The Secret Garden Set to Make First Return to Broadway

The Marsha Norman musical The Secret Garden will be making its first ever return to Broadway next season.

With a book and lyrics by Tony Award-winner Marsha Norman, and music by Tony nominee Lucy Simon, The Secret Garden is about Mary Lennox, a young Indian-born English orphan who is sent to live with her aunt and uncle in Yorkshire. There, she discovers a dilapidated garden which she cares for to bring back to life.

The musical is based on Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel which was first published in 1911, and the musical adaptation first ran on Broadway in 1991. It ran for over 700 performances at the St. James Theatre and earned six Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical. It won the awards for Best Book of a Musical, Best Featured Actress in a Musical (for Daisy Egan), and Best Scenic Design of a Musical.

Warren Carlyle, who directed the 1999 revival of Finian's Rainbow, will direct and choreograph The Secret Garden.

Marsha Norman's other works include her 1982 play 'night, Mother, the book for The Color Purple and the book and lyrics for The Red Shoes.

Dates, cast and a venue for The Secret Garden are yet to be announced.

- by Will Longman

Photo credit: By Norman-safier_copy.jpg: Alansafe5 derivative work: Kmhkmh [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons