Auditions: Winter 2011

Performances: May 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19

Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm

Sundays at 4pm

Music by Lucy Simon

Book and Lyrics by Marsha Norman

A musical based on the 1911 novel of the same name is set in the early 20th century.  A young English girl raised in India is sent to England to live with relatives she has never met.  Her own personality blossoms as she and a young gardener bring new life to a neglected garden, as well as her sickly cousin and uncle.

Synopsis

11 year old Mary Lennox awakens one morning in India to find that her parents and all of the surrounding compound have been killed by a cholera epidemic.  She is sent to her Uncle Archibald’s gloomy mansion in England, to be raised by strangers, including Archibald’s embittered brother Dr. Neville Craven.  Her only possession is a cameo picture of

her Aunt Lily, Archibald’s late wife.

In England, she finds her uncle Archibald so distracted and depressed by Lily’s death 10 years earlier that he can barely remember that Mary is now living under his roof.  Spoiled, unruly, and left to wander the estate and take care of herself, Mary nonetheless befriends a servant girl, Martha, her brother, Dickon, and the estate’s head gardener, Ben Weatherstaff.  But none of them tell her the truth about the mysterious locked garden behind the estate, nor will any of them shed any light on Mary’s persistent claim that she hears someone in the house crying behind some locked door.  As Mary takes the situation into her own hands, her personality undergoes a transformation.  She first discovers the long lost key to the secret garden, and then the door which leads to her equally neglected cousin Colin, who has been bedridden since birth.  With the help of Dickon, Martha and Ben, they untangle the secret of Colin’s birth, his mother Lily’s death, and the whole family together nurses the long shut-away garden and their lives to full bloom again.

“The Secret Garden” is about the healing power of love, and the miracle of rebirth.  Through the lyrical shimmer of Lucy Simon’s music, the score creates a world where lost loves are found, lost lives are saved, spring comes again,and beauty reigns.  Some memorable songs from Secret Garden include “Lily’s Eyes”, “Hold On”, “How Could I Ever Know” and “Race You To The Top Of The Morning.”