‘Brigadoon’s’ musical, visual wonders can’t redeem its unsatisfying story

Tommy Albright (Conor Jordan, left) and his best friend Jeff Douglas (Zachary Linnert) come across more than they bargained for during a Scottish highlands hunting trip in the Musical Theater Works production of “Brigadoon.” (Brett Beiner)

Frederick Loewe’s lush, melodic score for “Brigadoon” is so sweepingly romantic that’s it’s tempting to overlook just how shallow the characters are and how dated terribly dated the story is.

Beyond its undeniably gorgeous music, the 1947 classic (book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner) has aged terribly. This is a show with a violent death woven into the plot roughly midway through, only to be largely forgotten as the facile, happily-ever-after-ending sends the romantic leads setting off into the proverbial sunset. The result is a story that’s incomplete and unsatisfying, as well as troubling.