McBride deals with these facts with some success, although the big reveal of the mysterious buried key to the walled-off garden is about as gripping as discovering where you mislaid the car keys, while the musical's annoying insistence on bringing back aristocratic and exotic ghosts from the Raj is not helped by also turning them into furniture movers when they are not awkwardly dancing in ballroom style.
The production's biggest asset is Katie Maupin as Mary Lennox. The young performer has an intensity that holds focus, and is an engaging presence as the character evolves from churlishly spoiled to an almost holy redeemer. While Brian Watson, as her new guardian, doesn't have to do a Quasimodo, that he only sports a hardly noticeable out-of-place shoulder pad is actually a distraction when we are repeatedly told that he is a hunchbacked cripple. He is suitably grim in the role, and is best heard in a duet with his brother (Edward Hightower) over their mutual love for his late wife.
Lucinda Hitchcock Cone is impressively stern as the manor's head housekeeper, while Heather Orth brings welcome cheerfulness as the servant Martha, who enables Mary's rule-breaking behavior. Martha's handyman brother Dickon is another enabler, played jauntily if with a bit too much effortful elfin-ness by Keith Pinto. Although given only to sporadic spectral appearances, Sharon Rietkerk gets to display the production's most appealing singing voice.
By the end of "The Secret Garden," you may feel more admiration than misty eyes. While I suppose it can be billed as family entertainment, and the novel from which it's drawn has entertained generations of children, the musical and this production of it don't exactly seem a holiday treat for smaller theatergoers. Adults are better able to control their squirming.
"The Secret Garden" will run through Dec. 24 at the Gateway Theatre. Tickets are $28-$75. Call (415) 255-8207 or go to 42ndstmoon.org.
Lonely orphan Mary Lennox (Katie Maupin) finds a friend in a servant (Maureen Orth) in her bleak new manor home in "The Secret Garden" at the Gateway Theatre. Photo: Ben Krantz Studios