Review: The Secret Garden at Northwestern University

2 Stars (barely)

I must confess my low rating is mostly based on an utter distaste for the musical's dialogue and libretto. I think Northwestern had plenty of talent, but this show was a complete downer. Also, musical theater uses the songs/lyrics to advance plotlines, and the score is so odd in its attempts to be haunting (very operatic at times) that you couldn't make out half of the words. There is a "theme" that bookends the show, and I had to Google the lyrics after the show because despite hearing it a few hundred times in this long show, I still couldn't figure it out! Thus, if you didnt' already know the story of Secret Garden, the whole thing might be confusing. It wasn't the performers' fault, though, as they clearly had big talent.

Marketing was terrible also. This is NOT a show for kids. It's depressing, with complicated relationships that kids couldn't quite follow (unless they knew the book backwards and forwards). It's borderline scary for kids with the ghost motif. Anyone else irritated by the ghosts steering the plot? That definitely doesn't happen in the book. Like I said, I found it to be a poor adaptation of the book. Don't read the playbill, either. The grammatical errors in the Director's Notes will drive you crazy. If not, each performer's bio mentions how he/she is "so excited" or "super excited" or "so extremely blessed". I was truly expecting an "OMG" to appear somewhere.

Finally, Cahn Auditorium was physically uncomfortable at this particular performance. They had the a/c on despite the outside temperature being 40-something degrees. My husband and I got our emergency blanket from the car trunk during intermission, and we were STILL cold. We were there to celebrate an anniversary and now I am hoping that we forget this particular celebration. Yuck! Maybe with the right expectations, someone else will enjoy this show. But it wasn't for me, despite loving the children's book and loving all things theater.