Wiltshire Times The Secret Garden TAKE one Edwardian children’s classic, add a slightly too romantic back story, a ghostly chorus line and a handful of gorgeous melodies and there you have it – an award-winning musical based on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden. The show opened to huge acclaim on Broadway in 1991, winning a clutch of Tony awards the same year. With its multi-layered plot, demanding score and numerous scene changes, it’s a hugely ambitious project for an amateur company. But TAOS meets the challenge head-on, creating an entertaining, sometimes spellbinding, performance. The strength of the show is very much vested in solo songs, rather than big production numbers, and several TAOS regulars shine in the main roles. Sean Andrews gives an affecting performance as the reclusive Archibald Craven, while Terésa Bray has plenty of opportunity to show off her lovely voice in the leading role of his dead wife, Lily. Leonie Harrison brings her customary vibrant energy to the role of down-to-earth housemaid, Martha, and newcomer Sam Bunce is utterly engaging as her brother, Dickon. But the undoubted star of the show is Francesca Scott as Mary Lennox, the lonely orphan who unlocks the mystery of the secret garden. Her crystal clear singing voice is matched by a remarkable stage presence: she is an outstanding young performer. Anyone familiar with the novel may lose patience with the incessant interruptions of the long-dead Mrs. Craven, and the ‘spirit chorus’ of assorted Indian army officers. And the action was slowed down, certainly on opening night, by the demands of the ingenious but over-complicated set. Minor quibbles aside though, director Paul Butler has come up trumps yet again, with another accomplished production from this talented company. Joceline Bury
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