Dazzling musical features a haunted mansion, a secret garden and an orphaned girl eager to explore them

It’s clear to see why Candlelight was so eager to move forward with this production of The Secret Garden. After having to postpone the show in 2020 due to the pandemic, it’s finally on stage in all its magical and fantastical glory. With an insanely talented cast and a powerful orchestra that propels the story forward, this is not a garden you simply stroll through. Indeed, after discovering its secrets, audience members are apt to linger.

Directed by Shelly Gaza, The Secret Garden is based on the classic novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Written by Marsha Norman with music by Lucy Simon, the musical is different from the book I remember as a child. Here, the story pays equal attention to the adults in the story, giving every audience member something to relate to — though grief, the underlying theme, is ever relatable.

When 11-year-old Mary Lennox (Elinor Rodgers) loses both her parents to cholera, she must leave India to live with the uncle she never knew in England. In the mansion of Uncle Archibald’s (Patric Case), Mary is utterly alone — that is except for the mysterious voices and crying she keeps hearing. What might seem terrifying is wondrously depicted with a giant picture frame highlighted by fog and eerie lighting. They are, indeed, ghosts that she’s hearing — as much a part of the mansion, and the musical as the human characters.

They are the ghosts of Mary’s parents, and of Archibald’s wife and Mary’s aunt, Lily (Maryann Laurie) who died in childbirth. We quickly learn the reason for Archibald’s melancholy and indifference to life. His grief has overcome him so much that he barely acknowledges his new house guest and rarely visits the son who remained after Lily died.

Photo: RDGPhotography

A new life

As Mary, Rodgers awes as she expertly wavers between a spoiled brat and a grieving child. The audience laughs and cries with her, but ultimately roots for her as she learns to live a life in a new country, with a new uncle and without her parents.

To combat her boredom and isolation, Mary explores the grounds and soon finds the secret garden she’s been warned not to enter. When she asks Dickon (Jazz Mueller), one of the groundskeepers about it, she learns that it was her Aunt Lily’s Garden. In his grief, Archibald forbade anyone to enter after her death. And like all things forbidden, Mary simply must know what is inside.

With the amazing voices of Laurie and Case, joined by the chorus of ghosts, the score of this musical is the real standout. Add to that the force of the orchestra, conducted by Katie Hughes, and the audience was mesmerized. From the haunting “I Heard Someone Crying” to the gentle pleas of “A Bit of Earth,” the story unfolds, and we feel everything the characters do.

It was “Come Spirit, Come Charm” performed in the garden with an elaborately choreographed dance that was the highlight for me. With most of the cast lending their voices to this song/chant/spell and the orchestra booming along with them, we get our first understanding of the power the garden holds.

Countless costumes designed by Deb Faber are ever-changing, as is the moving garden scenery by Casey Kearns. The effect is for the audience to indeed be transported to a secret garden. As Mary and her new friends tend to it, we watch as each character changes into who they could be with a little charm and a lot of hope.

At once a story of grief and of love, The Secret Garden will surprise and delight as the characters learn to lean on one another and overcome their grief to form a new family, a found family.