Too many citizens in too many countries of the world are suffering from famines and floods, unrest and unemployment, clashes of cultures and of the cross, just struggling to survive another day. Come meet one woman caught and trapped in a fight not of her own making, “Maggie,” with music by Johnny Reid, Matt Murray and Bob Foster, and book and lyrics by Johnny Reid and Matt Murray, in its United States premiere. Maggie will soon share your heart with her perilous plight until Sunday, October 20 in this musical based on a true story.
Enter Lanark, Scotland in the 1950’s where we first meet Maggie, pregnant with her third child, as she learns the devastating news that her husband has been killed in the coal mines. Follow her as she raises her three sons, beautifully portrayed by Wes Williams, Jeffrey Kringer and Sam Primack, working so hard to preserve their dreams, with the help of family, friends and neighbors.
Christine Dwyer is a magnificent Maggie who is forced by life to need to harden her spine as she struggles to raise her boys, one who yearns to be a musician, one a soccer star and one an engineer. With courage, humor and resilience, Maggie pledges to make their dreams reality. As 3000 Scots abandon their homeland every week to emigrate to kinder places and a better future, it becomes harder and harder to be optimistic and cling to hope.
Tunes like “Unbreakable,” “Everyone’s Gone,” "Gettin’ Outta Here,” "Queen for a Day” and “Walk Away” alternate the joys and sorrows that mark each day and event. Yet Maggie and her clan of women friends, Sophia Clarke, Kennedy Caughell, Terra C. MacLeod, mine their memories for the sake of humanity. Even as the Catholics and Protestants clash, and tension and violence rise, and it’s so easy to feel like you are an empty house with broken windows.
For tickets ($35-91), call Goodspeed Musicals, 6 Main Street, East Haddam at 860-873-8668 or online at goodspeed.org. Performances are Wednesday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Thursday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Through it all, Maggie’s love stays true and strong, a protective cloak that she so generously wraps around her sons and her community, proving she is wondrously unbreakable.
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