"Brigadoon"
Ran through December 31,
1999
From the writers of
"My Fair Lady" and "Camelot" comes this
romantic
tale of an enchanted village in the Scottish Highlands that
comes to life
for one day every one hundred years.
Lerner and Loewe's groundbreaking Smash
Hit Musical
The Story Line . . .
Brigadoon was the first big hit for the magical team of
Lerner and Loewe inspired by Germelshausen, a German story by
Friedrich Gerstäcker about a tiny village that fell under an
evil, magic curse. In Lerner's play, the Scottish village of
Brigadoon became enchanted centuries ago.
The community remained unchanging and invisible to the
outside world except for one, special day every hundred
years, when it could be seen and visited by outsiders.
Visitors might be allowed to stay, but if anyone ever left
Brigadoon, the miracle would be broken -- and that would be
the end of them all.
Brigadoon revolves around two American tourists, Tommy
Albright and Jeff Douglas, who stumble upon a misty little
Scottish town. When Kelly falls in love with Fiona MacLaren,
a beautiful lass from the village, the plot thickens....
Naturally it's love at first sight. Unfortunately, the young
couple has a large problem to resolve. Fiona cannot leave
Brigadoon, without breaking the centuries-old magic spell,
thereby dooming all her friends and relations. On the other
hand, if Tommy chooses to stay with her, he must leave behind
everything and everyone in the modern world that he knows.
However a much more pressing problem arises. Tommy happens to
have arrived in town on the wedding day of Fiona's younger
sister, Jean -- and Jean's ex-boyfriend disapproves of her
new marital arrangement. He threatens to leave Brigadoon,
with the ensuing dire consequences for the rest of his
community. Luckily, a convenient solution soon presents
itself.
Tommy's engagement to another woman back home in New York is
an additional complication. (The cad!) He departs for New
York; but, realizing his mistake, he changes his mind and
returns to Scotland, where ... we could continue, but why
give away the ending?
Brigadoon is great fun, replete with swinging kilts, bonnie
lassies, droning bagpipes, Highland flings and Heather on the
Hill. The show opened at the Ziegfeld Theatre on 13 March,
1947, and ran for 581 performances. Brigadoon was also made
into a movie of the same name, starring the immortal Gene
Kelly. You might also hear some of its songs on the radio now
and then. Among them, the best-known is "Almost Like
Being In Love".
