The Bridges of Madison County

"The Bridges of Madison County" by Robert James Waller was one of the best-selling novels of the '90s. The film version was a critical and commercial success with the involvement of silver screen titans Meryl Streep (who garnered an Oscar nom for her performance) and Clint Eastwood (who also directed). But having been repurposed once again (by Pulitzer and Tony winners, no less) as a stage musical, somehow the sentimental story is stripped of some of its power and emotion.

Elizabeth Stanley plays Francesca Johnson, an Italian war bride who's living a mundane Midwest life in quiet 1965 Iowa with her husband, Bud (Cullen R. Titmas), and her children, Michael (Dave Thomas Brown) and Carolyn (Caitlin Houlahan), who take her for granted, as people do in families. The ex-pat isn't unhappy, but she's frustrated. Things have not turned out how she might have hoped.

When her family heads to the State Fair, Francesca befriends Robert Kincaid (Andrew Samonsky), a hunky photographer for "National Geographic" who's been assigned to shoot Iowa's famed covered bridges. They fall into an affair that, while intended to be passionate, plays out as practically lethargic. There's no real chemistry between the leads.

It's difficult to determine whether this is the actors' faults or the fault of the writing by Marsha Norman (who won a Pulitzer for her two-woman drama "'Night, Mother" and a Tony for the book for "The Secret Garden") or directing by Bartlett Sher (who won a Tony for directing the 2008 revival of "South Pacific"). Yes, the Iowa summer is supposed to be lazy to the point of being soothing, but that shouldn't translate into inertia for the main story. The supporting cast has energy to spare, sparkling and shining around the two bland leads.

With the story being so small, this would have been better served (and been more powerful) as a straight 90-minute drama, but it's been padded to the point of being bloated and tedious. (Robert's ex-wife, who doesn't even speak, gets a random, and unnecessary, song. It pulls you out of the story because for five minutes, nothing is happening.) It's easily an hour longer than it needs to be.

The Johnsons' nosy neighbor, Marge (an ebullient Mary Callanan), is supportive, envious and, in the end, a real friend, and her mundane but happy marriage is an amusing mirror to Robert and Francesca's uncertainty about their relationship, but it ends up feeling like padding nonetheless.

Adding to that problem is that among three-time Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown's music and lyrics, there isn't one song that stands out. They're generic, nowhere near melodic enough to be memorable, and, while they give limited insight into the characters, they most times don't even move the story along.

The scenic design by Michael Yeargan includes stunning backdrops that bring to life the beauty of rural life with fields and sunsets and the soft dewiness of a Midwest midsummer. The ensemble stands and sits off to the side, immobile and silent, for significant portions of the play to symbolize how in a small town, people are always observing. It's quite "Our Town." But it's not enough to energize a production so soporific.

"The Bridges of Madison County" runs through Jan. 17, 2016, at the Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012. For information or tickets, call 213-628-2772 or visit CenterTheatreGroup.org.