Tuck Everlasting may be that musical you’ve heard about, the one where you go out humming the scenery. That’s how gorgeous the sets are, as created by Walt Spangler. The woods in back of little Winnie Foster’s house are green on green on green, with boughs overlapping to create what turns out to be a truly magical place. The tree that Winnie (Sarah Charles Lewis) climbs with her new friend, Jesse (Andrew Keenan-Bolger), takes up nearly the whole stage and moves to accommodate those who choose to climb. At the bottom of the tree is a hidden spring. It’s from this water that the Tuck family has attained immortality. It turns out to be a gift with a hefty price to pay. Living forever is not all it’s cracked up to be. When we first meet the Tuck family, they’re a close bunch. Mae (Carolee Carmello) is the level headed matriarch who keeps it all together. Angus (Michael Park) is the father, a dreamer who comes to New Hampshire looking for opportunity. The sons, Jesse and his older brother Miles (Robert Lenzi) are mostly interested in sparring with each other. They are rag poor and appear to be tinkers from the looks of their wagon. It might be assumed that they’re Irish, except that they say they’ve come from the West to the East; Angus is a Scots name; and there aren’t any authentic brogues being employed. The dance throughout has a vaguely Celtic quality, with plenty of heavy foot work and clogging elements. No explanation is given why the people of New England would move this way. At the end of the production, a very energetic ballet sequence quickly explains evolving events. Choreographer and director Casey Nicholaw has borrowed from Carousel, An American In Paris, and Pippin, to name a few. Not for nothing, Mr. Nicholaw has three other productions currently running on Broadway: Something Rotten, which is simply a better show; The Book of Mormon, much touted but not my cup of tea; and the thoroughly delightful Aladdin. He is clearly doing something right, even though in this case, the disparate styles don’t quite gel. It’s very hard to believe that Sara Charles Lewis actually is only 11 years old, as is her character, Winnie. She brings a level of professionalism and a rare talent to the role. Winnie is being confined to her house and forced to dress in black because her father died less than a year ago. She yearns to break free and to have an adventure. It’s no wonder she fits in so well with the eccentric Tuck family. When she meets Jesse, she’s on the way to the Fair, which has come to town with much hoopla. At the center of it all is The Man in the Yellow Suit (Terrence Mann), a barker and charlatan who is tracking down the Tucks to learn their secret of immortality. Mann lets out all the stops and plays the “evil banana” to the hilt. On the other side of the spectrum, Carolee Carmello, exudes warmth and strength, especially as she mothers Winnie; her excellent voice is a given. The audience is always in good hands whenever her name appears in the Playbill. Tuck Everlasting provides more questions than answers. The wheel of life keeps turning, and in the tradition of all tales of immortality (“Peter Pan,” “The Age of Adaline”) there’s a choice to be made. If we could live forever, would we want to? Will Winnie drink the water when she turns 17, or will she opt for a life of growing older and eventually dying? The Tucks must hide who they really are from the mere mortals around them; they know there’d be too many questions, and that the secret of freezing our biological clock might be used for evil in the wrong hands. The somewhat pixilated music in this production isn’t exactly a knock-out. But oh, that scenery.
