THE

SECRET GARDEN

The Secret Garden

Lisa Bassett
Westminster Choir College Rider University
MH248

THE SECRET GARDEN

The Secret Garden originally written as a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, in 1911,
was adapted for the stage by Marsha Norman (book and lyrics) and Lucy Simon (Music) in
1991. The play, like to book, centers on Mary Lennox who was born and raised in the British
Raj, and is orphaned by a cholera outbreak when she is eleven. Mary is sent to live with her
hunchbacked, depressed, widowed, maternal uncle by marriage, Archibald Craven, in his home
Misselthwaite Manor in Yorkshire England. Dr. Neville Craven, Archibalds brother, cares for
both Archibald and his son Colin, who is a bedridden sickly child. The house is haunted by many
ghosts, several from Marys life in India, but one in particular, Lily, Archibald Wife, Marys
mothers sister, who was loved by both Craven brothers. Lily died in childbirth after falling due
to a broken tree branch in her garden, she died in childbirth. Mary discovers the garden, and
Colin, both of which are suppose to be secrets. With the help of Martha, her chambermaid, and
Marthas brother Dickon, she breaths new life into both the garden and Colin, who is actually not
as ill as he appears, as Neville has been keeping him ill in an effort to become master of
Misselthwaite. In the end, Mary brings Archibald out of his depression, and teaches him to love
and connect with all the people in his life, and Neville is thrown out of Misselthwaite.
The Composer Lucy Simon, is an American Composer and performer born in New York
on May 5, 1940. Before The Secret Garden she was a professional singer, starting at age 16,
with her sister Carly Simon, in a group called the Simon Sisters, after which she released two
solo albums, Lucy Simon and Stolen Time. William A. Everett pointed out the great dichotomy
contained within the score, comparing the operatic nature of Lilys Eyes, the folk-like Wick and
Hold On, the Lyrical A Bit of Earth, the innocent The Girl I Mean to be, to the ethereal music of
the ghost ensemble. Everett also states that, Simons lush romantic score never exceeds its
limits; the sense of directness acquired from her popular music career has influenced her musical
theatre writing by ensuring its forthrightness and directness. In an article from the U-T San
Diego in 2006, Simon says I just adored working on The Secret GardenI thrived on it, and
thought, this is what I want to be doing. I want to write for all of these voices.
The Secret Garden ran on Broadway from April 25, 1991 to January 3, 1993, for a grand
total of 709 performances, at the St. James Theatre. After its first year of run it was nominated
for seven Tony awards, winning three of them, Best Book for a musical (Marsha Norman), Best
Featured Actress in a Musical (Daisy Eagan, Mary Lennox), and Best Scenic Design (Heidi
Landesman). One Category it did not win in but was nominated for was Best Original Score.

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(IBDB). What makes this show particularly unique according to William Henry III is Burnetts
novel is beloved by girls, although not so much read by boys, and it fittingly has been translated
by what is believed to be a Broadway first, and all-female creative team. He then goes on to list
the production team, mention Director Susan Schulman, Composer Lucy Simon, and
Librettistlyricist Marsha Norman. Henry sings their praises, saying that they created, a [v]ibrant
and thought provoking to look at, melodic and poignant to hear, movingly acted and blessed with
a dazzling 11-year-old star, this is the best American musical of the Broadway season. It is
stressed that this musical is perhaps one of the rarer forms of entertainment, a story that would
enthrall children, and unfurls in a manner that would give stimulation to adults while still
managing to be specific. On Lucy Simon, Henry says like many others, that it is her combination
of the blended folk music for the Yorkshire locals and the art sings fitting in for the moneyed
manor-houses setting and residents, that maker her truly unique. Henrys chief fault he finds with
the show, is not that they took liberties, but that the creative team did not revisit their childhood
memories of the show, in fact for many of them it was a distant memory, and he claims that
Norman had never even read the book at all. This however, does not seem to have affected his
feelings on the show, for in the end he claims, that while the first act was a long slow set up, the
second act, thrillingly resolves them. Like the novel, this adaptation rewards patience with a
satisfying surge of emotion, a sense that Gods in heaven and alls right with the world.
It appears, that all reviewers were fascinated by the immense talent found in chiefly
woman run production of The Secret Garden, Jack Kroll, points this out at the top of his review.
Kroll says:
In the mans world of Broadway such a collaboration is rare, especially one in which
$6.2 million is on the line, putting The secret Garden in a class with all those British
blockbusters. But you cant buy magic, and magic is what an adaptation of Frances
Hodgson Burnetts classic novel must have.
Magic is a big and first point of contention with the show. He claims that while magic was
practically a character in the 1911 novel, it perhaps as a result of the immense budget is
somewhat lacking in the stage version. He claims that it is evident in the scenes that stick close
to the book it is found, but those that diverge becomes an encumbered demon (one can only
assume he meant the ghosts) shrieking Freud -Schmeud, Jung-Schmung symbolic mess layered
on top of the transparent tale. Kroll found the addition of the ghosts from Marys life in India,

