Incandescent

There is an all-American breed of comic who is not just a clown but also a genius.

Steve Martin is one of these. He has a brilliant and inventive mind. He is not merely clever, but he’s also erudite. Along with songwriter Edie Brickell, Martin has won a Grammy for Best Original American Roots Song for the album that inspired the musical Bright Star currently enjoying an open run at the Cort Theatre.

The musical, an indigenous art form as American as opera is Italian (or French, depending on your point of view,) has never before been entrusted to this particular native musical genre: Bright Star is Broadway’s first blue-grass musical.

Carmen Cusack and company of Bright Star. Photo by Nick Stokes

It’s not a completely original story– it’s billed as being “inspired by a true event”– but it is told with complete originality. Rob Berman and his band of merry men and women provide tuneful accompaniment from inside the cabin on stage. The hoedown that opens the second act is not the only crowd pleaser in Bright Star.

Broadway newbie, Carmen Cusack who stars as Alice in Bright Star, and her co-star Paul Alexander Nolan as Jimmy Ray both deserve the wild applause that greet them. A.J. Shively as Billy Cane and Emily Padgett as Lucy are also natural stand outs. In fact, the entire cast and ensemble are all glorious. Director Walter Bobbie has everyone moving with graceful ease in, around and through Eugene Lee’s excellent minimalist sets. Josh Rhodes provides appropriately country-style dance numbers.

For tickets and information, please visit www.brightstarmusical.com/‎

Dateline, May 26, 2016: see also the review on VevlynsPen.com at The Wright Wreport.