Casterbridge
In recent years, there have been many Off Broadway attempts to musicalize the works of Thomas Hardy. The latest is composer Christopher Beste and writer David Willinger’s ambitious, "Casterbridge," a very engrossing version of Hardy’s novel "The Mayor of Casterbridge." While some of the lovely music proves to be too difficult for some of the singers, under the direction of Willinger with musical director Bob Goldstone at the piano, the almost all sung-through stage version is an impressive and faithful retelling of the Hardy story. [more]