BRIGADOON - Broadway Musical - The Story
Early one morning in May 1946, two Americans on a hunting trip in the Scottish Highlands become lost in the forests. The hunters, Tommy Albright and Jeff Douglas, hear singing through the mist and eventually find themselves in the strange village of Brigadoon.
Thanks to a miraculous answer to the prayers of the village minister, Brigadoon appears for only one day in each century, so protecting the inhabitants from the influences of the outside world. The miracle will continue until any member of the village leaves, when Brigadoon will vanish forever.
This is the village’s second appearance since the miracle, and its eighteenth-century manner appears strange to the American visitors as they encounter the village fair in full swing in MacConnachy Square. At first they receive a guarded welcome, but Andrew MacKeith’s daughter Fiona feels immediately drawn towards Tommy, and Meg Brockie who likes all ‘braw laddies’ is inevitably attracted to Jeff.
Today Brigadoon celebrates the wedding of Fiona’s sister Jean with Charlie Cameron. After drinking the health of Jean and Charlie, Tommy passes a pleasant interval with Fiona collecting heather for the wedding. They clearly enjoy each other’s company. Jeff meanwhile is enthusiastically entertained by Meg.
In the McKeith household, the girls are cheerfully packing Jean’s clothes before the wedding. Harry Ritchie, who is infatuated with Jean, confesses himself broken-hearted over her forthcoming marriage. Charlie arrives, signs the family bible, and is with difficulty prevented from seeing Jean. Tommy and Fiona enter in high spirits followed by Jeff, who has escaped from Meg’s hospitality. Tommy and Jeff notice the bible, with its eighteenth-century birth and marriage entries, and realise that Brigadoon is indeed very strange.
The situation is explained to the visitors by the village schoolmaster, Mr Murdoch, who points out that, although the inhabitants are forbidden to leave, a stranger may stay if he were to love someone within the village.
In the early evening, the village families gather for the wedding. After the simple ceremony, the villagers disport themselves in a wild sword dance and reel. However the festivities are rudely interrupted by Harry, who distracted by his loss of Jean, runs out to leave Brigadoon whatever the consequences.
After a desperate chase, Harry is finally cornered on the borders of Brigadoon, and unfortunately is killed in a fall.
Tommy and Fiona have by now fallen in love, and Tommy has resolved to stay in Brigadoon. They join the wedding festivities in the Glen, where the dancing stops abruptly as the body of Harry is carried in, and the rejoicing gives way to the funeral lament.
Tommy informs Jeff of his decision to stay, but is persuaded by his friend’s unshakeable realism that perhaps it is, after all, only a dream. He bids a sad farewell to Fiona as she and Brigadoon together disappear into the mist for another hundred years.
Jeff and Tommy return to America, where months later in a New York bar they encounter Jane, Tommy’s fiancée, who has heard nothing from him since his hunting trip. Jane is full of plans for their wedding, but Tommy continues to relive his deep experience in Brigadoon. On an impulse, he breaks off his engagement and returns with Jeff to Scotland.
In the forest where the story began, Tommy sadly realises the extent of his loss, despite Jeff’s own conviction that Brigadoon is nothing but a fading dream. Suddenly Mr. Murdoch appears, awakened by the strength of Tommy’s love for Fiona. Jeff stands perplexed as Tommy joins the schoolmaster and disappears to become part of Brigadoon.
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