Anne Brontosaurus

Broadway World tells about the new cast of Sally Cookson's Jane Eyre, soon to go on tour around the UK.

Casting for Sally Cookson's energetic and imaginative new adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's masterpiece, Jane Eyre was announced today (20 February 2017), with Nadia Clifford taking the central role of Jane Eyre and Tim Delap as Rochester.
Manchester born and bred Nadia Clifford's previously appeared at the National Theatre in Alistair McDowell's sell-out production of Pomona and Tim Delap will make his NT debut as Rochester.
They are joined by Hannah Bristow (Helen Burns/Adele/St John/Grace Poole/Abbot), Matthew Churcher (Musician), Alex Heane (Musician), Melanie Marshall (Bertha Mason), Belfast born and bred Paul Mundell (Mr Brocklehurst/Pilot/Mason), Cardiff born David Ridley (musician), Evelyn Miller (Bessie/Blanche Ingram/Diana) and Lynda Rook (Mrs Reed/Mrs Fairfax). The cast is completed by Ben Cutler, Jenny Johns, Dami Olukoya, Francesca Tomlinson and Phoebe Vigor.
2017 marks the 170th anniversary of the first publication of Jane Eyre - a significant time to be touring Charlotte Brontë's classic and much loved story. The highly acclaimed co-production between the National Theatre and Bristol Old Vic opens at The Lowry in Salford on 8 April and will continue its journey around the country to Sheffield, Aylesbury, Plymouth, Southampton, Edinburgh, York, Woking, Glasgow, Richmond, Canterbury, Cardiff, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Milton Keynes, Norwich, Brighton, Leeds, Belfast, Aberdeen and Birmingham.

Playbill reports it too.

This columnist from the Uinta County Herald is offended by a recent association of Jane Eyre to Fifty Shades Darker.

I was delighted to discover the 2011 “Jane Eyre,” one of my all-time favorite movies (romantic or otherwise), at Wal-Mart this Sunday. I have loved the book by Charlotte Brontë since I first encountered it in middle school, and the movie is a beautifully done adaptation.
However, my delight at finding “Jane Eyre” was tempered by the realization that the slipcover was bleached of all color, leaving it in black, white and grey — and the movie came with an expired coupon for a ticket to “Fifty Shades Darker.”
I am mortally offended by the implied connection between “Jane Eyre” and “Fifty Shades.” It’s a gross insult to Bronte’s genius and sensitivity. And what of this comparison to “Fifty Shades” — that “Twilight” fanfiction that is disgustingly degrading at best and outright dangerous at worst? From what I’ve gathered, it is a story of a man abusing a woman in the name of love, and of her eager submission to it. That’s not love. That’s abuse.
On the other hand, we have “Jane Eyre,” which does have surface similarities but also (and this is the important part) profound differences. It is these differences that “Twilight” and “Fifty Shade,  have neglected.
The hero of “Jane Eyre” (if you can call him that) is Edward Rochester — powerful, wealthy, well-educated and well-traveled, violent, rude, passionate, rough, tormented by his inner demons and by his mad wife in the attic and Jane’s social superior in every material way.
By contrast, Jane is “poor, plain and little” by her own admission. She is an orphan despised and cast off by her aunt and cousins, abused through childhood and sent to a boarding school where her best friend and many other girls died of disease and malnutrition. She is a governess, caught between the servants’ class and the middle- and upper-classes. She has no apparent worth in the world and is alone, unbeautiful and unloved — but her saving grace is her faith in God (found while suffering in boarding school) and in her strong moral principles. (Read more) (Bethany Lange)

Signature Reads interviews writer Maeve Higgins.

SIG: Are there any books you’ve read lately that inspired  Maeve in America?
MH: Absolutely. Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War is amazing. The Upstairs Wife about women in Pakistan is another one I love, and How the Irish Became White is fascinating. Those books are windows into worlds. There are also novels, like say Jane Eyre. What’s always interesting to me is someone who leaves their life behind and starts over. (Patrick Sauer)

On Gramophone, John Amis, Rumon Gamba and Adrian Edwards discuss composer Bernard Herrmann and his works.

AE Writing film music is partly an art because you’re writing to a prescribed number of minutes, in segments, in sections, all the time. Yet when we recall what Herrmann considered to be the piece by which he would be remembered, the opera Wuthering Heights, that’s a sprawling work which really could do with a bit of the technique of film writing being allied to it.
JA I think there are a lot of film gestures and atmospheric gestures in it but I do think it’s the most boring piece. I didn’t want to condemn him without reconsidering it, so I listened this week to the last two acts and I do think it’s a bit like eating polystyrene and there’s such a lack of melody. Although there’s one good song in it, the rest is really rather feeble.
AE So Rumon, what do you think happened? The marvellous, dramatic music he wrote for film eluded him when it came to Brontë.
RG Of course he was working with a great writer, but he didn’t have the visual stimulus. That’s what he needed. He was involved in the process of making films, unlike a lot of the composers who would score it afterwards. So he was an active creative partner. Perhaps he didn’t have a creative partner for the opera. Suddenly he was let off the leash with no time limits, and I guess one thinks when you write an opera you have to produce something grand. He was quite romantic in that respect, in the way he approached music. He wanted to emulate the Romantic composers rather than bring everything into a tight shape.

Diario Información (Spain) tells about the publication of a book about Kate Bush in Spanish.

Abogado y profesor de Derecho Tributario en la Universidad de Alicante –«comprenderás que busque escapes», bromea– Vicedo apunta que la autora de ese Wuthering heights con el que irrumpió en escena en 1978 «necesitaba una biografía en castellano, que no tenía».
Él, como muchos seguidores de esta artista británica, la conoció con ese video famoso de aspecto coreográfico que habla de Cumbres borrascosas «con una pasión que trasciende». «La mitad de la gente que ve ese video piensa: ''Qué voz más horrible tiene'' y a la otra mitad lo que nos llama la atención es cómo vive la historia que cuenta en tres minutos. Eso es lo difícil del pop, cuando se consigue ir más allá de esos tres minutos. El pop normalmente lo entendemos como un género menor, más intrascendente, más frívolo, y ella lo lleva a un nivel mucho más alto», asegura Vicedo. (África Prado) (Translation)

Also in Spanish is this weird mention which sounds like a blunder but we really couldn't tell. From Pysn Noticias:

Radcliffe también fue una de las primeras en explorar la terrible figura del villano gótico, tan demoníaco como seductor — influyendo, por cierto, otra autora de enorme importancia: Emily Brontë y su de los brujos (quien leyó difícilmente se olvidará del misterioso y atormentado Heathcliff). (Translation)

Express & Echo reports that the luxury five star cruise ship MS Emily Brontë now has a Godmother to launch it. Apartment Therapy shares a selection of gifts for book lovers such as literary teas, including one inspired by Jane Eyre. Patheos Hawkeye discusses orphans in literature. The Brussels Brontë Blog (with a brand new design) tells about the recent talks on Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.

Finally, apart from her production company being called Brontë Film and Television, JK Rowling has now mentioned on Twitter that she has a dog called Brontë. When asked about it, she replied,

In my mind, Anne (controversial, I know), but one of my kids was only recociled to the name on the basis that it was short for Brontosaurus. https://t.co/AScKk0ahBt

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) February 20, 2017