STAGE REVIEW : Sumptuous ‘Garden’ at Shubert

Just in time for the Year of the Woman, politically speaking, comes the Musical of the Women, artistically speaking.

“The Secret Garden,” which opened Wednesday at the Shubert Theatre in Century City, is the creation of powerful women. It begins with Frances Hodgson Burnett’s popular 1911 book, on which this 1991 musical is based, and expands to the majority of the creative and production team.

Book and lyrics are by Pulitzer Prize winner Marsha Norman (“ ‘night, Mother”), music by Lucy Simon, staging by Susan H. Schulman, costumes by Theoni V. Aldredge, lighting by Tharon Musser and sets by Heidi Landesman, one of the show’s producers.

Sumptuous is the word that comes spontaneously to mind in describing this three-time Tony-winning Broadway musical. Landesman’s seemingly limitless inventions assail the senses in waves of visual opulence that regularly supplant Norman’s confusing story line and a musical thread by Simon that delivers not one memorable song. It’s a classic case of humming enchanted sets.

Landesman’s hallucinatory mix of picture-postcard Victoriana imitates one of those children’s cardboard theaters: layers of filmy gauze on gauze, with large eyes peering at you through framed mirrors or bleeding like pentimento from behind enormous florals and a suspended dollhouse replica of dark Misselthwaite Manor, where most of the action takes place.

Burnett’s story, if you can get to it, is simple enough. Little English Mary Lennox (Melody Kay), who grew up in colonial India, is orphaned by cholera and sent to live in Yorkshire with her widowed uncle Archibald (Kevin McGuire).

This hunchbacked, taciturn fellow is still mourning the loss of his wife, Lily (Anne Runolfsson), who died giving birth to their ailing son Colin (Luke Hogan). Archibald subconsciously blames the boy for the mother’s death and prowls the world to escape his pain, leaving Colin with servants and his brother Neville (Douglas Sills), a physician with an unhealthy agenda.

When Mary arrives with her own pain and a nasty temper, she discovers in Colin a companion in frustration. With the help of a young chambermaid, Martha (Tracey Ann Moore), Martha’s brother Dickon (Roger Bart) and the old gardener Ben (Jay Garner), Mary unlocks Lily’s secret garden, abandoned since her death.

This transparent metaphor for spiritual rebirth constitutes a breakthrough that helps to heal Colin, Archibald and herself.

What is moderately complex as concept becomes muddled by the presence of too many ghosts on stage and their blurred separation from the living. A wildly uneven attempt at some sort of Yorkshire accent by many of the performers only redoubles the hurdles, making it harder than ever to follow events.

Were “Secret Garden” endowed with a hummable score and a clear story line, it might have been a pendant to the “The Phantom of the Opera”: an addictive, lavishly crafted turn-of-the-century fairy tale, made irresistible, in this case, for children. But the absence of enough verbal and visual coherence keeps it at arm’s length even for adults. It remains a quixotic confection, designed to dazzle the senses, but undercut by a confusing plot and incomplete characters.

For all of the lush orchestrations by William D. Brohn and their lively execution by musical director Constantine Kitsopoulos, Simon’s music is more rich than satisfying and Norman’s characters a remote, often dour puritanical bunch. Director Schulman keeps things swirling, but the movement is indeed more circular than forward, and for lack of propulsion, things pall midway through Act II.

Theoni V. Aldredge has clothed the dead in creamy elegance, and the living in more earthbound hues--the principal difference between them. All are highlighted, as are the seductive sets, by Tharon Musser’s sometimes caressing and sometimes incandescent lights.

Runolfsson’s warm, pervasive presence as Lily is the most unifying element of the show.

Young Melody Kay is a perky Mary and Luke Hogan a combative Colin, but McGuire’s glum Archibald lacks definition (more in the one-note writing, one suspects, than the performance). There are entirely too many sketchy stereotypes, such as Sills’ big-throated villain Neville and Garner’s benign old gardener Ben. Bart and Moore are an energetic brother and sister as Dickon and Martha, but the latter’s version of Yorkshire speech is impenetrable.

And so it goes, with minuses besetting pluses at virtually every turn. A great deal of money and talent have been showered on this “Secret Garden,” but they have not produced all the expected results. What fails to flower through the visual splendor is a beating heart.

“The Secret Garden,” Shubert Theatre, 2020 Avenue of the Stars, Century City. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends Aug. 16. $30-$50; (800) 233-3123. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes.

Anne Runolfsson: Lily

Melody Kay: Mary Lennox

Kevin McGuire: Archibald Craven, Mary’s uncle

Douglas Sills: Dr. Neville Craven, his brother

Mary Fogarty: Mrs. Medlock, the housekeeper

Tracey Ann Moore: Martha, a chambermaid

Roger Bart: Dickon, her brother

Jay Garner: Ben, the gardener

Luke Hogan: Colin, Mary’s cousinAndy Gale: Fakir

Audra Ann Macdonald: Ayah

Jacquelyn Piro: Rose, Mary’s mother

Kevin Dearinger: Captain Albert Lennox

Ken Land: Lieutenant Peter Wright

Mark Agnes: Lieutenant Ian Shaw

Mary Illes: Alice, Rose’s friend

James Barbour: William

Jill Patton: Betsy

Ty Hreben: Timothy

Marc Mouchet: Major Homes

Roxann Parker: Claire, his wife/Mrs. Winthrop

Tony-winning musical based on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic. Producers Heidi Landesman, Rick Steiner, Jujamcyn Theatres/TV ASAHI, Tom Mallow, ATP/Dodger and Pace Theatrical Group. Executive producer George MacPherson. Director Susan H. Schulman. Book and lyrics Marsha Norman. Music Lucy Simon. Sets Heidi Landesman. Lights Tharon Musser. Costumes Theoni V. Aldredge. Hair and makeup Robert DiNiro. Sound Otts Munderloh. Musical supervision/orchestrations William D. Brohn. Arrangements Jeanine Levenson. Dance/Vocal arrangements Michael Kosarin. Choreography Michael Lichtefeld. Musical director Constantine Kitsopoulos. Musical coordinator John Miller. Production stage manager Dan W. Langhofer. Stage manager Eric Insko. Assistant stage manager Becky Garrett.