First off, it’s very much like a musical: it was nominated for Tony awards. But it’s heavily orchestrated, and large swaths of it are in Italian.
Okay, [SPOILERS] below.
So, the romantic lead is a woman in her 20s who has had traumatic brain injury. She is touring Italy with her mother who is devoted to taking care of her daughter and used to shooing men away. However, one man refuses to be shooed and proposes.
Does Mom say, “She was kicked in the head by a pony at 12 and now has the emotional and mental capacity of a 12-year-old?” No. Because she wants her daughter to be happy, and because as a man behind me said, “She wants to unload her disabled daughter.”
So Mom doesn’t say those four little words, “Kicked in the head,” at any point. I was listening for it. So that’s problematic.
Also, isn’t there a problem with consent if someone with a mental capacity of a 12-year-old agrees to marry someone else? I suppose not if the parent agrees. I think in Oklahoma you can marry at 13 if your parents consent.
It does have lush orchestration and many comedic moments with the Italian family who is only aware the proposed bride is “special”.
Like I said, problematic.
But as Friend Anne said, “No one gets tossed in a sack and thrown in the river like in Rigoletto,” so there is that.