Rosemary for Remembrance
I'm writing a review on her for Jane Eyre just so that when I write my real review for my class I can remember the elements.
To begin, the musical itself is a little awkward in its execution. This to me is due to the fact that it incorporates the book using Jane's own "Gentle Reader . . ." moments found in the novel, which for the novel is fun and charming. However in the musical I found it distracting and it really took me out of the moment. It seems that this is what Hollywood felt as well, because the left these moments out until the end. This could also have worked for the musical, and in fact in the soundtrack they are left out until the last one--much better.
The acting was rather poor and the singer rarely better. Generally each cast member had one moment of sucess and no more. A lot of the side characters, such as that of Helen Burns, were better than those in the lead. Jane Eyre herself did pretty well, I will give her that it is hard to sing alto the whole way through a musical and it is easier to find a good saprono than an alto.
Rochester really couldn't sing anything and in a lot of instances was the highest singer in the production, that is to say sometimes he sand alto and sometimes he even came out with a saprano note.
Another annoyance was the sound system, which in earlier years and productions has been okay for the most part, however this year it seemed that the microphones have begun to fall apart.
As for the lighting, which at the beginning we warned to not take pictures due to disturbing it, was pathetci and symplistic. The spotlights were microscopic and only highlighted the face, which while giving a darker air to the gothic, made for never seeing anything but the actors faces.
This apparently is okay, because when the outfits are seen they are particularly ridiculous. They looked like something out of a five year olds dress-up closet. Indeed, one of the only outfits that seemed in place was Adele's dress-up costume. Too much Toile! I'm sorry, but no English lady of quality would be caught dead in Toile! Especially not that much!
Then there was the intriguing addition of songs that had never been in the musical. Little moments when speech should have been used, but instead a tuneless melody (oxymoron?) was used.
There was of course much more, but for now this is all I want to write.
Don't get me wrong, it was a nice effort, but in comparison to those musicals of the past it was simply laughable. A tragedy, because Jane Eyre can be such a timeless and fun tale.
BTW -- too lazy for a spellcheck. . .
To begin, the musical itself is a little awkward in its execution. This to me is due to the fact that it incorporates the book using Jane's own "Gentle Reader . . ." moments found in the novel, which for the novel is fun and charming. However in the musical I found it distracting and it really took me out of the moment. It seems that this is what Hollywood felt as well, because the left these moments out until the end. This could also have worked for the musical, and in fact in the soundtrack they are left out until the last one--much better.
The acting was rather poor and the singer rarely better. Generally each cast member had one moment of sucess and no more. A lot of the side characters, such as that of Helen Burns, were better than those in the lead. Jane Eyre herself did pretty well, I will give her that it is hard to sing alto the whole way through a musical and it is easier to find a good saprono than an alto.
Rochester really couldn't sing anything and in a lot of instances was the highest singer in the production, that is to say sometimes he sand alto and sometimes he even came out with a saprano note.
Another annoyance was the sound system, which in earlier years and productions has been okay for the most part, however this year it seemed that the microphones have begun to fall apart.
As for the lighting, which at the beginning we warned to not take pictures due to disturbing it, was pathetci and symplistic. The spotlights were microscopic and only highlighted the face, which while giving a darker air to the gothic, made for never seeing anything but the actors faces.
This apparently is okay, because when the outfits are seen they are particularly ridiculous. They looked like something out of a five year olds dress-up closet. Indeed, one of the only outfits that seemed in place was Adele's dress-up costume. Too much Toile! I'm sorry, but no English lady of quality would be caught dead in Toile! Especially not that much!
Then there was the intriguing addition of songs that had never been in the musical. Little moments when speech should have been used, but instead a tuneless melody (oxymoron?) was used.
There was of course much more, but for now this is all I want to write.
Don't get me wrong, it was a nice effort, but in comparison to those musicals of the past it was simply laughable. A tragedy, because Jane Eyre can be such a timeless and fun tale.
BTW -- too lazy for a spellcheck. . .