playbill vip

It has been a long time since our students have been able to do such honest work in a live production. We have incredibly talented young actors and wanted to show the community just how rich and mature their acting is. Quite often the musical is one of flash and presentation. Bright Star, especially in our black box, demands honest, heartfelt emotion and true connection to the other actors. There is intimacy, romance, pain as well as joy, which can be difficult for adults let alone teenagers. In addition to the demands of the emotional journey, they adopted dialects and behaviors completely foreign to them. This show being set in the 1920s and 1940s is a century before their time so the amount of research the actors and technicians has done is incredible. I could not be more proud of them. Thank you for supporting these young artists and we hope you enjoy the show!

The story of BRIGHT STAR

Originating from the 2013 collaborative album from Steve Martin and Edie Brickell Love Has Come for You, the musical BRIGHT STAR combines Americana with musical theatre that tells an emotional variation of a true story from the early 20th century. The musical, set in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina in the 1920s and ’40s, is not a historically accurate re-telling of the legend. Instead, it takes the tragic circumstances from the original tale and creates a completely new sequence of events that could have also transpired with a similar start. So, what happened years ago?

“The Iron Mountain Baby” is a true story of a five-day-old baby who fell approximately 50 feet from a train into Big River in Irondale Missouri. The baby was found by 72-year-old Civil War veteran, William Helms. William and his wife nursed the baby back to health and gave him a proper name, William Moses Gould Helms. The story of this baby spread through Missouri and gave cause to many women claiming to be his birth mother. Not knowing who to believe or trust, the Helms’ adopted baby William as their own son.

From that point on, he grew up and lived in Missouri for most of his life. After having a career as a printer, marrying and having a son, William moved to and died in Texas. It seems only meant to be that the inspiration behind Martin and Brickell’s first Broadway musical would die in the same state that both of the composers were born.

This legend of William Moses Gould Helms followed him throughout most of his life, though he was not particularly a fan of his fame. The story inspired a 1902 folk song titled, “The Ballad of the Iron Mountain Baby” in addition to Martin and Brickell’s 2013 song, “Sarah Jane and the Iron Mountain Baby”.

Again, while BRIGHT STAR is not an exact retelling of the legend, it does use the story as a major springboard for their show. It takes the tragic events of the legend and asks “What if?” What results is the beautiful story that has everything musical theatre buffs love: extraordinary music, heartbreak, tragedy, a rollercoaster of emotions and a happy ending that proves there will always be a “bright star” of light to shine through the darkness. - NCTHEATRE.COM