THE SECRET GARDEN

combined with the love triangle between the two Craven brothers and Lily (Archibalds dead
wife), to culminated in a pure Broadway boilerplate. There are very little negative words about
Simons score, only quickly mentioning that it is most effective when it sticks to Burnetts
themes. The most spectacular part of Simon's score according to Kroll: isnt so much individual
songs, but an overall emotional quality rare on Broadway, a pure yearning for life and joy. In
particular he points out Theres a Girl sung at the opening of act two, as a song the provokes
Marys profound loneliness, and Wick, sung by the sprightly Dickon, in which Mary learns
about how things grow. His chief complaint is that of the actual secret garden. It appears that
within the confines of the show, Kroll was never given a satisfactory garden. At one point in
place of the garden, he is given a dream sequence, and then the next time, it was merely a bunch
of cutout figures that function as extensions of the basic design seen all evening long. Kroll
believes that given the chance the shows light designer, Tharon Musser, could have made the
garden a moment of magical transformation, going from the gray tangled dead garden, to a
blazing Eden, especially with the $6.2 million budget. On Schulmans work, Kroll says that like
the others, she has strengths, but mostly he found it disappointing. The simpler scenes show
some of her best work, while anything with the ghosts, she and Michael Lichtefeld
(Choreographer) could make it nothing better than a fancy traffic jam, which only serves to
smother pleasure. In the end, Kroll sings the praises of the freshness of the younger performers,
Daisy Eagan (Mary) and John Babcock (Colin) in their ability to make the great transformation
required of their characters. As this show was clearly poorly received by Kroll, he leaves off
saying that this show was really the setting of a classic fable, overlaid with oppressive
sophistication, which results in an delightful Garden becoming a Broadway hothouse.
After closing on Broadway, The Secret Garden went on a national tour. This is when
Phyllis Bixler came to see the show. After having spent years teaching, writing about, and going
through papers on The Secret Garden, she went more out of professional obligation than of
desire. Luckily for her after a few short scenes, she was enthralled once more in the tale. Bixler
again, like others, points out the chiefly female production team, I affirmed my intuition that on
some issues in some books we can indeed speak of communal female responses. She, however,
feels no matter how enchanting that the musical is, it is a creative interpretation or misreading of
Burnetts original novel. While Simon, Landesman, and Schulman found the novel to be part of
their childhood, before this project Norman had never read the tale. Instead, Norman had skipped

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the childrens classics for Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen novels. In a deeper look, Bixler
states that it is the love for the gothic classis, like Bronte that prompted the misread of the
novel in the stage adaptation, having Mary, Archibald, and Colin as ghost-ridden by their family
member that had died. This faint line between the living and the dead is a spiritualistic view of
Normans, that people are indeed watched over by spirits. It is the ghosts who are many times
seen as instigators to bring the trio of Mary, Archibald, and Colin together. Albert, Marys father,
is seen many times right behind Archibald, appearing to urge him into a fatherly roll. Lily is the
one who urges Colin out of the house and to her secret garden, and ultimately calls Archibald
home to his children. Apparently, when seeking out a composer, Norman and Landesman
contacted several but Simon knew exactly what to do. Bixler also comments on the increased
size of Marys role, as well as her interactions with the adults, Archibald, Dickon, Martha, and
Neville, but the diminution of Colins role as a result. Out of these expanded characters came
many great elements, including due to Nevilles expanded characterization, the famous Lilys
Eyes. Although Bixler found some of the changed elements in this novel as misread, creative
interpretations, overall she finds that this is just another great resurrection of the novel, and
borrows a quote from In the Garden that [a]s long as one has a garden one has a future; and as
long as one has a future one is alive. So clearly, she finds the musical, another way in keeping
alive the story of The Secret Garden.
It appears that the mainly female production team, which is mentioned specifically in
every article, over masked the score to this show, which there was never any specific complaint
about. While Kroll made a general complaint, he never sighted any examples, and makes me
think that while writing the article he was just so disenchanted by the changes and enhancements
made to the show, that he felt that every member deserved credit. I think perhaps that he missed
the bigger picture, which was, yes, there were some flaws, but as Bixler states, the musical was a
creative reinterpretation of the famous tale. After so many movies, and an odd opera or two, I
think that the only way to make the musical stand out was to indeed make it have some creative
differences. In the end, I believe, like Henry, that in the end the novel stays true to the underlying
motives that made the book enchanting to so many in the first place. According to Norman,
Burnetts great-granddaughter had said, Frances would love it. Those are exactly the parts that
she liked, and thats what she would have done (Nace).

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Bibliography
Norman, Marsha. (2007). The Secret Garden [Script]. Theatre Communications Group. (1992)
Original Broadway Cast of the Secret Garden. (2011). The secret garden [CD]. New York, NY:
Columbia Records. (1991)
Simon, Lucy (Composer), & Norman, Marsha (Librettist). (1993). The Secret Garden [Complete
Vocal Score]. ABCDE Publishing & Calougie Music.
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Bixler, P. (1994). The secret garden "misread": The broadway musical interpretation. Children's
Literature, 22, 101-123. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/chl.0.0100
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. In the Garden. Boston: Medici Society, 1925.
Chute, J. (2006, May 21). A new rose blooms in Lucy Simon's secret garden. UT San Diego. Retrieved From http://legacy.signonsandiego.com/
uniontrib/20060521/news_1a21simon.html
Everett, W. A. (n.d.). Simon, Lucy. Retrieved May 6, 2013. Retrieved from Oxford Music
Online database.
Henry, W. A. (1991). The secret garden. Time, 13775.
Kroll, J. (1991). The secret garden. Newsweek, 11769.
Nance, Kevin. "Creating a 'Garden' of Delights." Lexington Herald-Leader, 23 June 1991.
The Secret Garen. (n.d.). Retrieved May 7, 2013, from Internet Broadway
Database:http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=4640