By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN? Monday 4 August, opens 11 August and runs through 20 September 2025 RUNTIME: 135 minutes (with a 20-minute interval)

This outdoor setting is the perfect venue for this updated musical of 2 crashed World War Two airmen who stumble across a Scottish Highlands village seemingly suspended in time and not on any map.

• Read on for reasons including how this is a thoughtful re-imagination of a classic which deserves to be seen in this glorious outdoor venue

In the original 1947 Lerner and Loewe musical the airmen were tourists and this adaptation by Rona Munro (My Name Is Lucy Barton, Bridge Theatre) does well to reinforce the period it was written and the need for hope and escape after such a difficult time.

Louis Gaunt (Peter Pan, London Palladium) plays airman Tommy Albright who falls for villager Fiona Maclaren on this night played by Georgina Onuorah (Shucked!, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) in a role she shares with Danielle Fiamanya (see clip below).

The airmen arrive in Brigadoon on a wedding day and the evening begins with bagpipers wandering through the audience to make their way to the stage in a brilliant scene-setter.

We meet the young couple who are to be married, Gilli Jones making a fine professional debut and a vivacious Jasmine Jules Andrews and learn her childhood beau played by a spiky Danny Nattrass is none too happy with the news.

There really isn’t much more plot and director Drew McOnie (Carousel, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) , also this venue’s artistic director, chooses to incorporate plenty of modern dance into the piece which works well in this setting and is helped by some familiar faces in the cast including Adam Davidson (Cry-Baby, Arcola) and Owen McHugh (Why Am I So Single?, Garrick).

Gaunt and Onuorah have chemistry and sing well and it’s Almost Like Being In Love (listen above) which is probably the show’s best known number although Nic Myers gives The Love Of My Life a tremendously entertaining go.

The cast works well together and we enjoyed how they managed to dress the stage with the heather before the gloaming they were singing about set in and day turned to night.

Brigadoon hasn’t been seen on a London stage since it closed at the Victoria Palace in August 1989 and perhaps there’s something about its subject matter which can feel a little nostalgic and old-fashioned.

Shucked! was the last thing we saw at this venue and it’s funny that both musicals share a sense of hidden communities in plain sight and the value they can teach us about the importance of love.

But this is a thoughtful re-imagination of a classic which deserves to be seen in this glorious outdoor venue not least because the corner of a park in London as the sun goes down on a summer’s day feels like an appropriate place to contemplate whether magic really exists.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre Tickets
• Have you seen a Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre show before and what do you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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