‘Robber Bridegroom’ set to steal big laughs from foothills audiences

Folklore meets fairy tale set to a banjo score.

And if you think that sounds fun, wait until the hootenanny known as “The Robber Bridegroom” really gets going. Sierra Repertory Theatre presents the musical, based on a novella by American writer Eudora Welty, who based her own story on the legend of Robin Hood, starting Friday, Sept. 2. The story of secret identities, backwoods highwaymen and misplaced affections runs through Sept. 25.

Set in 18th century Mississippi, “The Robber Bridegroom” revolves around the gentleman-by-day, bandit-of-the-woods-by-night existence of the chief character, named Jamie Lockhart (played by Los Angeles-based actor Matthew Helfer). Lockhart is engaged to Rosamund Musgrove (played by New York actress Elizabeth McMonagle), the daughter of the town’s wealthy planter. But she, in turn, wants nothing to do with him because she has fallen for the mysterious robber whose identity is unknown to the townsfolk.

Helfer, who makes his Sierra Rep debut after coming off the national tour of “Mamma Mia!”, said the show takes audiences on a high-energy romp.

“It’s like a hootenanny. Everything is super lighthearted. Every character is having fun on stage. It’s basically a Brothers Grimm fairy tale turned into folk tale of late 1800s Mississippi,” Helfer said. “ Every bit of it is imagined to that grandeur.”

He said playing Jamie/The Bandit gives him a chance to revel in some fun Clark Kent/Superman subterfuge, while also delving in to the divergent sides of the character’s personality.

“He is a Mississippi gentlemen by day and by night he is a highway robber. He can have a gentlemanly persona and charisma, but also a more ruthless persona, darker and more mysterious,” Helfer said. “His songs show both sides. Always talk about him having too faces; it will be fun playing both of those.”

McMonagle said her character might seem snobby and naive at first, but her spunk should win people over by the show’s end. The actress, who has appeared in the Sierra Rep productions of “The Spitfire Grill” and “Spelling Bee” in the past few years, said she wanted to return specifically for this show.

“It’s such a great ensemble piece. It’s a chance to fully explore what this world can be,” she said. “What’s so lovely in doing an unknown musical is you get to bring so much of yourself and your interpretation to it. You get to own things and completely play.”

First staged on Broadway in 1975, the musical had an off-Broadway revival earlier this year. The Sierra Rep production has a nine-person cast that includes company favorite Becky Saunders and Mark Enea, who just finished the company’s run of “State Fair.” The show is being co-directed by Sierra Rep Artistic Director Scott Viets and Jerry Lee, who was also in the cast of “State Fair.”

Lee called the show a “hidden gem” and said it injects a lot of energy into the company’s season.

“What we discovered is it’s tremendously funny. That’s been one of the really great parts about all of this. This is a little bit more bawdy, but it’s also a very sophisticated comedy,” Lee said. “It’s something we really haven’t seen in the season so far. All these unlikely characters make up a really fun musical. And part of the fun is watching them all behave so badly.”

True to its setting, the show has a bluegrass, folksy score with plenty of banjo. Helfer said the jokes come just as quickly, and one of the challenges for the actors is keeping up.

“We’re fitting tons of songs in there. I kind of think of (the show) the same way I approach Shakespeare, like it’s sort of a foreign language to convey to audience. The goal is then to deliver the lines and the content as audibly and understandably as possible. It’s so fast, we don’t want people to get lost. The pitfall we could drop into is to tell it too quickly.”

This story was originally published August 24, 2016 at 10:24 AM with the headline "‘Robber Bridegroom’ set to steal big laughs from foothills audiences."