Romantic dance but silly musical
Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park
Lerner & Loewe’s Brigadoon is rarely seen, and for good reason thought quite a few of the critics. Even though Rona Munro had updated the book to make it more authentically Scottish and changing the visitors from lost tourists to crash-landing World War 2 pilots, they still found the plot about a village that only appears every hundred years somewhat silly. Other reviewers were carried away by the romance, Drew McOnie’s choreography and the look of the production.
[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]
4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑
It put LondonTheatre’s Marianka Swain in a romantic mood . She reported that it ‘has been ingeniously and gloriously revamped by director-choreographer Drew McOnie and Scottish playwright Rona Munro. Why, it’s almost like being in love.’ She laid responsibility clearly at McConie’s dancing feet: ‘McOnie’s detailed production balances (a) poetic, psychologically rich reading of Brigadoon with a realistic, lived-in village.’ She continued: ‘McOnie’s choreography is absolutely knockout. He embraces the lush romanticism by evoking Agnes De Mille’s lyrical Golden Age dances, and incorporates Scottish folk like a reel and sword dance (we also get accompanying bagpipes), while also infusing the whole thing with thrilling, contemporary expressiveness’.
Holly O’Mahony for The Stage was also impressed, although perhaps not as much as Marianka: ‘it’s charmingly whimsical.’ It is, she said, ‘a tight, traditional production – winningly so – with Agnes De Mille’s original dances interwoven with McOnie’s sprightly ballets’. She also noted: ‘Sami Fendall’s costumes of rustic tartan in meadowy shades of yellow and green’ and ‘Basia Bińkowska’s atmospheric set’.
’The show is delightful’ wrote Claire Allfree for the Telegraph. She found: ‘McOnie’s production retains Brigadoon’s old-fashioned MGM musical quality with beautifully choreographed Oklahoma!-style scenes of swirling village women in full skirts and lace-up boots, and men merrily loading wagons with milk churns, images that knowingly lean into the idea of the art form itself as escapism incarnate.’
WhatsOnStage’s Sarah Crompton declared: ‘It is a truly magical evening. Drew McOnie’s…production…has a shining clarity of purpose. With the help of a book by Rona Munro that keeps the emotion but strips away the sentiment, the production sweeps along on a wave of luscious songs’.
Fiona Mountford at the i is a fan of Brigadoon (‘a tune-stuffed delight’) and thought Drew McOnie’s production did it proud: ‘a sumptuous spectacle of movement’.
3 stars ⭑⭑⭑
For Aliya Al-Hassan at BroadwayWorld, ‘the production feels like an odd choice for a revival. The characters are thinly drawn, the plot bizarre and uneven and the musical numbers are just not memorable. Much of the mawkishness of the romance has been stripped back, but it still feels a little cloying.’ Although she did admit: ‘The ensemble bounds with energy and their movement is as beautiful as you would expect from McConie.’
The Standard’s Nick Curtis was reserved, saying it ‘just about works thanks to some fine performances, spirited choreography and a strikingly effective Grand Designs set by Basia Bińkowska. But it’s an effort to tough your way through the more saccharine moments.’ His review is an amusing read for its list of holes in the plot.
The Independent’s Alice Saville called it ‘a strange fable that feels out of step with the times, however beguiling its dance may be.’ She acknowledged Mcconie ‘lovingly recreates and reimagines golden age Hollywood choreographer Agnes de Mille’s balletic sequences of yearning and skittish flirtation. Lerner and Loewe’s score is sumptuously romantic, too, and beautifully rendered here by a sizeable orchestra placed centre stage.’ But in the end, ‘no amount of sylvan magic can hide the fact that this is a very, very silly kind of story.’
The Times‘ Clive Davis acknowledged the changes to the story but felt ‘The results are less sentimental, but still haven’t solved the problem of how to inject pace, not to mention plausibility, into a meandering book…we’re left trying to keep track of a tangled narrative’. He did like many other aspects of the show: ‘The dozen or so musicians led by the MD Laura Bangay generate just the right mixture of velvet and tartan… Basia Binkowska’s diagonal set design, which evokes the stark timber lines of a Frank lloyd Wright house, is topped by an assortment of heather shimmering under Jessica Hung Han Yun’s subtle lighting.’
2 stars ⭑⭑
The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar called it a ‘too tame, too purposeless revival seems simply to be a love letter to Scotland with bagpipes and drumming galore’. On the plus side: ‘The cast is filled with strong singers…but the songs sound anodyne and generic…McOnie’s choreography is beautiful and balletic in itself’.
Critics’ average rating 3.4⭑
Brigadoon can be seen at the Open Air Theatre until 20 September 2025. Buy tickets directly from the theatre
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