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Friday, September 07, 2018

Friday, September 07, 2018 9:45 am by Cristina in , , , , , ,    No comments
Broadway World Cleveland tells the story of how the revamped version of Jane Eyre the Musical came to be.
Along came Miles Sternfeld, the artistic director of Cleveland Musical Theatre,"a non-profit professional theater company that produces newly developed and re-imagined musical theatre, featuring Broadway and Cleveland artists with emerging talent."
Sternfeld felt that many of the problems with "Jane Eyre" could be fixed by shrinking the production, reexamining the score, and reimagining some of the book.
In most ways, as evidenced in the well-directed, perfectly cast, beautifully choreographed, and impressively scored music, Sternfeld was right. The CTP's "Jane Eyre" is special!
Gabriel Firestone's simple, ever-changing set, focuses the action into a compressed proscenium within proscenium, forcing the audience to focus on the actions. Even simplifying the set more and depending more on subtle electronic graphics would help. Benjamin Gantose's dark lighting and Sydney Gallas's period-appropriate costumes enhanced the somber mood.
The talented cast is both period and style correct. Andrea Goss, has the right attitude and demeanor for the high-minded Jane, while Matt Bogart transitions beautifully from morbid to caring as Edward. They both have big Broadway voices and sing meanings rather than words, making the vocals carry the story. [...]
The musical, without show stoppers, dream ballets or line dances, is greatly enhanced by choreographer Martin Céspedes' masterful creation of moving tableaus by subtly altering bodily positions and movements to create meaningful stage pictures.
The real star of the production, besides Miles Sternfeld's sensitive direction, is the musical score. Though it could have used a signature song, such as "The Music of the Night" ("Phantom of the Opera,") Paul Gordon's music, with additional lyrics by John Caird, seamlessly carries the message of Caird's book, placing the instrumental and vocal sounds parallel to the spoken words.
The contributions of Nancy Maier (musical direction) Steven Tyler (additional arrangements), Brad Haak (music supervision/orchestrations), Conor Keelan (associate orchestration) and Alex Berko (music preparation) cannot be overlooked.
Capsule judgement: "Jane Eyre," in its new form and format, is a musical that shows that a "small" production, in which care is taken with directing, casting and technical aspects can make musical theatre more captivating than big, splashy, over produced shows. With an additional "signature" song, the revised script seems ready for an off-Broadway, small theatre run. (Roy Berko)
(Terrible) Aunts in The Times:
There’s Aunt Reed in Jane Eyre and Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride and Prejudice and Oscar Wilde’s Lady Bracknell and Aunt Lydia from The Handmaid’s Tale and Aunt Petunia from Harry Potter and Roald Dahl’s Aunt Sponge (piggy eyes; a white flabby face “that looked exactly as though it had been boiled”) and Aunt Spiker (with a voice “that can break glass”) and David Walliams’s book Awful Auntie . . . (Deborah Ross)
El mundo (Spain) lists what's not to be missed in this theatre season, including Carme Portaceli's Jane Eyre, which will be making a comeback.
Jane Eyre | Teatro Español | Directora: Carme Portaceli | Intérpretes: Ariadna Gil, Abel Folk... | En cartel: desde el 5 de octubre.
Grandes actrices como Joan Fontaine, Charlotte Gainsbourg o Mia Wasikowska han interpretado a la heroína romántica de Charlotte Brontë en la gran pantalla y Ariadna Gil asume la responsabilidad de darle vida sobre las tablas. La actriz obtuvo un gran éxito con este papel en el Teatre Lliure y, tras su magnífico Vania a las órdenes de Rigola, está claro que la ganadora del Goya por Belle Époque vive una estupenda racha sobre los escenarios. Carme Portaceli firma la puesta en escena. (José Luis Romo) (Translation)
Taste of Cinema ranks Michael Fassbender's 29 films from worst to best and Jane Eyre doesn't fare all that well.
20. Jane Eyre (2011, Cary Joji Fukunaga)
Based off the novel from the 1840s, the character arcs that the lead character (Mia Wasikowska) goes through, seem a little too broad. There are so many trials and tribulations that as a whole, seem rather rushed for only 2-hour-long film.
