"Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" at the Goodman Theatre
CHICAGO (CBS) — It was on the New York Times best-seller list for over four years, later made into a movie directed by Oscar-winner Clint Eastwood, and now "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" is on stage at the Goodman Theatre.
It plays at the Goodman Theatre through August 11.
"Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" spent 216 weeks on the New York Times Best-Seller List, and now one of the musical world's most respected talents is helping it sing.
At its heart, "Midnight" is a true crime story about a real-life murder in a character-rich Savanah.
Singer/Actress Sierra Boggess is recognized as one of Broadway's leading sopranos. In "Midnight," she plays one of Savanah's shoulder-padded society mavens from the 1980s.
She said she loves the way composer and lyricist Jason Robert Brown writes.
"He writes music and lyrics. In my opinion, (a) genius at doing both. He writes in the way that you want to sing. As wordy as it can be, which he can be really wordy, but every word makes sense...he's so intelligent in his writing it just comes out, almost like the character's stream of consciousness."
Brown is a Tony winner whose enchanting and emotive songs are called to some of the theater world's leading artists. He mixes styles from jazz to operetta to give each a distinctive voice.
"I write the music so that people can perform it and so that people can hear it. Music is this river we all get to travel on together. That means I just get to be part of that river, and that's a beautiful feeling," Brown said. "The work that I try to do allows actors not just to act in the words but also to act in the music. That the music has a much character and has as much storytelling as the words do.