PROVO — "The Secret Garden" at Provo is a beautiful, seamless show that people really ought to hear about.
The vocals are well done. The acting is nice, and it's done so it flows from scene to scene and song to song almost effortlessly.
The audience is free to just sit back and enjoy.
MaKenna Lyn Tinney is exceptionally self-assured in her role as the somewhat spoiled, orphaned Mary Lennox, sent to live in the English moors with a grieving uncle who hasn't been able to move beyond the pain of losing his wife, even after a decade.
In fact, both 9-year-olds, Tinney and Trevor Elzey, who plays Colin, do a really nice job in their respective roles. There's a lot riding on these kids.
Cecily Ellis, who plays Lily, is also exceptional. Her vocals are wonderful.
So are the songs sung by Kevin Goertzen, who plays Archibald Craven.
But the star of the show is actually the unique and versatile set, which is actually a series of scrapbook album pages that serve as the backdrop and large picture frames that rotate and move to facilitate the action of the scenes.
As the dreamers (the actors who portray the ghosts of the character's lives) dance, sing and appear, the set pieces change and create rooms, mazes and boxes.
At some points, Mary has to run through the pieces and Archibald has to try to find Lily.
It's very effective staging.
Direction and delivery is also well done.
Everyone in the cast is up to speed and on cue.
Ben Weatherstaff, played by I. Blaine Quarnstrom, adds charm as do Marissa Smith and Adam Gardner as the cheery housemaid Martha and her brother, the gentle Dickon.
(Dickon has a delightful way of looking at things in this play, by the way. It's totally enjoyable. And Martha has nicely mastered her Yorkshirean accent.)
The classic story, based on the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, is somewhat simplistic but still almost believable.
As a dead garden is brought back to life, so is the soul of Archibald Craven. His invalid son Colin begins to thrive. The ghosts begin to fade.
Provo Theatre can be proud to tout this show as their 20th anniversary offering. This is a rare opportunity to see this play come to life with all the elements pretty well in place.
Only a couple of suggestions: Keep the side curtains pulled to avoid distraction and perhaps build Craven's hump into his costuming. It comes and goes as he tried to simply hold one shoulder consistently higher than the other.
E-mail: haddoc@desnews.com