"Big River" a big hit at Goodspeed

EAST HADDAM - "Big River" won seven Tony Awards in 1985, including best musical, and although over 20 years old, if the production at the Goodspeed Opera House is any indication, it is destined to become a classic.

The musical, with words and music by Roger Miller, is closely based on Mark Twain’s novel the "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

Written by Twain after "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," both while he was living in Hartford, it picks up where "Sawyer" leaves off.

Huck and Tom are rich, having found a heap of money - $6,000 a piece. Huck’s father, a river grifter, played with greasy menace by Kenneth Cavett, gets wind of his son’s good luck and comes back to ostensibly claim his boy, but really he just wants the cash.

However, while in a drunken rage Huck’s father tries to kill him, so Huck runs away on a river raft, and discovers the slave Jim is also running away, in a desperate attempt to avoid being sold.

The story is set in 1840’s America along the Mississippi River, when slavery in much of the country was legal.

Huck is tormented by his conscience throughout much of the play for harboring a slave, but try as he might, he finally gives up, saying that he likes Jim too much and can’t betray him - resigning himself to being a morally-inferior, bad person.

Will Reynolds is fine as the affable Huck, who is in practically every scene, and serves as the musical’s narrator, although he occasionally pushes the "awe-shucks" routine, by and large he capturing the innocent, undereducated but cheerful tone of Huck.

Russell Joel Brown who plays Jim isn’t a physically over-whelming presence, nor did he sing louder than the other performers, but almost as soon as he stepped on the stage, he just about stole the show.

When Jim and Huck sing their first duet, "Muddy Water," about half way into the first act, and other duets following, the show transforms from a solid performance into something special.

John Bolton and Ed Dixon make an amusing comic pair as the con artists, the Duke and the King, and Jeremy Jordan is convincing as the clever Tom Sawyer.

The musical drags in the middle of the second act when there is more talking and less singing, but when the music kicks in, it picks up momentum again.

The music ranges from bluegrass, to gospel, to beautiful quiet ballads, like the lovely "River in the Rain," and "Worlds Apart."

Cavett as Huck’s pap sings the high-spirited "Guv’ment," a song that some Rush Limbaugh loyal listeners might love.

The set by Michael Schweikardt, transforms into the Mississippi, complete with a "floating" raft.

No doubt about it, "Big River" is an entertaining American original that the whole family would enjoy.

BIG RIVER

Three Stars
Location: Goodspeed Opera House, Route 82, East Haddam
Production: Music and lyrics by Roger Miller. Book by William Hauptman, adapted from Mark Twain’s novel "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Directed by Rob Ruggiero. Choreographed by John MacInnis. Costume designed by Alejo Vietti. Lighting designed by John Lasiter. Sound design by Jay Hilton. Scenic design by Michael Schweikardt.
Running time: 3 hours, with one intermission
Show Times: Wednesday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.; Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and selected 2 p.m. performances; Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. with Saturday matinee at 3 p.m.; Sunday matinee at 2 p.m., with selected Sunday evening performance at 6:30 p.m. through Nov. 30.
Thanksgiving week schedule, Sunday, Nov. 23 at 2 p.m., Monday, Nov. 24, at 2 and 7:30 p.m., Friday Nov. 28 at 2 and 8 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 29 at 3 and 8 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 30 at 2 and 6:30 p.m.
Tickets: $26 - $63. Call the box office at 860-873-8668 or visit their website at www.goodspeed.org
ACTOR...CHARACTER
Will Reynolds ... Huckleberry Finn
Russell Joel Brown ... Jim
Jeremy Jordan ... Tom Sawyer
Mary Jo McConnell ... Widow Douglas
Nancy Johnston ... Miss Watson, Sally Phelps
Robin Hayes ... Judge Thatcher
Danny Marr ... Ben Rogers
Adam Shonkwiler ... Joe Harper, Young Fool
Daniel Kwiatkowski ... Dick Simon
Kenneth Cavett ... Pap Finn
Ed Dixon ... The King
John Bolton ... The Duke
Marissa McGowan ... Mary Jane Wilkens
Jill Kerley ... Joanna Wilkens
Steve French ... Counselor Robinson
A’lisa D. Miles ... Alice
Christine Lyons ... Betsy
Robin Hayes ... Silas Phelps
David M. Lutken ... The Musician, the Doctor