Brigadoon - Reception

Reception

Brigadoon opened to very positive reviews with praise for its originality and integration of song and story, though some critics had minor points of criticism.

Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times praised the musical's integration, stating, "For once, the modest label "musical play" has a precise meaning. For it is impossible to say where the music and dancing leave off and the story begins. Under Bob Lewis's direction all the arts of the theatre have been woven into a singing pattern of enchantment". Atkinson emphasized Agnes De Mille's contributions as choreographer: "Some of the dances are merely illustrations for the music. One or two of them are conventional, if lovely, maiden round dances. But some of them, like the desperate chase in the forest, are fiercely dramatic. The funeral dance to the dour tune of bagpipes brings the footstep of doom into the forest. And the sword dance, done magnificently by James Mitchell, is tremendously exciting with its stylization of primitive ideas".

Robert Coleman of the New York Daily Mirror said, "It took courage to produce Brigadoon, an unconventional musical show of marked originality... still manages to pack a tartan full of popular appeal". In the New York Herald Tribune, Howard Barnes pronounced Brigadoon "A bonny thing for Broadway, a scintillating song and dance fantasy that has given theatregoers reason to toss tamoshanters in air". Robert Garland of the New York Journal American particularly praised Pamela Britton as Meg Brockie: "Pamela Britton escaped from both M.G.M. and Frank Sinatra in time to be tough as a Scottish temptress, and rough as a singer of raffish songs". He also opined that famed Russian choreographer George Balanchine should watch Brigadoon to learn how a musical should be choreographed. Ward Morehouse of The New York Sun deemed it "A stunning show", saying, "It has whimsy, beguiling music, exciting dancing--and it has a book....Brigadoon is by far the best musical play the season has produced, and it is certainly one of the best within my entire play-going experience".

John Chapman of the Daily News enjoyed the dances but thought there were too many and that they interrupted the story: "Just when I get pleasently steamed up about the love of Mr. Brooks and Miss Bell, I don't want to be cooled off by watching a herd of gazelles from Chorus Equity running around". He particularly praised William Hansen's performance as Mr. Lundie, declaring that he "is so irresistably able to persuade you that if there isn't a villiage named Brigadoon, there ought to be". Louis Kronenberger of PM said, "the musical fantasy not only has charm; it shows a good deal of independence...its charm must lie less in any story it tells than in the general mood it creates; and it has created that mood by fusing a number of theatre elements as densely as possible". Kronenberger, however, disliked the ending, calling it "an outright blunder" done "in the corniest Broadway fashion". Richard Watts, Jr. of the New York Post wrote, "I have seen other musical comedies that I enjoyed more, but few for which I have a deeper admiration". He opined that Lerner and Loewe's score for The Day Before Spring the previous year was better than theirs for Brigadoon, explaining that, "If my first emotion last night was admiration rather than sheer enjoyment, it was because the proceedings seemed to me more marked by taste and style than by emotional warmth in book and music, but there is no denying that the authors have matured as theatrical craftsmen".