New Perspectives' revival of the Melvyn Bragg-Howard Goodall musical The Hired Man -- being presented at 59E59 Theaters as part of the Brits Off Broadway Festival -- manages to be both epic and intimate at the same time. Directed by Daniel Buckroyd, this moving tuner about a working class family in rural Cumbria in the early 20th Century has a magnificent score that shines despite being scaled down to eight performers, a piano, and an occasional trumpet or violin played by cast members.

Based on Bragg's novel of the same name, the show tells the story of John Tallentire (Richard Colvin), who hires himself out as a farm laborer to support his newlywed wife Emily (Claire Sundin). The first a[...]