The Secret Garden (Center Theatre Group)

February 19 – March 26, 2023 (Ahmanson Theater, Los Angeles)

We had the enormous pleasure of seeing the new revival of The Secret Garden at the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles (we saw the evening performance on Sunday, March 12). We’d been following the buzz about the show since it was announced that our friend Reese had been cast in the role of Colin Craven and were excited to find a way to zip down for a quick road trip to be able to catch a performance.

The cast was superb — featuring Broadway names like Sierra Boggess (“School of Rock,” “The Phantom of the Opera”) as Lily Craven and Emily Jewel Hoder (fresh from her role as Amaryllis in “The Music Man”) as Mary Lennox (though our performance featured her alternate Ava Madison Gray).

We had seen a production of The Secret Garden at the Los Altos Stage Company last December so it was fun to see the reworking of it so soon afterwards while we still could remember much of the plot and songs.

In both productions, my favorite character was the maid Martha (played in LA by Julie Lester, who had recently made her Broadway debut as Little Red Ridinghood in the critically acclaimed production of “Into the Woods” and who Miriam recognized from Disney+’s “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series”) She brings such heart and humor into the show.

The Ahmanson theater, located at The Music Center in downtown Los Angeles, was a great venue (and we stayed walking distance from there allowing us to check out fun nearby sites like Grand Central Market and the LA Museum of Contemporary Art).

The set features a big swooping structure that hid a staircase (so it looked like people were climbing up the left side) and was lit beautifully throughout the show — the lightning effects during the storms were particularly striking. The theater is incredibly tall and they made great use of the fly space, dropping down set pieces to show the moody interior of the house and the garden as it transformed and was reawakened.

We were particularly delighted to get to meet up with Reese and his dad at the stage door after the show and hear a bit more about what it has been like being part of this show. Bravo Reese on an amazing performance and such an exciting adventure!