Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon–Part Four-A

As we mentioned in the last post, we have often discussed the work of Lerner and Loewe in previous posts; but, as we look back, the comments were fragmented over many posts. We thought it would be best to go back and look again, this time in a unified manner, much like we did for Annie Get Your Gun, The Band Wagon and Kiss Me, Kate.  Please click on the following link for the conclusion to Lerner and Loewe’s first great hit, Brigadoon, with singing by Rebecca Luker, Brent Barrett, Jack Cassidy, Shirley Jones and Robert Goulet.

In the last post, we covered the story and music from Act One, Scenes 2, 3 and 4, ending with the beautiful “Come to Me, Bend to Me.”

Now, we start at the end of Scene 4, where Jeff relates his escapades with Meg from Scene 3, while Tommy shares how he felt as he was gathering heather with Fiona. When he has finished singing to Jeff, Fiona enters and turns the conditional love song (“Almost Like Being in Love”) into a duet. We can find no clip from the McGlinn recording, but we do have a wonderful clip from the 1966 television special. Here is Robert Goulet and Sally Ann Howes, with a brief appearance by Jeff at the outset (and yes it is a young Peter Falk).

In Scene 5, there is no music; just an explanation (finally) by Mr. Lundie, the school teacher, of the miracle that the minister, Mr. Forsythe, prayed for–to protect Brigadoon and all in it from outside harm. Tommy, who by now knows that his love for Fiona is real, asks about how outsiders, strangers are treated. “Look, I’m not saying I believe all this, but just for argument’s sake, suppose a stranger like…well…me came to Brigadoon and wanted to stay. Could he?”

Mr. Lundie tells him yes, but with a condition. Once he stays past the end of the day, he can never leave again. The bells then call them to the wedding.

In Scene 6, we see the underside of the “miracle.” Harry Beaton had also been in love with Jean, and he is being torn apart knowing that he cannot escape the confines of Brigadoon and so must see Jean every day married to Charlie Dalrymple.

We now start with the third clip from the McGlinn recording; and it features the instrumental music from the wedding–the gathering of the clans, the wedding dance and finally the sword dance. The clip finishes with the magnificent parting duet between Fiona and Tommy (Rebecca and Brent), “From This Day On.”

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. The sword dance is a ceremonial dance; it is started with the entrance of the dancer carrying two swords, which he crosses and then lays on the ground. The swords create a quadrant of spaces between the blades, and the dancer must perform the dance by stepping into each quadrant without touching the blades. Harry Beaton is the dancer. At the end of the dance, he seizes one of the swords and tries to fight for Jean, who has already been married to Charlie. Harry is knocked down by Tommy and then disarmed; however, as Harry runs off, he shouts: “I’m leavin’ Brigadoon an’ ’tis the end of all of us. The miracle’s over!” And with that announcement, he runs off, the curtain descends and Act One is over.

We have a rare treat from the 1966 television revival; it is a shortened version of the sword dance, performed by the great Eddie Villella, princpal dancer from Balanchine’s New York City Ballet.

Act Two: the curtain rises on one of the best chase scenes ever choreographed for the stage. It is simply called “The Chase.” The music is stirring, and we have a splendid audio recording from a 2005 studio cast recording by Martin Yates and the National Symphony Orchestra. (While there is a clip from the movie, the audio is so bad, we chose not to embed it.)

Harry Beaton does not escape. He falls on a rock and crushes his scull. His body is retrieved, but the news of Harry’s death will be kept quiet until the next day. Back in the village, everyone is relieved that Harry has returned and the threat to the village is over. Tommy has been badly shaken by events and realizes that he loves Fiona. He sings “There But For You Go I.” We have two excellent recordings of this song. The first is from the 1966 special, sung by Robert Goulet.

The second recording is sung by Jack Cassidy from the 1957 studio recording.

We are going to stop here for now and pick up in Part Four-B in a couple of days, starting with Meg’s second wonderfully comedic song.