Editing Brigadoon (section)

==Reception==
''Brigadoon'' opened to very unanimously positive reviews, one of only eight musicals that opened on Broadway between 1943 and 1964 to do so.<ref>[[Steven Suskin|Suskin, Steven]]. [https://playbill.com/article/on-the-record-spotlight-on-mary-martin-and-beatrice-lillie-com-166077 "On the Record: Spotlight on Mary Martin and Beatrice Lillie"], ''[[Playbill]]'', 21 February 2010</ref> Critics praised it for its originality and for integration of song and story, though some critics had minor points of criticism.

[[Brooks Atkinson]] of ''The New York Times'' praised the musical's integration, saying: "For once, the modest label 'musical play' has a precise meaning. For it is impossible to say where the music and dancing leave off and the story begins. Under Bob Lewis's direction all the arts of the theatre have been woven into a singing pattern of enchantment".<ref name=Suskin103/> Atkinson also emphasized Agnes de Mille's contributions as choreographer: "Some of the dances are merely illustrations for the music. One or two of them are conventional, if lovely, maiden round dances. But some of them, like the desperate chase in the forest, are fiercely dramatic. The funeral dance to the dour tune of bagpipes brings the footstep of doom into the forest. And the sword dance, done magnificently by James Mitchell, is tremendously exciting with its stylization of primitive ideas".<ref name=Suskin103/>

Robert Coleman of the ''[[New York Daily Mirror]]'' said: "It took courage to produce ''Brigadoon'', an unconventional musical show of marked originality... [that] still manages to pack a tartan full of popular appeal".<ref name=Suskin103/> In the ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]'', Howard Barnes pronounced ''Brigadoon'': "A bonny thing for Broadway, a scintillating song and dance fantasy that has given theatregoers reason to toss tamoshanters in air".<ref name=Suskin103/> Robert Garland of the ''[[New York Journal American]]'' particularly praised Pamela Britton as Meg Brockie: "Pamela Britton escaped from both M.G.M. and Frank Sinatra in time to be tough as a Scottish temptress, and rough as a singer of raffish songs".<ref name=Suskin103/> He also opined that Russian choreographer [[George Balanchine]] should watch ''Brigadoon'' to learn how a musical should be choreographed. [[Ward Morehouse]] of ''[[The New York Sun]]'' deemed it "A stunning show", saying: "It has whimsy, beguiling music, exciting dancing&nbsp;– and it has a book.... ''Brigadoon'' is by far the best musical play the season has produced, and it is certainly one of the best within my entire play-going experience".<ref name=Suskin103/>

John Chapman of the ''[[Daily News (New York)|Daily News]]'' enjoyed the dances but thought there were too many and that they interrupted the story: "Just when I get pleasantly steamed up about the love of Mr. Brooks and Miss Bell, I don't want to be cooled off by watching a herd of gazelles from Chorus Equity running around".<ref name=Suskin103/> He particularly praised William Hansen's performance as Mr. Lundie, declaring that he "is so irresistibly able to persuade you that if there isn't a village named ''Brigadoon'', there ought to be".<ref name=Suskin103/>

Louis Kronenberger of ''[[PM (newspaper)|PM]]'' said: "the musical fantasy [''Brigadoon''] not only has charm; it shows a good deal of independence... its charm must lie less in any story it tells than in the general mood it creates; and it has created that mood by fusing a number of theatre elements as densely as possible".<ref name=Suskin103/> Kronenberger, however, disliked the ending, calling it "an outright blunder" done "in the corniest Broadway fashion".<ref name=Suskin103/>

[[Richard Watts Jr.]] of the ''[[New York Post]]'' wrote: "I have seen other musical comedies that I enjoyed more, but few for which I have a deeper admiration".<ref name=Suskin103/> He opined that Lerner and Loewe's score for ''The Day Before Spring'' the previous year was better than theirs for ''Brigadoon'', explaining that: "If my first emotion last night was admiration rather than sheer enjoyment, it was because the proceedings seemed to me more marked by taste and style than by emotional warmth in book and music, but there is no denying that the authors have matured as theatrical craftsmen".<ref name=Suskin103/>

''Brigadoon'' was awarded the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical for the 1946-1947 season.<ref>{{Cite web |title=New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards Past Winners|url=https://www.dramacritics.org/dc_pastawards.html |access-date=31 January 2025 |website=New York Drama Critics' Circle|language=en}}</ref>