Directors: Hanns and Cari Zöllner
Musical Director: Andrew Dunscombe
The Secret Garden follows the story of Mary Lennox, a young British girl born and raised in colonial India at the beginning of the 20th century. When the 1 0-year-old’s parents die in a cholera outbreak, she is sent to Yorkshire to live with a reclusive uncle, his invalid son and a host OF ghosts, spirits, and lost souls inhabiting Mary’s new home. With the help of the “dreamers,” Mary and her mystical friend, Dickon, uncover the secret of Misselthwaite Manor’s magical garden, bringing life to this neglected bit of earth as Mary’s own personality blossoms in parallel.
Books and Lyrics Marsha Norman – award winning playwright – won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize, Blackburn Prize, Hull-Warriner, and Drama Desk Awards for her play ‘Night, Mother. In 1992 she won a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for her book For the Broadway musical, The Secret Garden. She also wrote the book for the Broadway musical, The Color Purple, For which she also received a Tony nomination. The Color Purple is currently in the third year OF its national First-class tour. Her new play, the Master Butcher’s Singing Club, premiered at the Guthrie Theatre in the fall OF 2010. She won a Peabody Award For her writing on the HBO television series, In Treatment, starring Gabriel Byrne and Dianne Wiest. Her most recent work is the adaptation of The Trumpet OF the Swan: A Novel Symphony for Actors and Orchestra, with music conducted and written by Jason Robert Brown. She has Grammy and Emmy nominations, as well as grants and awards from among others, the National Endowment For the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. She is a former Vice-President OF the Dramatists Guild of America. She is a native of Kentucky and currently lives in New York.
Music by Lucy Simon, who began her professional career at age 16 with her sister Carly as part OF The Simon Sisters. She made her Broadway debut in 1991 as the composer of The Secret Garden, For which she received Tony and Drama Desk nominations, The Drama Loge Award, and a Grammy nomination for the recording of the score. The Secret Garden was produced in Australia in 1995 by the Gordon Frost Organization and starred Anthony Warlow, Marina Prior and Philip Quast; and had a new production for the Millennium under the auspices of The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, which broke box office records during its run at Stratford before it transferred to the West End. Ms. Simon received two Grammy Awards for her In Harmony albums, which she co-wrote and produced. She composed the music for the musical DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, directed by Des McAnuff, which after a successful run in Australia, garnering seven Helpman awards opened on Broadway in 2015.