New Musical In Manhattan

Brigadoon (music by Frederick Loewe; book & lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner; produced by Cheryl Crawford) is the name of a very odd Scottish village--one that long ago miraculously vanished, but reappears for a single day every hundred years. Just as the village comes to life one 1946 spring morning, a pair of young American hunters stumble spang upon its 18th Century market place--and the season's most engaging fantasy gets underway.

Brigadoon has a remote, wistful, storybook air. Not the least storybook part of it, naturally, is a romance between one of the Americans and a Brigadoon lass. (The other American just has a comic Lowland fling with a friendly baggage.) But Brigadoon mainly seeks to sustain a mood. The atmosphere of a fair is more important than who buys or sells, the ceremonial of a wedding more important than who gets married. And the music that runs through Brigadoon avoids sharp contrasts; much of it seems like variations on some nostalgic old Scottish tune. (But two or three pleasantly sentimental numbers should be good for the U.S. hit parade.)

Yet, while it is evoking mood, Brigadoon does not make the mistake of ignoring movement. The show is almost more danced than acted; and Agnes de Mille's folk dances and reels and sword dances have spirit and style. The whole show, indeed--with its attractively youthful cast, its pretty sets and handsome costumes-- has been carefully woven together. A good deal of Broadway's savvy lurks behind Brigadoon's charm.

The charm does not quite hold up all the way. Toward the end, having kept banality for so long at arm's length, Brigadoon springs forth to embrace it.

After letting the American lose his girl and Brigadoon go back to sleep for a century, the show just can't let sleeping towns lie.

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