Musical ‘The Secret Garden’ a mix of good and bad

You have to make one major compromise to enjoy the Utah Shakespearean Festival's "The Secret Garden." As a full-fledged musical, it's got a ton of problems. But as a concert -- and nearly the entire show is sung-through -- it's often magnificent.

Based on the must-read 1911 Francis Hodgson Burnett novel, this 1991 Broadway musical follows the travails of Mary Lennox, a British 10-year-old in 1906 colonial India, who's lost her parents to cholera and is sent to live with her grieving widower uncle, Archibald Craven, in a creepy England mansion.

It's not fair to expect a musical to contain the same kinds of riches of a great novel, but here, writer Marsha Mason gives us too many one-note characters.

Most annoying is the role of Archibald -- Captain Von Trapp with an accent -- who's reduced to a whining cartoon. It's one thing to read about self-pity. It's another to watch it for 21/2 hours. Ben Cherry isn't able to create any kind of emotional journey. And his singing sounds so much like the role's originator, Mandy Patinkin, that we can't be blamed for thinking it might be a deliberate imitation.

Still, I loved the experience of seeing this. Director and choreographer Jim Christian and costumer Janet L. Swenson give the music (by Lucy Simon, Carly's sister) an "A Little Night Music" grandeur. The beauty of the voices creates the humanity that the script lacks. And some of the actors carve out genuine performances.

As the late wife, Emily Trask lives up to Archibald's memories of her. Trask's angelic soprano and kind but authoritative presence are the sort of stuff of which visions are made.

Joyce Cohen, as a coldly efficient housekeeper, is an amusing villain who would do Charles Dickens proud.

Matthew Henerson, as a sturdy, loyal gardener, looks and sounds like a man who has spent his life working with his hands and heart.

Talon G. Ackerman (double-cast), as a 5-year-old who's been falsely convinced he's dying, is not just a charismatic actor, but a boy with an unusually expressive upper range.

And Katie Whetsell, as an illiterate and caring housekeeper, makes a major impression in a minor role.

Darren W. McCroom's lights and Bill Forrester's bare-bones set -- which bursts with color for the first time in the final scene -- create an appropriate ambiance for the operatic lilt-feel of much of the show.

I recommend you read the book for the story and characters, and see this production for everything else.

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at DelValle@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.