“The Bridges of Madison County” is the latest show in the Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s lineup. The two-time Tony-winning show is based on the bestselling novel by Robert James Waller, and it comes to The Rep as the production’s regional theater premiere, meaning Little Rock got the rights before anyone else.
Along with the buzz of the premiere, “Bridges of Madison County” is also the last production for producing artistic director Bob Hupp before he sets sail for Syracuse this summer. We sat down with Joan Hess, who plays Francesca; Michael Halling, who plays Robert Kincaid, Noah Racey, who plays Bud; Timothy Shew, who plays Charlie; Ann-Ngaire Martin, who plays Marge (and who you might remember from 2014’s “Memphis”; and Bob Hupp to discuss the show’s haunting music, the weight of choices and why this story keeps being retold.
Opening night for “Bridges of Madison County” is Friday, April 8. For tickets and more information, click here.
Tell me a bit about your characters and what it is you really connect with in them.
Timothy Shew: I’m the next door neighbor farmer really representing the community in what this musical emanates. It evokes the idea of that small town community, the support of each other, everyone helps everyone else out in a loving honest truthful manner. There’s no small idea, they’re all big ideas, and we all share in them. I’m married to Marge, who’s kind of the Mrs. Kravitz, peeking into windows and keeping an eye on our neighbors, Francesca and Bud.
Joan Hess: Francesca is an Italian-American farmer’s wife living in Iowa. She was a war bride who grew up in Naples, the most bombed city in Italy during the war. She was sort of saved by Bud who brought her over to this small town in Iowa. She’s raised a family here and settled into this life until Robert comes along.
Michael Halling: He sure does. He’s this stranger from another planet who comes in and messes up the equilibrium. It’s such a great character, he’s so complex, and yet he’s really so simple, so bold-faced. He has no attachments, which, in a way, really fascinated me about him that he can roam around like that. Then he meets this person, this entity, that completes him that he didn’t know he was missing. I think that’s just such a beautiful sentiment, and it really excited me about this show, but the music truly is just stunning, especially with the talent in this cast, and I’m just thrilled.
Ann-Ngaire Martin: I think it’s as beautiful for you guys to sing as it is for us to listen to. Sometimes I have to leave the room during rehearsal because it’s just so haunting and rapturous.
MH: There’s this restlessness to it. And maybe that’s because I’m coming at it as a vagabond, but it never really gets comfortable, in a way. Everything is so folksy and community-oriented, but there’s just something about it.
TS: It’s stirring, it’s always tumultuous. There is some resolve for a minute, and then the wind picks up and mixes it all up again. We go through small town catastrophes and everyone comes together, we go through privacy and revelations. With any great piece, that kind of conflict is so needed for the audience to really come aboard.
ANM: I feel like all the characters are in their normalcy, and then this event happens, and you see the complexities of each character through this event on their own terms, but it affects every single person whether they know it or not. It’s just fascinating to watch the everyday-ness of community, but then this thing happens and all kinds of things open up in people for different reasons.
JH: I think the really interesting thing about this piece is that, like you were saying, it seems like a simple town in Iowa filled with pragmatic people who go about their daily lives, but when this gets stirred up, you see they’re multidimensional human beings just like everyone else with yearnings, fears, judgements. The play is sort of about those choices that come up in your life.
Bob Hupp: Yes, this is a story about the choices we make in life and the consequences of those choices. It’s about making very personal choices in a community that is very much about each other.
When I first saw the play, I didn’t know the story. I was just there to experience it, and it was captivating. I don’t get emotionally wrapped up in plays very often because I’m examining them, but I was just taken along for the ride and the story overwhelmed me. The play is set in 1965 in Iowa, but everybody can identify with the importance of choices and regrets and how they inform you as a person. That story being told with Jason Robert Brown’s composition, it is an inescapably captivating and transportive experience. Layer that in with actors who have the instrument to realize that composition, then you have something very special, and I think that’s what we have. You don’t always know how that will turn out until you all get into the rehearsal space.
I have been particularly interested the past few months in this project because it’s my last one here in Little Rock. No pressure. I’m really glad that it’s this story getting told by these guys as I make my transition. You can read these actors’ bios and see that their pedigrees are pretty impressive, and that’s partly a testament to how amazing this music is to sing and that this is the regional theater premiere of this production. No other regional theater in the country got the rights to this musical before we did, and that’s a big deal.
This is a musical that I think deserves to have a rich life. How did a story about a 1965 Italian war bride housewife touch me? There’s no part of that sentence that relates to me at all. That made me work hard to bring it here, and I think we have a niche reputation for doing that. Plus, there’s also a Little Rock connection in that one of the Broadway producers was Remmel Dickinson, who is from here and is the primary sponsor of this production, as well as past shows “Memphis” and “39 Steps.”
