Ladling out the Brontës

The Asheville Citizen-Times reviews HART's production of Jane Eyre the Musical in Waynesville, North Carolina:

One of the English language's great brooding, dark, bleak and depressing sagas comes to the stage as a powerful and moving musical drama at Waynesville's Haywood Arts Regional Theatre with the production of “Jane Eyre — The Musical.”
Charlotte Bronte's melancholy biography of an English orphan in the 19th century has all the dramatic literary elements, but at the first glance seems an unlikely choice for a Broadway musical. But, we may be surprised. This is, after all, a Gothic novel.
All the elements of high drama are present: an orphaned young girl, a wretched schoolmaster, a handsome landed-gentry suitor, a spunky young ward needing a governess/mentor, a mysterious and frightening woman inhabiting the garret of the manse, a tragic fire and a glorious reconciliation. Playwright John Caird and composer Paul Gordon have taken this formula and fabricated an effective contribution to the American musical theater legacy.
The cast of 30 is a delight, but too large to enumerate.
As the young Jane, the feisty adolescent (MacKensie Kvalvik) Asheville High School freshman equals her memorable role as Helen Keller in “The Miracle Worker” in another demanding part. The double-cast adult Jane is played on alternate days by Tierney Cody and Emily Warren, the other taking the part of the mysterious woman in the attic, unlisted in the program.
The handsome hero is taken by local actor Tony Lance, who has worked locally with HART (as Tony in their “West Side Story”), Terpsicorps ('The Scarlet Letter”) and other regional theaters. His voice and dashing resence are worth the effort to get him home.
Another noted young talent is Jonathan Milner who charms as St John.
Two character roles who stop the show are Lyn Donley as Mrs Fairfax, who has all the delight of an Angela Lansbury. The other captivator in the cast is young Tessa Kvalvik in the role of the free spirit, Adele, whose antics are riveting. This talent is only entering Middle School but will be seen and heard on local stages for a long time to come.
Kay Edwards as Grace Poole, young Ben Sears as John Reed, Bryan Nicholls as the fey Robert, Dwight Chiles as Lord Ingram and Jacky Webb as Mr. Brocklehurst are all delightful. Show director Art O'Neil has gathered a bevy of talented folks to pull off this ambitious show. The striking sets are designed and lighted by company director Steve Lloyd.
UNCA music professor Melodie Galloway commands a baker's dozen in the pit and they make the melodic and lyrical score into a most pleasant audio experience. (Jim Cavener)

The film An Education, which we also mentioned yesterday, is paired with the Brontës in the New York Post.

And isn’t the education she is getting from David (auctions at Christie’s, weekends in Paris) superior to the damp routine of entrance exams, Oxford, marriage and a job ladling out the Brontes to next-gen Jennys? (Kyle Smith)

Perhaps the Reading Eagle does need to have the Brontës 'ladled in', as we have come across the following statement today:

The modern vampire has shifted to the romantic, dark haired, loner vampire, reminiscent of Heathcliff in Charlotte Bronte's "Wuthering Heights." (Greta Cuyler)

The Brontë roulette didn't work: it was Emily Brontë who penned Wuthering Heights.

The Spoof parodies the Booker Prize and invents a bibliography for the fictional winner. One of the fake books is entitled

'Oh Heathcliff, Pass Me Another Mills And Boone Plotline' (matwil)

Finally, Espèce de Bohémienne reviews Wuthering Heights in French and 5 minutes for books discusses Jane Eyre.

Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, Theatre, Wuthering Heights