THEATER:Beauty, timelessness found in ‘Secret Garden’

Martie Ramm, who’s directing the musical “The Secret Garden” for Golden West College, admits she never read the Frances Hodgson Burnett novel as a child.

“At that time, my interests were show business biographies, stories about secret agents and spies, and adventures in Oz,” she recalls.

Now, however, she’s become enchanted with the story — and its parallels to the author’s own life.

“In the novel, the events of Mary Lennox’s early childhood mirror those of Burnett’s,” Ramm said. “Both Mary and Burnett experienced the death of their parents followed by a reversal of fortune, as well as a great sense of dislocation upon being taken from the country of their birth to one utterly foreign to them.”

The young heroine of the Tony award-winning musical, which arrives May 4 on Golden West’s stage, is orphaned in India and sent to live with her embittered and reclusive uncle on his Yorkshire, England, estate, where she discovers the mysterious garden of the title.

“I have found the musical to be enticingly simple and painfully beautiful,” the director said. “It is truly a timeless tale of a special place where magic, hope and love grow.”

Ramm pointed out that one of the main themes of the show is the idea of secrets. “Mary is a secret from her parents’ associates, Colin is kept a secret by both his father and himself. Misselthwaite Manor is full of hundreds of locked rooms, which no one may enter, and the servants are forbidden to speak of the manor’s history or its current inhabitants. There are secrets everywhere.”

Nearly 100 years after its original publication, “The Secret Garden” remains “a wonderful story about friendship, determination and perseverance,” Ramm said.

“As a director, I find the simplicity of the story is its main attraction,” she said. “The curiosity of Mary Lennox leads to so many wonderful things. How basic is Mary’s unconscious understanding that people and things wither and die through neglect, but that everything and everyone will thrive with attention, care and love.”

Golden West will raise the curtain on “The Secret Garden” May 4 and the production will run through May 13, with performances at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and at 3 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets, at $20 general admission and $18 for students and senior citizens, may be reserved by calling Golden West’s theater at (714) 895-8150.