'Secret Garden' disappoints

The odds are you haven't heard of "The Secret Garden," the musical being put on this weekend by the Princeton University Players (PUP). Based on a classic novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett and transformed into a Tony Award-winning musical by Marsha Norman in 1991, the show has largely been erased from the theatre-going consciousness. Or, as director Ronee Penoi '07 bluntly told me: "It's a bit of a 'cult classic.' "

That's not the only trouble the show faces even before its opening act. The story, which follows a British girl sent to live with her uncle in Victorian England after her family dies of cholera in India, must rely on that same child for its lead role. If she fails, presumably, so does the show. Also, the PUP is being staged in the Frist Theatre — not exactly an acoustical gem for a live orchestra, which plays on the theatre's balcony, above and behind the audience.

There is little that PUP could do about this last a priori strike against it. This is a shame, considering how astonishing the show's music really is. The orchestra, deftly orchestrated by Alex Fiorentino '07, seamlessly pushes and prods the plot along without muddling the actors' words and thereby making the story impossible to follow.

But, to a certain extent, I wish it had. The humdrum plot tracks young Mary's journey into the mysterious garden of her loathsome, hunchbacked uncle's (Archibald Craven, played by Sean Effinger-Dean '06) Yorkshire manor. Arriving at her uncle's house from Bombay, Mary (Grace Labatt '06) engages in a musical-long battle to discover what exactly is inside the forbidden forestry.

Along the way, she meets a number of curious people. There's Martha, the manor's housekeeper and Mary's overly protective surrogate mother, performed by the excellent Amy Coenen '07. Then there's Archibald's sickly son, played, strangely, by a girl (Lindsey Olson '08), who Mary is determined to make her playmate. The Cravens are, of course, just as determined to prevent Mary from doing so. And last, there are the two comedic supporting roles — the geriatric gardener (Dan Kublick '07) and another of Mary's friends, the wide-eyed Dickon, played by Jonathan Yehuda '08.

While I was expecting more from Yehuda and Kublick, both of whom put on spectacular performances in PUP's "Into the Woods" show last year, this production does have its share of talent. Effinger-Dean, as Mary's uncle Archibald, delivers one stunning performance after another. One in particular — a duet with his conniving brother Neville (Jason Pomerantz '09) — thunders with the musical and dramatic intensity necessary to transform the ill-suited Frist locale. In another, the ghost of Archibald's dead wife (Sarah Vander Ploeg '08) and Effinger-Dean harmonize tenderly and masterfully.

Ultimately, however, "The Secret Garden" suffers from what we might call "soullessness." A show that features an 11-year-old as its star (even if performed by the college-aged Labatt) is bound to drown in a mist of men and women. I say "soullessness" because this play is, after all, one that deals largely with the dead and how to deal with them. For Archibald, the battle is how to get over the death of his wife and the seemingly imminent death of his son. For Mary, it is how to understand what happens to people, and her family, once they are gone. And for us, the potential audience, the question is whether to ponder death, and "The Secret Garden," at all.