Nothing secret about ‘Garden’

Tom Titus

Huntington Beach’s Academy for the Performing Arts will open its fall

musical, “The Secret Garden,” tonight for one weekend only. But if

you miss it, you might be able to catch it next August.

Of course, to do that, you’d have to travel to Scotland.

The academy production, directed by Tim Nelson and choreographed

by Diane Makas-Weber, has been selected to represent one of only 10

U.S. high schools at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland in

August 2004. (If it had been done this past August, I might have been

able to see it, since I was touring Scotland at the time).

The invitation is a tribute to the youth theater group’s past

accomplishments -- earning MACY awards with shows like “Gypsy,” “Side

Show” and “The Music Man.” Nelson is director of the musical theater

program at the academy, while Weber chairs the dance department in

addition to her duties as artistic director of the entire academy

program.

“‘The Secret Garden’ has been dramatized on screen and stage

before, but never before has it been so fully and imaginatively

realized as in this incarnation by Lucy Simon and Marsha Norman,”

Nelson said.

“The award-winning musical couples the dearly beloved children’s

book with the most cherished music in recent Broadway history to

create a faithful rendition that will thrill the hearts of ‘Secret

Garden’ devotees and newcomers, as well as young and old alike,”

Nelson promised.

Based on the classic children’s novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett,

the story revolves around Mary, an orphan girl sent to live with her

distant and moody uncle in an isolated English manor. Still grieving

over the death of his wife, Lily, and distraught over his ailing son,

the uncle, Archibald, casts a dark shadow over his home until Mary

discovers Lily’s secret garden, locked and neglected.

By joyfully bringing the garden back to life, Mary also restores

hope and happiness to her uncle and his son.

“Children will delight in the heroic actions of the young

characters of the show,” Nelson says, “and adults will marvel at the

power of youthful optimism in the face of family struggles. ‘The

Secret Garden’ is ultimately a tale of the ability of love and faith

to triumph over all obstacles.”

Performances of “The Secret Garden” will be given tonight and

Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday at 2 and 7:30, in the

auditorium of Huntington Beach High School. Tickets are $15 for

general admission and $12 for students and senior citizens, with

reservations being taken at (714) 536-2514, ext. 4025.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Independent.