Turns out there’s a reason why Steve Martin’s Bright Star didn’t click with Broadway. Despite a warm reception, Martin’s own star power and a bunch of Tony nominations, the 2016 run at the Lincoln would be over after barely 100 shows.
Now, if Mr Martin had braved the rain and the Kings Cross train for Sport for Jove’s premiere on Wednesday night, there’s no doubt the revelations would’ve rocked The Man With Two Brains to his very core. In the intimacy of a packed but gracious Hayes Theatre, Martin’s banjo-soaked cross-generational fairy tale might have found its ideal home.
Martin and co-creator Edie Brickell catch the grandeur and the desperation of America’s deep south with a story that’s part biography, part whimsy, awfully human, and entirely bursting with the consolations of bluegrass.
The incredible performances this production demands likely evaporated before reaching anyone at Broadway’s giant 1098-seat James Earl Jones Theatre (nee Cort Theatre). In the Hayes Theatre, however, the intimacy is intensely distilled because the performances are universally sublime.
To be so close to something so incongruous, so beautiful and unpredictable is immediately transportative. From the first twang to the final clang, the predominant sensation from three metres away is wonder.
I couldn’t even figure out how they found their cast:
‘Male 18-20 yrs. Must sing, dance, play cello like a rock star and convince as sensitive pre-hick southerner returning from trauma of war to find dead mother.’ And so on. That’s just for the first scene.
Hannah McInerney and Cameron Bajraktarevic-Hayward are consistently astonishing. McInerney’s voice guides us with wrought tenderness and fury through the unabashedly emotional arc from loss to redemption. Bajraktarevic-Hayward is the picture of innocence and courage.
All the performers deserve a gong, but the golden mandolins must go to Genevieve Goldman’s effortless hilarity and Jack Green’s cephalapodic mastery of everything at once, plus a banjo.
Directors Miranda Middleton and Damien Ryan snatch this story from the brink of looming obscurity by stealing it away from the States, pumping it full of adrenaline and letting it loose.
To breeze through the 27 songs and the two hours of emotional foot stomping requires a near dramaturgical mastery from the co-directors. Every entrance is a pleasure, every exit a toast to discretion and efficiency. This is the grace provided by a well-oiled machine and the crew that built it.
The ambition and imagination of Musical Director Alec Steedman, Sound Designer Jarrad Payne and Sound Engineer Em-Jay Dwyer is elevated by a simply flawless technical execution. And the performances demand it.
It’s a small space to contain the enormity of talent throughout the sixteen-strong cast of actor-musicians. While the assuredness of each individual performance helps in creating a familiar, yet mythical Carolina, it is the strength of the ensemble that transports us to this unlikeliest of destinations.
Because bluegrass fits everyone. Like America (and Australia), it’s a hodge-podge of disparate histories, smooshed together and made living. Not only does one not need to like bluegrass to love Bright Star, but it’s probably better if you don’t even know what it is.
Bright Star runs to 5 October at Hayes Theatre Co, 19 Greenknowe Avenue Potts Point NSW 2011.
Tickets are available here.
Website: https://hayestheatre.com.au/event/bright-star/
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/hayestheatreco_official/ and https://www.instagram.com/sportforjove/
Photo credits: Robert Catto