With regards to Fassbender, there is something to be noted of an actor growing into his or her star persona. While Fassbender has been impactful in his performances prior to 2011, Jane Eyre is the first film where Fassbender looks and feels matured into a “star”. By no means was Jane Eyre his best film to date (April 2011), yet there is a richness about this picture that Fassbender is perfectly suited for.
Audiences had seen his fury in Hunger and 300; his fierceness in Blood Creek and Jonah Hex, and his rugged ravinesh in Angel and Fish Tank — yet with Jane Eyre, Fassbender remains masculine. A wealthy and jaded man, paired against an inexperienced maden creates ideal contrast, particularly with the plainness of Wasikowska’s looks. (Michael Jolls)
The Christian Science Monitor reviews the book Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters by Anne Boyd Rioux.
Rioux could even more deeply explore and re-envision the place of the multifaceted Alcott and Jo March in the literary lineage connecting them with Henry James and his Daisy Miller, Charlotte Brontë and Jane Eyre, and with Jane Austen and the likes of Eliza Bennett. Like Alcott, the creators of Eliza Bennett and Jane Eyre – whose works are also constantly adapted into made-for-TV tea-and-corset romances – endured hardship and humiliation, sometimes caused by the male relatives whom they had no choice but to depend on.
Even as Alcott, Austen, and the Brontës indulged in the romantic idea of a man of wealth, strength, integrity, and intellect coming to the rescue, it’s worth keeping in mind that the Jane Eyres, the Eliza Bennetts, and the Jo Marches were, like their creators, the smartest people in the room. The man they sought to save them was the one who could equal if not surpass them: the one person as kind, as intelligent, and as high-caliber as they were. The one who, like Jo’s older, intelligent Professor Bhaer, could challenge them. And in their real lives, often enough, such a man was not to be found. (Janet Saidi)
The Sydney Morning Herald describes an 'Emily Brontë kind of day'.
It's an Emily Bronëe kind of day in Gisborne. A grey, late autumn gloom surrounds the wedge-tailed eagles circling a distant hill. It shivers across brown paddocks through a windbreak of trees and onto a leaf-strewn patio. (Michael Dwyer)
Good news for the Black Bull in Haworth as reported by The Telegraph and Argus.
The Black Bull, near the top of Main Street, had shut on Monday August 6 following the departure of its last landlord, but it re-opened on Monday August 27.
It has been taken on by landlord and landlady Andrew Parker and Sara Davidson, who are from Barnsley.
Joanne McKeegan, who lives in Haworth and is managing the premises, said the pair are hoping to run the pub for the long-term.
She added: “It’s lovely to see the pub back open and people are very pleased to see it is trading. We’ve had a lot of good feedback since we re-opened.”
Mrs McKeegan, who has also managed the same pub for two previous landlords, said the historic premises will be opening from noon till late seven days a week.
The prominent pub, owned by Ei Group pic – formerly called Enterprise Inns – is well known as having been a regular haunt of the troubled Branwell Bronte.
After it shut early last month local councillors voiced their concern, and said such a unique part of the village’s history needed to be up and running again as soon as possible. (Miran Rahman)
The Oxford Times travels around Yorkshire by steam train.
 While heritage railways can now be found all over the country, in the early 1970s they were still something of a novelty.
Two of the oldest are in my home county of Yorkshire, the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. Both were favourite destinations for family outings and school trips in my childhood.
I recently returned to see how they have changed since those early days of steam train preservation, alongside a stay in the famous spa town of Harrogate.
While the 19th century wool trade in West Yorkshire gave life to the Keighley & Worth Valley line, some famous former residents of the area and a bit of movie magic have transported it into the 21st century.
Trains tackling the climb from Keighley to the end of the line at Oxenhope pause for breath at the station sitting below the picturesque village of Haworth, a place of pilgrimage for admirers of the novels written by the Brontë sisters, who lived in the village parsonage, which is now a museum. (William Crossley)
Brontë Society Young Ambassador Lucy Powrie has a new YouTube video on the Brontës up: 'The Brontës and imagination'. Thrice Read posts about Jane Eyre.

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