Jane Eyre?- Page 2
Jane Eyre?
Joined: 12/31/69
re: Jane Eyre?#25
Posted: 5/15/07 at 7:52pmSo was the Tony performance done after it closed? Are there any clips or pictures that show off the original set--it sounds gorgeous (I guess it would be being by John Napier)
re: Jane Eyre?#26
Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:12pm
I don't quite get this music:
In all honesty, the first time I listened to it, it bored me- now I absolutely cannot take it out of my CD player! I love it, can't stop listening (And this has been going on for several months.) It helps that it is probably my favorite book. My friend and I are always arguing: Bronte or Austen? -Bronte!
re: Jane Eyre?#27
Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:14pmI never saw the show on Broadway, but a university did it here and oh my, God, it was beautiful. I adore that show.
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/05
re: Jane Eyre?#28
Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:18pm
The show closed June 10, 2001, one week after the Tonys (SEVERAL shows announced closings the day after the Tonys for the following Sunday that year...it was a bad season if you weren't 'DA PRODUCAHS!).
They performed "Sirens" on the broadcast.
Joined: 12/31/69
re: Jane Eyre?#29
Posted: 5/16/07 at 2:51amWell then they shoulda picked a better performance--the two singers are great but watching it on youtube--and I remember watching it on tv I thought the show had closed as it's just two people with costumes--which is often how a show nominated is performed when it's closed and all the set pieces, the chours, etc are gone or dispersed already
Joined: 12/31/69
re: Jane Eyre?#30
Posted: 5/16/07 at 3:17am
Paul Gordon is a very good composer. I think his new show just had a reading at the MTC.... did anyone see it???
Joined: 12/31/69
re: Jane Eyre?#31
Posted: 5/16/07 at 4:29amWhat else has he written? I wikipedia-ed and read he was a well known pop composer--and I know a lot of pop music but have never heard his name before
Joined: 12/31/69
re: Jane Eyre?#32
Posted: 5/16/07 at 5:33am
Paul has done a lot of tv music and film/animation music work: themes and cues shows: Jane Eyre, Greetings From Venice Beach, and The Front (based on the film of the same name). It was read at the Manhattan Theatre Club last month (I was interested if anyone out there might have seen the reading...)
For someone beginning a career (like me), Paul is a great example of someone who has a very solid everyday career including some success onstage....
There is a very interesting interview article with him about Jane Eyre...
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/rialto/past/2000/1_16_00.html
re: Jane Eyre?#33
Posted: 5/16/07 at 8:59am
On the subject of the Tony performance, if it looked thrown together, that's because it was. Basically what happened was that the show ran out of money and was going to close either the week before the Tonys, or the day of, can't remember. But the Tony committee pulled their slot on the broadcast when they announced the show was closing. Efforts were still being made to raise enough money to get the show to stay open at least past the Tonys (since several categories had a chance of winning, if they had been judged by sane people). Finally, a number of the investors who really believed in the show put in some more money (including a large contribution by Alanis Morissette that allowed the show to stay open for the first week while more money was raised). So the show retracted its closing notice, or at least postponed it until after the Tonys.
The problem is, once you post it's very hard to undo that in people's minds. The news that a show is closing always travels farther than the news that it's un-closing. People would always be saying, "is this show still running?" It was so bad that I heard at one point Ticketmaster was actually telling people who called for tickets that the show was closed.
After a huge to-do with the Tony committee, who had already given away the time scheduled for their performance, they were given back 90 seconds. Now, there's not a whole lot you can do in 90 seconds. Which, if you've seen the clip of Sirens (which is not even the whole song), you can tell the tempo is insane.
As for the ridiculous furniture, I wish I could remember the exact numbers... the producer told me how much it costs to move the stuff from the theatre to Radio City and back. Now remember, the set for that number was just a small bench. It's not like it was a huge scene and they cut it down. But the reason they couldn't have that bench was that between the crew at the Brooks, the Teamsters, and the crew at Radio City, it would have cost $6,000 (I think that's right) to move a tiny bench that could be carried by one person. So they got that chair, which I can only assume came from somebody's house.
I don't think anybody expected the show to really keep running, but it was a nominee for best musical, and I think it was more about representing the show for posterity and at least allowing the chance for a miracle to happen in the week following the broadcast. There was a lot of love for the show among the people involved, and I'm sure the investors who threw in their extra money at the end did so with no illusions of ever seeing it again, but just because they thought the show deserved a chance to be seen.
re: Jane Eyre?#34
Posted: 5/16/07 at 11:58am
I remember all of that, Dover. I was shocked that a best-musical nominee was only given 90 seconds to perform, but wasn't aware that the show was initially not going to perform at all. After hearing me hype the show like crazy for months, all of the friends I watched the Tonys with that year watched that clip, and completely didn't get it. Their reaction was a collective, "O...k...."
It's a crime that Marla didn't win. There were three things I felt sure of after seeing the show: first, that it was wonderful; second, that it wouldn't make it; and third, Marla would win a Tony for it.
Oh well. I had already lost confidence in the Tonys by then anyway, and all it took was the Lion King/Ragtime fiasco.
Videos