Operating on all those levels makes this project for me particularly special. Working in the rehearsal room with these guys and and the other cast members, even when we were only a week in, we had experiences in the room that were incredible.
MH: Arkansas Rep is one of those places where when you tell your colleagues you’re coming here, they ask if they can come and ask how you landed it. It’s a testament to the reputation of this theater, and in this instance, to the show. The Rep is doing this incredible show that no one else has had the chance to do yet. We’re so excited to get to do this premiere at this theater. Everyone here is such a professional and we all bonded so quickly. I hope people truly understand that this is a gem of a regional theater.
Noah Racey: In New York City, when you say you’re coming to work here, everybody groans and gets jealous.
This show, though, just the opening of it takes you on such a story. I’ve never heard an overture that grabs you and puts you in the place of its leading character better. It’s extraordinary. You can learn about musical theater by watching this show. It’s just masterful. The tapestry of when they start singing begins simply and then gets more and more evolved and complex as these two characters get more wrapped up in each other.
BH: I’m fascinated by the interest in this project because of the name. I just learned “The Bridges of Madison County” is the largest selling hardback book ever, spending three years on the bestseller list. The recognition of the name is as high as almost any other classic, like “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Most people don’t know this show is a musical, but when I’ve been out in the community talking about this project, everyone recognizes that title.
Since it is such a recognizable story, why is it still relevant and worth retelling?
NR: It asks really hard questions.
JH: It’s definitely about deep, complex human experience, and those stories are universal. There are small pieces you relate to in many ways. I get to live in the skin of this woman who ended up in this very simple life and forgot about the fire that was in her. Meeting Robert reawakens that. It’s very complex, and it’s real. It’s very authentic to things we experience in our own lives.
TS: It’s the choices we make, it’s how they implicate others and change us. Do we exemplify what we stand for? Those are integrity issues in life that everyone goes through. That’s the glory of being human.
JH: And ultimately, it’s about love. How could that not be universal? There’s a line in one song that says “It’s hard to place one love above another.”
BH: Francesca has to make that choice. Those kind of choices we all confront, and they affect people outside of ourselves.
Another interesting aspect of this play is that you want to jump to conclusions about who these people are because they’re farmers in 1965. You want to think they’re going to be racist, bigoted, judgemental, narrow-minded people. But the people in this community continually do things to show you they’re more than white bread Iowa farmpeople. They’re capable of understanding the complexities of choice, and that makes it more unpredictable.
ANM: The play never descends into gossip, and it so easily could. It’s not judgemental. If it were to happen today, it’d be all about Facebook and pictures and texts and emails, but this is not that world.
TS: They’re thinkers. When you’ve got that kind of 300-acre farmland and you’re communing with it, you think. It takes you to another place.
NR: Isolation plays a big part in this, too. People are isolated in their own lives, wondering what more could be happening, and I think we all have that in us. We wonder about that idea that there could be another existence that’s so much more. Francesca comes from a movie already. She survived a war and ended up in the arms of a gallant serviceman. But she made a choice to have this life, and now is asking that heavy question: Am I living the life I’m really supposed to be living? She gets lit up in a way that had been dormant, and that’s an impending threat we all face from time to time. And yet, this plays throws a grenade right in the middle of all that romanticism we normally fantasize about, and I love it.
BH: At the center of this play is a romance. We can talk about all the other factors, but the power of this story, the reason it’s been a play and a book and a movie, is because it’s a forbidden love story.
MH: There are so few truths we get to experience in our lives, and this is one of them.
BH: The book and movie are full of very heightened emotions that bubble just below the surface, and nothing lets you express heightened emotions better than a musical. But this is not your typical musical. There are no set pieces flying around or dancing girls. It’s so driven by what’s happening to these characters, and the music is unbelievable. What people will walk away from is feeling like they need the soundtrack, they need to hear these songs again. I’m not the Broadway guy with a phone full of show tunes, but this musical is something I could listen to over and over again, and I have.
JH: It’s a greatly diverse score. There’s a lot of different styles in it, but somehow it’s quite cohesive. It’s amazing how he weaves in Italy with bluegrass with James Taylor with gospel.
Well, I was going to ask what one thing gets you most excited about this show every day, but it sounds like we’ve already covered it.
NR: The music. It’s just incredible.
TS: Music is such an intricate part of this storytelling, and it really, really does hit the nail on the head and catapults it to a great place.
ANM: And the connection. It’s powerful even when you’re offstage.