The Bridges of Madison County:  The Broadway Musical tie-in

by Robert James Waller

If you’ve ever experienced the one true love of your life, a love that for some reason could never be, you will understand why readers all over the world were so moved by this small, unknown first novel that they made it a publishing phenomenon and #1 bestseller. The story of Robert Kincaid, the photographer and free spirit searching for the covered bridges of Madison County, and Francesca Johnson, the farm wife waiting for the fulfillment of a girlhood dream, THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY gives voice to the longings of men and women everywhere-and shows us what it is to love and be loved so intensely that life is never the same again.

ISBN 9781455554294, Trade-Sized Paperback

To celebrate the new Broadway Musical of The Bridges of Madison County,

we are offering 3 brand new copies of this book, autographed by the  Broadway cast! 

To win, please leave a comment here on the Blog. 3 winners will be chosen at random.

You have until Tuesday, April 8th, 2014 at 12 noon EDT, to leave a comment.

Winners will be announced on Wednesday, April 13, 2014.

You must be a member of PaperBackSwap to enter.

In addition to providing the prize books, the producers, Stacey Mindich Productions are offering an exciting opportunity for anyone who is planning a visit to NYC! The producers of the musical have shared a coupon code for PaperBackSwap members to purchase tickets for the Broadway show at a special rate – the code is BRBLST125 and can be used at BroadwayOffers.com.

Voices from the Creative Team on the process of going from Page to Stage…

A WORD FROM DIRECTOR, BARTLETT SHER

Q: What drew you to the story of The Bridges of Madison County?

A: A story that makes sense as a musical is one that must be sung- that crazy place where speaking will not suffice. This is why romance, the ineffable expression of love and loss, finds its way into music, and I think Bridges is a perfect story for music.

Q: How will the musical differ from the book and film?

A: It is really important when making a musical with sources like a book and film to somehow carefully build from the bones of a story, but to not feel that you are remaking either. This is a musical which releases through music very different things, and so we are really finding a new expression for a great story (one that belongs comfortably and uniquely in a theater). I like to think of it like Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” in its simplicity and am looking for what makes this perfect for our medium.

Q: What makes this musical relevant today?

A: Freud says that life is a struggle between freedom and responsibility. This notion, which lies beneath relationships, choices and marriages, also can be found in what we love about this musical. A story like Bridges allows us to question and maybe somehow experience things we would never do in real life and feel refreshed or renewed. Our story imagines how you can have a great love, a hard won marriage, and kids who turn out okay- and that we can make it fully through life. Musicals express these longings, and Bridges especially captures this joyfully and like you’ve never heard it before.

A CONVERSATION WITH THE DIRECTOR AND AUTHORS

Q: Why make a musical out of the Bridges of Madison County?

Marsha Norman: It has something in it that is very powerful that people respond to. That is the kind of opportunity that you want for adaptation. People would like a different experience of something that they already love. And those are the kind of things that I like working on: The Color Purple, The Secret Garden, and now Bridges.

Jason Robert Brown: In the months before I started writing “The Bridges of Madison County,” I wanted more than anything to write something full of what I call “big music”: long, soaring lines; huge dynamic range; large structures with a lot of emotional waves. The novel immediately suggested all of that and more – there is such passion in Waller’s writing, such yearning, and even more importantly, so much left unsaid. The lyric theatre felt like the perfect vehicle to tell the story of Robert and Francesca.

Q: In “Another Life,” you have Robert Kincaid’s ex-wife singing a song, while simultaneously across the stage Francesca and Robert are falling in love over a shared dinner. Tell us about this on stage blending of the past and present.

Bartlett Sher: “Another Life” was one of the first songs that Jason wrote for the musical and it is very striking because it is from an unexpected character, which is the ex-wife of Robert Kincaid. And it comes right at the point when the two people are having their first dinner together. So it offered a dramatic opportunity to blend two theatrical moments into one. And I think for me what helps make a musical special is looking for those opportunities where something you are not used to seeing happens. So the unfolding of his past, of his ex-wife talking about the troubled history in their past while he is discovering a new love brings out both the idea of another life and the beginning of another life between he and Francesca.

Marsha Norman: Also, “Another Life” states in a very oblique way one of the big themes of the show. That there is always, at any moment, this big question that we have about, “What if I were living that other life?”

MARSHA NORMAN ON THE BRIDGES OF MADISION COUNTY

You cannot make a musical out of just anything. When I’m teaching musical book, I often say that a musical is a love story with a great final scene. But you also need a property that “sings,” a story whose characters feel things they cannot say, and thus must sing them. And it has to take place in an exotic location, in our case, Iowa, and then all you need are gorgeous stars, collaborators you can trust, millions of dollars, and a great title.

The Bridges of Madison County, the novel, sold 60 million copies starting in 1992 and wasn’t replaced as America’s favorite novel until The DaVinci Code came out 11 years later. There was also a movie version that featured Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep as the passionate lovers. So clearly, there is something in the story that people respond to. But you don’t choose a popular title because it will sell tickets. You choose it because its popularity means it’s one of the old stories somehow, one of the stories we need to hear again and again.

But I was drawn to this material as a human being, not just as a writer. By 1965, when the musical takes place, women across the country were beginning to come out of the kitchen and take an active role in their communities. Women’s voices began to be heard on the radio; Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Odetta, Aretha Franklin, and Patsy Cline. Women began joining war protest movements, as they had during the Civil Rights movement, and as they would again in the Women’s movement. Francesca’s growing awareness of her isolation in her house, and her ability to express this to her husband is hard for her, culturally and personally. What she doesn’t know is that she is joining the chorus that will make a different life possible for all the generations of women who come after her, including me.

You can read more of this interview and conversation on the web-site: www.bridgesofmadisoncountymusical.com

From the web-site:

One of the most romantic novels ever written is now Broadway’s most irresistible love story. Four-time Tony® nominee Kelli O’Hara stars with Steven Pasquale in the most romantic musical Broadway has seen in years. This stunning new musical features a gorgeous, soulful score by Tony Award®-winning composer Jason Robert Brown (Parade, The Last Five Years). Directed by two-time Tony® winner Bartlett Sher (South Pacific, The Light in the Piazza), THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY is the unforgettable story of two people caught between decision and desire, as a chance encounter becomes a second chance at so much more.

Please check the blog tomorrow for our final installment and a very exciting ending to this Blog series!

Tags: Book Suggestions, Contests

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