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Credits

Opening Date: Apr 18, 2005; Lead Performances: Victoria Clark, Matthew Morrison and Kelli O'Hara; Writer: Craig Lucas; Director: Bartlett Sher
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By Scott Brown
Scott Brown
Scott Brown
Scott Brown is a senior writer for EW and a frequent contributor to National Public Radio -- he has the tote bag to prove it

It has sublime emotional honesty — not to mention the most beautifully conceived set on Broadway — but this collaboration between composer Adam Guettel (Floyd Collins) and playwright Craig Lucas (Reckless) is so cautiously nuanced, musically and thematically, that it nearly dissolves into a golden mist. Light follows a practical Carolina matron (Victoria Clark) and her daughter (Kelli O'Hara) through Florence in 1953, as the former grapples with a language barrier and her own impacted emotions to guide her ''special'' child through a love affair with passionate Fabrizio (Matthew Morrison). Clark, carrying the show, displays wonderfully articulate heart, but the implied message remains: Love is best left to the very young, the very simpleminded, and the very Italian. B


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Posted May 16, 2005
 

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