The Secret Garden

[pegkerr]

I had an old tape recording of the soundtrack of the Broadway musical The Secret Garden (score by Lucy Simon, Carly Simon's sister). I love, love, love this show: the soundtrack is exquisite, and besides, of course, I love the story. I purchased an .mp3 version of it yesterday and have been reacquainting myself with the beautiful songs (DON'T buy it on iTunes, as the version they have there is three times as expensive and is missing significant bits of the dialogue. Buy it on Amazon).

Here's a youtube video, featuring members of the Broadway cast performing a few excerpts, which will give you a taste of the delights of this score:

The two men singing an excerpt from the show-stopping duet "Lily's Eyes" are Mandy Patinkin and Robert Westenberg (you may remember Westenberg as Prince Charming in Sondheim's "Into the Woods"); John Cameron sings "Wick" (for more but VERY different JCM, see "Hedwig and the Angry Inch").

John Granger's blog (hogwartspro) includes a couple fascinating posts about the influence of Frances Hodges Burnett's The Secret Garden on the Harry Potter books. The point that is particularly obvious, of course, is the idea of a child's green eyes that remind everyone of the child's dead mother Lily. The stage show tightened this story even further by making the antagonist (a doctor who is merely a cousin in the book), into a brother to Archibald, who loved Lily, too. Think of Snape singing Neville Craven's lines instead (oh, the irony of the name!) "(S)he has those eyes, (s)he has my Lily's hazel eyes, those eyes that loved my brother (James Potter), never me/those eyes that never saw me, never knew I longed/to hold her close, to live at last in Lily's eyes . . ."

Here is another full rendition of "Lily's Eyes," sung by the performers who performed the roles in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production. It's really a beautiful song.

Comments

[thenines.livejournal.com]

The Secret Garden is among my top five favorite musical soundtracks ever. I listened through the tape on three separate cassettes before I was able to find it on CD.

I give some mild credit to Lily's Eyes for inspiring my love for the best, most complex, most ambiguous, most wondrous of Rowling's characters. (Yeah, Snape's my favorite.)

[jenett]

It's one of my favorite musicals, too, for many of the same reasons. (Also, while still living out on the East Coast, got to see it on Broadway, which was a glorious production.)

It manages a particular kind of charmingness without being overly cheesy or presumptive, that I find really lovely, and keep coming back to.

[cesario.livejournal.com]

I love The Secret Garden so much. Not just the musical, but the movie that came out in 1992 or 93--which also has a beautiful soundtrack.

just a trivia note

[volkhvoi.livejournal.com]

Philip Quast has sung both male roles. He sang Archibald for the Shakespeare Company's 2001 production (http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Garden-Rutledge-Turnlund/dp/B00005BCD6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1237599484&sr=8-1/), with Christian Patterson as Neville. He and Anthony Warlow sang in the Australian production.

It is a gorgeous song. It is a shame that there don't seem to be many male duets in music theatre.

Re: just a trivia note

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[fireflowerlass.livejournal.com]

Aww thank you so much for sharing the videos! This is one of my favorite musicals too! It's got one of the most beautiful soundtracks ever!

[tassie-gal.livejournal.com]

I remember seeing this when I was about 14/15 - I had a horrid stomach bug, but went anyway - it was amazing.