A Review of Milwaukee's Jane Eyre and some burlesque

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel publishes a review of the current production of Jane Eyre. The Musical by the Acacia Theatre Company. The reviewer, Mike Fischer, seems to have more problems with the original musical than with the actual performances in Milwaukee:

The version of "Jane Eyre" that debuted on Broadway in late 2000 jettisons much of this material, choosing instead to spotlight Jane's eventual conclusion that the redemptive power of Christian love can resolve the emotional tumult she barely understands and cannot control.

While this approach risks reducing the novel to Bronte Lite, the musical's 2001 Tony nominations for best new musical, best book and best original score make clear that it can nevertheless hold its own with much of what passes these days for musical theater.

Spurred by some extraordinary singing, the Acacia Theatre Company made its case for the musical in a production that opened over the weekend in Mequon.

Composed by Paul Gordon, the music in "Jane Eyre" is easy on the ear: loads of arpeggios and melodramatic harmonies, continually repeated. While stirring in limited doses, such a restricted musical diet ordinarily requires lavish production values to stay interesting - think "Les Miserables," which was originally directed by John Caird, who also wrote the book and some of the lyrics for "Jane Eyre."

Acacia doesn't have the budget to put on such a spectacle, but its "Jane Eyre" throws off sparks all its own through standout musical performances by coloratura soprano Julie Alonzo-Calteaux as Jane's rival, Blanche Ingram, and particularly by Danielle York in the demanding role of Jane and Walter Boyer as Edward Rochester, Jane's brooding master and eventual husband.

Gordon's score demands lead artists with range; just because his music is simple doesn't mean it is easy. But York and Boyer make it look easy in delivering genuinely moving renditions of numbers such as York's "Painting Her Portrait," Boyer's "As Good as You" and their duet, "Sirens."

As a result, the Acacia production passes the fundamental litmus test confronting each of the many "Jane Eyre" adaptations: convincing an audience that this odd couple works as a pair.

What this "Jane Eyre" ultimately cannot do, given the limitations imposed by Gordon's score and some of the pitter-patter lyrics, is sound the depths that would allow us to see just how odd this couple is. The musical's Rochester has none of the original's Byronic fire, and the musical's grown-up Jane has little of the spunk or psychological complexity of Bronte's heroine.

By rounding far too many of the novel's spiky edges, this "Jane Eyre" ultimately undercuts the power of its own message of redemption and forgiveness. With Rochester resembling a housebroken Victorian husband more than a raging titan like Heathcliff, there simply isn't enough here to forgive - or to love.

In the antipodes of Broadway musicals, we read on KGBBarlit (via Dogmatika) an interview with Burlesque perfomer RunAroundSue. She expresses her dreams of a Brontë choreography :

I’m crossing my fingers that someone puts together a dance revolving around Anna Karenina. Even a Bronte sisters routine. The three of them, in unison – Emily, Anne and Charlotte, all twirling their tassels together on stage.

Twirling their tassels... I don't know if this is what Martha Graham has on mind.

Categories: In_the_News, Jane_Eyre, Music