I saw BRIDGES this past week, and I've been struggling with how I felt about it. On the one hand, the new musical has a gentle, haunting beauty, an often gorgeous score, and two terrific lead performances. Yet, while it was ultimately moving, it failed to provide the emotional wallop you would expect from this story. In total, for me, the show's strengths outweighed the shortcomings, and I found much that was beautiful and admirable in BRIDGES.
BRIDGES intentionally makes no attempt to be a rousing, exciting show. It concentrates on telling an intimate, simple, and romantic story that builds slowly but eventually is engrossing, with some real dramatic tension. Kelli O'Hara and Steven Pasquale sing gloriously, and there is some real heat between them. Jason Robert Brown has provided them with lots of ravishing songs, culminating in the soaring "One Second & A Million Miles," which is both beautiful and the evening's high point. Some of the music is operatic in its feel. The scenes and songs involving the secondary characters weren't as strong or effective but didn't bother me as much as they have bothered some other posters. In a score heavy on serious love songs, the scenes that don't involve the two leads bring some needed variety to the score without upsetting the overall tone of the musical.
Responses to Bartlett Sher's staging have been mixed, but I appreciated his fluid, sensitive, and cinematic work. BRIDGES has a lush romanticism, and the longing and desire that O'Hara's and Pasquale's characters feel comes over as genuine. O'Hara, always a favorite of mine, has given a string of wonderful performances, and she is particularly radiant and convincing in BRIDGES.
I found myself comparing BRIDGES to PIAZZA, a more successfully executed show that involved many of the same people. PIAZZA had a more poignant and dramatically involving conclusion, and that is where BRIDGES comes up a little short. I consider myself an easy target for tear inducing theater, and I wanted more from BRIDGES on that front. The story's closing scenes, often sad and touching, don't, nevertheless, pack the emotional punch or resonance I had hoped for. In fairness, there were people sitting near me who were audibly weeping and clearly impacted. For whatever reason, I did not respond as strongly, for reasons I still can't totally explain. That said, I definitely liked BRIDGES, with its beauty, its music, its leads, and its score providing much to appreciate; I just can't help but wish for a more emotionally satisfying payoff.
|