Brigadoon, a mystical “Shangri-La” musical about love, spiritualism, and the acceptance of destiny, was something of a hybrid for the great team of Lerner and Loewe. Regarded by many as being closer to an operetta than a musical, the original 1947 Broadway production opened just a year after Rodgers and Hammerstein’s powerhouse show, Carousel. And like both Carousel and 1943’s Oklahoma! , the hauntingly emotional Brigadoon was was created during the years of World War II, and was distinguished by the masterful balletic choreography from the great Agnes deMille. Written 8 years before My Fair Lady, the show includes a score of soulful standards (“There But For You Go I” “Waitin’ for My Dearie”), choral masterpieces (“Down on MacConnachy Square” “Once in the Highlands”, “Brigadoon”, “The Chase” and the Act 1 wedding finale), love songs (“Come to Me, Bend to Me”, “Almost Like Being Love”), hilarious belt numbers (“My Mother’s Weddin’ Day”, “The Real Love of My Life”), comedy, heartache, powerful dances, and a story that leads to sacrifice and redemption, with an unforgettably haunting final curtain. A slice of history: more than 50 years ago, in 1966, Brigadoon was the first show to be directed in Lake Forest by the young, inspired, and phenomenally gifted LFHS teacher and CenterStage founder Jay Criche, whose memory is honored today by the Jay Criche Academic Scholarship Fund. Show synopsis It’s 1946. New Yorkers Tommy Albright and Jeff Douglas get lost in the fog on a hunting expedition in the Scottish Highlands. As the dawn breaks, they hear distant singing, and stumble into bright daylight in the village of Brigadoon – which is not on any map. At first, Tommy and Jeff are mystified by the villagers’ 18th century garb as the villagers go to market, but they are soon charmed by the peaceful, joyous locals. Romantic liaisons emerge: Tommy, haunted by the recent war and engaged back in New York, falls terribly in love with headstrong young Fiona MacLaren, while Jeff enjoys a harmless flirtation with the village bawd Meg Brockie. It’s also the wedding day of Fiona’s young sister Jean, who is marrying the most beloved young man of the village, the charismatic Charlie Dalrymple. By late afternoon, after a day filled with charm, beauty and excitement, Tommy and Jeff learn the truth from town elder Mr. Lundie: Brigadoon appears for a single day only once every hundred years. At midnight, the town and its residents will vanish into the Highland mists, only to reappear a century later. That night at the wedding, there is a great celebration. Harry Beaton, Jean’s rejected suitor, tries to dance with the bride and is pulled away by the Villagers. In a fury, he threatens to leave Brigadoon. It’s then that Tommy and Jeff realize the complicated truth: if anyone succeeds in leaving Brigadoon, the town and the people in it will be lost forever. In a chase to bring Harry back into the Village, he is accidentally killed by Jeff. As midnight approaches, Tommy is forced by the tragedy and the pending disappearing village to choose between his love for Fiona and returning to the only world that he knows and his New York City fiance. Tommy sadly chooses to return to the modern world. Months later in New York, Tommy is haunted by his memories of Brigadoon and Fiona. With renewed determination he finally renounces both his fiance and his modern life, and he and Jeff venture back into the Scottish Highlands to search for the now-vanished Brigadoon. At the final curtain, Mr. Lundie appears in the mist, “awakened” by the call of Tommy’s love for Fiona, to lead Tommy back to Brigadoon, Fiona – and into a life with her in eternity.