Review: Georgia Ensemble’s “Bright Star” ends the season on a shining note

Strong performances, excellent bluegrass music and a clever script from Edie Brickell and Steve Martin make Georgia Ensemble Theatre’s production of Bright Star, onstage at the Roswell Cultural Arts Center through April 16, an engaging experience, closing out the theater’s season on a high note.

Unfortunately, technical issues involving many microphones affected the sound quality throughout the April 2 performance attended for review. Much of the dialogue was muffled, and the audience didn’t get the chance to hear the full power of many of the ensemble’s harmonies because performers were not amplified equally.

Still, the ensemble deserves much praise for listening to each other and making their music sound as good as possible, despite the glitches in the sound system. 

Live theater can involve hiccups, and it is a sign of quality when a group rises to the occasion and overcomes unpredictable problems. It shows enthusiasm for the material and love for the work. Given the chance to stage a show that has been delayed by Georgia Ensemble since 2020, Bright Star’s performers were having a blast.

The Southern-flavored show was performed with high energy, and the group choreography designed by director Thomas W. Jones II is impressive, especially during the opening number of “If You Knew My Story,” a rowdy bar dance or the Act 1 climax on a train. Because of these touches, viewers get a real feel for the oppressive North Carolina communities of the 1920s and 1940s, when a story of forbidden romance and mystery unfolds.

A strict newspaper editor named Alice (Liza Jaine), upon meeting an aspiring writer named Billy (Sully Brown) who has just returned from World War II, encourages him to find his voice and tell his story. As he does, Alice’s own story unfolds, revealing a doomed love affair she had in the 1920s when she was 16 and fell in love with the mayor’s son Jimmy Ray (James Allen McCune) before their conniving parents pulled them apart.

Bright Star’s plot spans generations and eventually includes sex, deception, lies, religion, shame and even a stolen baby. It’s a twisted, satisfying story.

Jaine is a terrific actress with a beautiful singing voice, and her portrayal of Alice — spanning from age 16 to around 40 — is the anchor for the entire show. Though costuming from L. Nyrobi Ross and wigs by George Deavours aid in the transformation, Jaine portrays a young character with charm and wit. Then, she switches gears to play someone far more guarded and wounded by years of disappointment. It’s excellent work.

McCune’s work as the goofy, handsome Jimmy Ray is equally strong and features an amazing voice, smooth and full of rockabilly flavor. In the second act number, “Heartbreaker,” McCune is a powerhouse, full of anguish and passion.

As Billy, Brown gets to be nerdier and sillier yet just as charming. Billy spends most of the show in a chaste, sweet love triangle with his hometown book merchant Margo (Sarah Joyce Hack) and vampy city gal Lucy (Meaghan Paetkau). But Brown’s character also contains layers of disappointment and grief.

Paetkau and Hack are scene-stealers and add much-needed levity to a show that takes some dark turns. Performers Fenner Eaddy and Lowrey Brown play the show’s despicable villains with relish. 

And, again, the large ensemble deserves praise for bringing the world of Bright Star to life, aided by set designer Stephanie Polhemus and propmaster Topher Payne. 

It’s a satisfying, well-performed show that serves as a fitting coda to Georgia Ensemble’s time at Roswell Cultural Arts Center.

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Benjamin Carr, a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, is an arts journalist and critic who has contributed to ArtsATL since 2019. His plays have been produced at The Vineyard Theatre in Manhattan, as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival, and the Center for Puppetry Arts. His novel Impacted was published by The Story Plant in 2021.