HEIDI: THE MUSICAL, SCERA Shell Amphitheater, Orem, Wednesday through Saturday; (801) 225-2787. Running time: two hours (one intermission).
Sitting on a hill with grass beneath your toes and blue sky overhead, it's not much of a stretch to imagine you're sitting in the Alps, a fact that greatly enhances the already enjoyable musical "Heidi," at the SCERA Shell in Orem.
Written by local playwright Rene Sheets with Steven Smith, "Heidi" is based on the famous novel of the same name. The story revolves around a young girl, Heidi (Jessica Sundwall), whose optimism has a way of helping everyone's outlook. After having lost her parents, Heidi is pawned off by her aunt on her bitter grandfather (Jerry Ferguson), who lives a rugged life in the mountains.
After staying with her grandfather for a few months and melting his crusty exterior, Heidi's aunt returns to take her to Frankfurt to live with a well-to-do widower and his crippled daughter, Klara (Marissa Smith). Heidi loves the family in Frankfurt but misses her grandfather and the mountains, leaving her with the hard decision of where she should live.
The musical rides on the tiny shoulders of Sundwall, and she does a fine job of portraying the peppy and precocious Heidi. The music in "Heidi" is also quite good, with a taped, fully orchestrated score.
The other leads are quite good, with Ferguson sounding sufficiently gruff. Gavin Grooms plays the widower, Herr Sesemann, and Sundwall's mother, Michelle, is the nanny, Fraulein Rottenmeir. Both add their truly stellar voices to the songs. The rest of the cast, a large ensemble of both young and old — a hallmark of the SCERA — is fun, as always.
The tough thing about "Heidi" is that because it's based on a famous story, many of the plot points cover areas that have been trodden before. A widower father with a spoiled, crippled child who, with the help of a spunky young girl and the healing touch of nature, finds the strength to walk again, is the main focus of the popular musical "The Secret Garden."
A similarity between this and a mega-hit movie/musical is the romance between the widower and the beautiful "Fraulein" nanny. When the Fraulein runs away from the romance because she is scared, you half expect the grandfather to sing "Climb Every Mountain" to her.
On the other side of the coin, playwright Sheets says in her bio that "Heidi" was her favorite story growing up, so should she have given up on a dream just because the story is familiar?
All of that aside, "Heidi" is a fun, family-friendly show, well-suited for the SCERA.
E-MAIL: p_thunell@hotmail.com