QUILTERS, Grand Theatre, SLCC South City Campus, 1575 S. State; continues through March 28 (957-3322). Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes (one intermission).
"Quilters" had a fairly brief run on Broadway several years ago, but it doesn't really fit into the "Broadway musical" mold. It does, however, have much more meaning to people around here, many of whom probably have a treasured quilt from a long-lost loved one safely put away in a chest somewhere.
Quilts on the early frontier did more than bring far-flung neighbor women closer together. On many a winter night, young brothers and sisters would snuggle together under a pile of warm, comfy quilts. The closeness of quilters' stitches were on a par with the closeness of their families and friends.
The central character in this beautifully stitched production — Sarah McKendree Bonham — pieces together her final quilt: 16 blocks that relate the highs and lows of her life as an American pioneer.
Robin L. Wilks-Dunn has directed and choreographed a production that pays homage to the unsung heroes of the Old West — the wives and mothers.
The various stories behind each block are told by Sarah (Jan Williams Smith) and her daughters, the latter portrayed by six actresses who also take on several other roles — fathers, husbands, schoolmarms, preachers. They're all part of the fabric that helped the nation move westward.
Some blocks represent happy times; others indicate darker themes.
Told against Keven Myhre and Melanie Borgenicht's multitiered set of earth and wood tones, there are solos and ensemble numbers that relate the Bonham family's history.
"Thread the Needle" is an upbeat celebration of the joy of quilting. . . . Katrina Fisher's "Little Babes That Sleep All Night" is a heart-wrenching piece about death in a cold dugout home. . . . Narlene Mathie and Elizabeth S. Hale's duet, "The Windmill Song," tells of falling asleep to the soothing sounds of the whirring, wind-blown blades. . . . Smith's "The Butterfly" touches on events surrounding the adoption of an orphan girl.
In the lyrical "Green, Green, Green," Jennifer Tanner reminisces about her girlhood in the lush, green, rolling hills of Virginia — far different from the endless prairie flatlands.
Smith, as Sarah (plus other brief roles), has many of the production's strongest solo bits, but the entire ensemble — which also includes Julie Ann Glenn and Ashlee LaPine — contains strong voices.
Bits of humor are interspersed among more dramatic moments — fervent baptism nearly turning into an evangelistic drowning . . . a young father killed in a railroad mishap . . . a schoolmarm herding her pupils down into a cellar due to a threatening tornado . . . the women desperately battling an out-of-control range fire . . . and celebrating the purchase of a new bolt of calico.
In the end, Sarah's "Legacy" quilt is a tapestry of her family's history, from a tiny dugout to the excitement of a big log cabin, from childbirth to burying the dead (while men construct the casket, women turn scraps of silk into a quilted lining).
Kevin Mathie conducts six musicians who back up the singers and dancers with tunes that have a "period" feel. Thad Hansen's costumes and James M. Craig's dramatic lighting also add to the show's overall excellence.
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