About the Play:

Winner of 3 Tony Awards, including Best Book

The Secret Garden is a full-length musical drama by Marsha Norman, adapted from Frances Hodgson Burnett's beloved 1911 novel. A spoiled orphan girl is sent to live with her uncle on the Yorkshire moors and discovers renewed life, for herself and her sickly cousin, in bringing her dead aunt's secret garden back to life.

Orphaned in India, 11 year-old Mary Lennox returns to Yorkshire to live with her embittered, reclusive uncle Archibald and his invalid son Colin. The estate's many wonders include a magic garden which beckons the children with haunting melodies and the "Dreamers", spirits from Mary's past who guide her through her new life, dramatizing The Secret Garden's compelling tale of forgiveness and renewal. This enchanting classic of children's literature is reimagined in brilliant musical style by composer Lucy Simon and Marsha Norman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of 'Night Mother. It is equally appealing to children and adults, to devotees of the novel, and to Secret Garden newcomers as well.

The Secret Garden opened at the St. James Theatre in 1991 after 23 previews. The show achieved Broadway success, playing for a total of 709 performances and closed in 1993.

Cast: 10 women, 12 men, and 1 female child (doubling possible)

What people say:

"Elegant, entrancing…. The best American musical of the Broadway season." — Time Magazine

"A splendid, intelligent musical…. It's all you can hope for in children's theatre. But the best surprise is that this show is the most adult new musical of the season." — U.S.A. Today

"A many splendored children's fable that neither cloys or loses grip on its unique spell." — New York Newsday

"Revels in theatrical imagination [and] achieves the irresistible appeal that moves audiences to standing ovations." — Christian Science Monitor

About the Playwright:

Marsha Norman is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. She was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for 'night, Mother and a Tony Award for her Broadway-musical adaptation of The Secret Garden. She is a native of Kentucky who lives in New York City and Long Island.