STAGE REVIEW : Magic Takes a Firm Root in Luscious ‘Secret Garden’

There’s magic in the air at the Civic Theatre, where “The Secret Garden” took root Tuesday night. But magic requires active participation: You’ve got to believe. Cross your fingers, hold your breath and hope it transforms you. Whatever you do, don’t close your eyes. This national touring production of the 1991 three-Tony-winning Broadway hit is drop-dead gorgeous.

Adapted from the classic 1911 children’s novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, “The Secret Garden,” which continues in San Diego through Sunday, is filled with mystical apparitions and miraculous change. It tells the story of Mary Lennox (Melody Kay), whom Burnett dubbed “as selfish and tyrannical a little pig as ever lived.” Orphaned by a cholera outbreak in colonial India, she is sent to live with her uncle in Misselthwaite Manor, a massive, haunted affair jutting up from the gloomy, moors of Yorkshire, England.

Humpbacked Uncle Archie (Kevin McGuire) stalks the halls at night, tormented by the memory of his wife Lily (Anne Runolfsson) who died 10 years ago in childbirth. Cousin Colin (Luke Hogan) is a sickly, bedridden brat. Dr. Neville Craven (Douglas Sills), Archie’s nasty, self-serving brother, runs the house with a vengeance. That, we later find out, is because he also loved Lily, but she only had eyes for Archibald. (“Lily’s Eyes” makes a lovely, non-brotherly duet).

On the upside, we meet the frisky chambermaid Martha (Tracey Ann Moore) and her charmed brother Dickon (Roger Bart), who talks to birds and helps all things to grow, including Mary and Colin.

The children’s revitalization of Lily’s neglected garden is the metaphorical message for respecting your roots, clearing away debris, nurturing new growth and cultivating beauty even in the harshest environment. When Mary finds the key to the garden, she unlocks everyone’s heart (except noisome Neville, who is finally sent away from the revivified residence, to audience applause).

In the delightful book, there is less of the good guy-bad guy mentality. But everything is done in black and white onstage, or rather, dark and beige, mostly so we know who’s who among the living and the dead. There are ghosts aplenty here. At one point, the supposedly irascible gardener Ben (a rather avuncular Jay Garner) says of the spirits around the house, “There’s more o’ them than there are o’ us.”

No kidding.

Mary’s parents and their dreamily dressed India cohorts waft constantly across the stage, re-enacting their stylized dance of death or commenting on present or prior events. Only Lily propels the action forward; she plays a significant role in driving Mary, Colin and ultimately Archie to the garden. But it’s amazing that she doesn’t collide with all the other specters hanging or dancing around.

That’s the only way in which Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Marsha Norman (book and lyrics) clutters up the story. But the technical design reflects a crystalline vision. This is an award-winning, all-female team. Tony winners Heidi Landesman (producer and scenic designer), Theoni V. Aldredge (costumes) and Tharon Musser (lighting) have created a fantastical atmosphere. Even the drabness of the moors is an ever-changing sky-scape. Landesman has used a color-washed, multilayered, multi-textured Victorian toy theater as a framing device. Suspended above all is a cutout of the mansion; a tiny light goes on to indicate the room in which each scene is taking place.

Susan H. Schulman’s direction contributes a whirling melancholia that matches the turntable set changes and the sentimental, sometimes mournful music (composed by Lucy Simon, sister to Carly). The score may be unremarkable, but the singing is magnificent. Some of the songs are positively operatic, and everyone rises to the occasion. Too bad young Kay and Hogan never get to sing together, because their bratty verbal sparring provides some of the most energetic moments of the evening, and both have exceptional voices.

The most lively numbers are left to Bart (especially “Wick,” a Dickon-Mary duet), and he delivers. The orchestration (William D. Brohn), musical direction (Constantine Kitsopoulos) and instrumental performance are impressive, but the choreography (Michael Lichtefeld) is disappointingly meager. Likewise the character development. Kay is never the “little pig” Burnett envisioned; her charm shows through from minute one. We don’t learn enough about Mary’s enigmatic parents or her uncle and his brother, though Archie’s relationship with Lily is expanded from the book.

We don’t really know these characters. We care primarily because we have warm memories of the story, we love the kids, the singing is great and we are mesmerized by the set.

And that may be magic enough.

“THE SECRET GARDEN”

Book and Lyrics by Marsha Norman. Music by Lucy Simon. Based on the children’s novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Directed by Susan H. Schulman. Sets, Heidi Landesman. Costumes by Theoni V. Aldredge. Lighting by Tharon Musser. Stage manager is Dan W. Langhofer. With Melody Kay, Kevin McGuire, Anne Runolfsson, Luke Hogan, Roger Bart, Douglas Sills, Tracey Ann Moore. Tickets are $27.50-$45. Performances, which continue through Sunday, are at 8 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Sunday. At the Civic Theatre. Call 236-6510 or 278-TIXS.