{"id":86020,"date":"2025-06-05T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=86020"},"modified":"2025-06-05T14:20:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T21:20:05","slug":"theater-review-long-beach-landmarks-musical-bright-star-sings-with-emotion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/art\/theater-review-long-beach-landmarks-musical-bright-star-sings-with-emotion","title":{"rendered":"Theater review: Long Beach Landmark\u2019s musical \u2018Bright Star\u2019 sings with emotion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cIf you knew my story, you\u2019d have a good story tell,\u201d sings Alice (Brooke Wittenmeier) in Long Beach Landmark Theatre Company\u2019s production of \u201cBright Star,\u201d<\/a> a musical written by Steve Martin (yes, that Steve Martin) and Edie Brickell, continuing through June 15 at the First Congregational Church of Long Beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On opening night last Friday, an usher casually mentioned that she hoped we\u2019d brought tissues because we were going to need them. And it\u2019s true \u2014 \u201cBright Star\u201d is inspired by a true story of a cataclysmic event, hope and redemption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Link<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Set in the 1920s and \u201940s in the American South, it tells the story of soldier Billy Cane (Malakai Howard) returning home from war to the news his mother had died while he was away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Billy\u2019s aspirations as a writer soon lead him to the big city to find his own \u201cbright star,\u201d submitting stories to the Asheville Southern Journal and hoping they will at least read one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There he meets literary editor Alice Murphy (Wittenmeier), a driven professional who has fostered some of the region\u2019s greatest writers. But Alice\u2019s hard exterior belies a heart-wrenching tragic backstory from her youth involving the son of an ambitious mayor, a cabin in the woods and a truly \u201cawful evil deed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ensemble cast of Long Beach Landmark Theater’s production of “Bright Star.” Photo by Byron-Josh Reyes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Billy\u2019s and Alice\u2019s two seemingly disparate storylines collide with force and drama in Act 2, ultimately offering hope and redemption to them both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the story\u2019s deep emotion is conveyed through the musical\u2019s nearly two dozen songs, with live music on stage (directed by Curtis Heard) featuring musicians on piano, banjo, bass, drums, cello, fiddle, viola and guitar performing riveting and catchy bluegrass tunes, with some solos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both the music and vocals are crisp, engaging, and definitely a strong feature of \u201cBright Star.\u201d Directed and choreographed by Megan O\u2019Toole, the musical overall is a satisfying and heart-tugging experience, reminding us of the power of the stories we tell \u2014 and those we don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long Beach Landmark Theatre Company\u2019s \u201cBright Star\u201d continues through June 15 at the First Congregational Church of Long Beach, 241 Cedar Ave., with shows Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., and Sundays at 7 p.m. Tickets range from $35 to $65 and can be purchased by calling the box office at 562-366-0085 or visiting <\/i>LBLandmark.org<\/i><\/a>. Street parking is free after 6 p.m. and flat-fee parking is available in the Civic Center parking garage nearby. The venue\u2019s courtyard caf\u00e9 with light refreshments is open one hour before each performance.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a musical written by Steve Martin (yes, that Steve Martin) and Edie Brickell. And it will pluck your heart strings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":86023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[32348],"class_list":["post-86020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86020"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86029,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86020\/revisions\/86029"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86020"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=86020"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=86020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}