Silly Love

The Robber Bridegroom started as a gory Grimms' fairy tale. Then Eudora Welty sweetened it.

by Mark Cofta

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Published: Apr 4, 2007

The Robber Bridegroom started as a gory Grimms' fairy tale. Then Eudora Welty sweetened it in a 1942 novel, and playwright Alfred Uhry and composer Robert Waldman turned it into a musical. Now more fairy tale than grim, the 1976 Tony Award-winning show celebrates bluegrass and storytelling without mocking its setting or characters.

The musical, developed improvisationally at New York's Music Theatre Lab, is well-suited to Villanova Theatre's thrust stage: The ensemble emerges from behind barn doors in Frank McCullough's rustic set and seldom leaves the stage; they play not only people, but also animals, furniture and trees as required. In Peter Reynolds' brisk, creative staging, they're always moving and always integral to the story, set where Welty put it, in 1795 Mississippi.

Charles Illingworth IV plays hero Jamie, who saves dim-witted, wealthy plantation owner Clemment Musgrove (Andy Joos) from nasty thieves Little Harp (Jared Nelson) and brother Big Harp (a cleverly realized head in a box, played by Joshua Hoover). The grateful gent offers Jamie his lovely daughter, Rosamund (Janet McWilliams), but her horrid stepmother, Salome (pronounced like "Salami," and played with monstrous glee by Amy Walton), would like Jamie — and her husband's fortune — for herself.

Salome sends Rosamund to the dangerous forest, where she confronts its notorious bandit — whom we recognize as Jamie, his disguise (berry juice streaked on his face) as ridiculously penetrable as Clark Kent's glasses. The two fall instantly in love, but when Musgrove later introduces them, the smitten strangers reject each other without recognition (Rosamund purposely hides her attractiveness and identity; Jamie appears sans berry juice).

What ensues is a gloriously fun romp as Jamie and Rosamund, faithful to each other, desperately try to escape their arranged marriage — to each other. Music director Kevin Casey's hayloft band plays Waldman's bluegrass with great skill, and the actors (undergrad and grad students, plus a few local pros) sing and dance their hearts out, wringing much humor from Uhry's sharp script and lyrics. Choreographer Samantha Bellomo provides much more than square dances, creating acrobatic combat and a fluid movement style that incorporates the entire cast. Logan Barrie Thompson's country costumes are colorful and silly (Goat, a simpleton played by Justin Damm, wears flour-sack drawers), and Jerold Forsyth's lighting superbly ties it all together.

As with Shakespeare's comedies, we know where The Robber Bridegroom is heading — but we still have a hootin', hollerin' good time getting there.

THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM, runs April 10-22,Villanova Theatre,Vasey Hall, Lancaster and Ithan avenues,610-519-7474,www.theatre.villanova.edu

 

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