Sport for Jove is known and loved for its exemplary productions of Shakespeare; has been for nearly 20 years.

So what’s it doing staging Bright Star? And no, it’s not a drama based on the Keats sonnet of that name. It’s a musical by actor and musician Steve Martin (book and music) and singer-songwriter Edie Brickell (music and lyrics). A bluegrass musical.

Bright Star at Hayes Theatre Co. Photo © Robert Catto

Interestingly, though, you can see some connection with Shakespeare if you look hard enough. The sonnet too. It’s not in the language, which in Bright Star’s book and lyrics tends to be bright but commonplace. That’s often the case in country music. Directness is prized and the everyday exalted.

The overarching themes, though, are complex ones of family lost, the persistence of love and the courage to carry on. 

Tragedy is interleaved with comedy, music is obviously important and, at the end, there are scenes of recognition and reconciliation that could be paying homage to Twelfth Night.