Mike Foley | University Advancement | 25 February 2004The BYU-Hawaii Fine Arts Department will present four performances of the award-winning Broadway musical, The Secret Garden, this week featuring a local cast that includes several new talents.
BYU-Hawaii guest director in residence Merrilee Webb, the director, explained the cast has only been practicing the "big musical show" since Jan. 12, "but they're very ready. The show is a natural for us."
Webb also worked with the chorus while Michael Belnap, a visiting professor from the Indiana School of Music, co-directed the soloists.
Webb explained The Secret Garden -- a 1991 Broadway musical by Lucy Simon and Marcia Norman, adapted from the 1911 Frances Hodgson Burnett tale of the same name -- tells the story of Mary Lennox, a disagreeable little English girl who was orphaned in India when all the other people in her village died in the 1910 cholera epidemic. She is sent to England to live with her uncle, Archibald Craven. He grieves over his wife who died giving birth to their son, Colin, a bedridden hypochondriac who is also very spoiled. The cousins eventually get drawn out by discovering an overgrown garden.
"The whole musical is about healing wounds and about forgiveness," Webb said. "And the thing that's especially attractive is that all the folks in India who died come with Mary. They wander in and out of the scenes and are called dreamers."
"The whole dreamer aspect is very fascinating. They'll come in and be right there, and coax the other characters. It's very gospel oriented, although it's not written by LDS composers, and the music is fantastic," she said.
Webb noted that Maria Burnham plays the lead, Mary Lennox, and Cubby Fetuli-Taula, a 6th grader at Laie Elementary, plays Colin Craven. "They are charming," Webb said. "Cubby's never acted in a musical before, but he's a natural."
Ben Tyrell plays Archibald Craven. Ivalani Bradshaw plays Lily, Craven's wife who died giving birth to Colin. Jennifer Shumway plays the hilarious maid: "She has a wonderful voice and is a brilliant actress," Webb said.
Cy Wood plays Dickon, a man who teaches Mary that "just because the garden looks dead doesn't mean it is." He also teaches Mary how to bring the garden back to life.
Stephen Lowe plays Dr. Craven, Archibald's brother. "This is a guy who's never been in a production like this before, and has the most amazing baritone voice," Webb said.
"We're staging the production with a color-blind cast," she added.
According to Webb, the roles were given out "based on acting and singing ability, so we have brothers and familial relationships filled by people of different races. Broadway is going to that a lot lately, but here on this campus, it's a beautiful thing."
Webb also recognized Betty Bacon, co-designer of costumes; and Bruce Duerden, brother of BYU-Hawaii music professor Darren Duerden, who came from Utah State University "as our guest, and has been doing wonderful things creating very elegant set design. The lighting design is also beautiful."
"Another thing that is fascinating about our garden set is we have over 50 trees from the campus farm. At the end, it's amazing and beautiful."
"I never get tired of this show," Webb said. "I've been involved in musical theater for 20 years, and I come to every rehearsal so excited. There's something about this show and this cast -- the magic, and what we have to teach ourselves and the people."
"It's one of those shows where folks are going to want to see it more than once. You just heal from it," she said.
The Secret Garden will play Feb.26-28 at 7:30 p.m. in the McKay Auditorium, and there will also be a Saturday matinee at 2:00 p.m. Seats cost $3 for students and $6 general admission (no children under 8, including babies).