THEATER REVIEW

Brigadoon mostly pleasing but staging at times too static

North Little Rock's Argenta Community Theater has put together a bonnie production of Lerner & Loewe's musical Brigadoon, with some fine vocal and acting performances on display during Friday's opening.

Not all the performances are equally good, however, and some staging peculiarities, especially in the second act, limit the show's overall appeal.

Two New Yorkers (Jon Hatton as Tommy Albright and Johnny Passmore as Jeff Douglas) hunting in Scotland stumble upon a village that miraculously appears out of the Highland mists just one day every century. Tommy falls in love with spunky stunner Fiona Mac­Laren (Meaghan Blaine). Complications ensue.

Best performances are those of Passmore as the scoffing, sodden best-urban-man and Jessica Mylonas as rambunctious lassie Meg Brockie (she gets two of the best numbers and has the ensemble's best Scots' burr).

Strong showings come from Brent Miller as swain Charlie Dalrymple and Reagan Allen as his "bonnie" Jean MacLaren. Caleb Allen, filling in on a few days notice for fractured actor-lead dancer Matt Morley, does a fine job with Allison Stodola Wilson's choreography and better as Harry Beaton, so discontented that he's going to quit the village and bust up the Brigadoon miracle.

That's the biggest of director Vincent Insalaco's staging issues -- the hunt for Harry that opens the second act is one of the most static chase scenes I've ever seen (hardly anybody moves but Harry). And the Tommy-Fiona scenes -- well, I hate to make comparisons with Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse in the film version, but they dance; Hatton and Blaine pretty much stand there, or at best drift slowly across Joe O'Hara's excellent two-tier set. Great voices, no motion, little emotion.

Though the town only appears every hundred years, the show will be onstage again at 8 p.m. today, 3 p.m. Sunday, 7 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, and 8 p.m. Friday and Feb. 20 at the theater, 405 Main St., North Little Rock. Ticket information is available by calling (501) 353-1443 or online at argentacommunitytheater.com or tinyurl.com/brigadoon1.

Metro on 02/13/2016

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