Jane Eyre is awesome

i was curious whether to pick this up or not, thanks for the advice!

yeah i was thinking of getting this, so its worth it?

YAY!! I agree. I saw Jane Eyre and loved it, and it also had one of the best ensemble casts I've ever seen in a show. As a listening experience, the music is so lush, romantic, and poetic...one of my favorite CD's.

You can download the Toronto CD online; I'll post the website if I can find it again.

I bought the OBCR, the music is beautiful, and the singing is top-rate. James Barbour has one of the prettiest voices I have ever heard, I wish I could have seen him in the role.

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Can you please correct the spelling in the title?

Timing was everything. The British invasion of dark, melodramatic musicals was waning away. Like Mother's Younger Brother said, musical comedy was slowly making its way back. The Full Monty opened to great acclaim that season, and less we forget, along came The Producers. I adored the show beyond belief, but it didn't have a chance that season. The '99-'00 season was weaker in the New Musical category, and I'm sure the show would have fared so much better if it had opened only a year earlier.

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How did you hear/see the Wichita production? I have a tape of it (video and cassette), but they're both bootlegs my aunt got me because she was music director. By the way...if anyone from Center for the Arts contacts you, I TOTALLY don't have those

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CALL ME JAYNE!

I had no idea that Jane now spells her name Jayne, as in Mansfield!

I'm not sure why they did the premiere in Wichita, but my aunt and a lady named Kathy Page-Hauptman opened up a theatre here called Stage One with the express purpose of workshopping Broadway-calibur shows. Other shows that have premeired here are Jungle Man, Silver Dollar, and Urban Legends. Of course, with Wichita audiences being what they are, Stage One is B.R.O.K.E. It is a common fact that their checks bounce, so they pretty much only use actors who have worked with them before.

I know Jane Eyre also workshopped in Toronto before Broadway...the other city escapes me.

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I loved the Broadway production. Marla was ROBBED of the Tony. James Barbour was outstanding as Rochester. And Mary Stout delivered a memorable performance in a thankless role. The staging was absolutely brilliant. The use of the carousel lighting, projections, and turntables brilliantly supported the memory concept as employed in the narrative. I remember there was very little marketing for the show at the time. Other than the marquee at the theatre, I never saw anything else advertising the show when I was in NYC. The reviews were mixed, with several critics criticizing the show as rather cold and sterile, which I did not see. Jane and Rochester are not warm characters, to be sure, but I felt the score and direction created an atmosphere of symphathy for both of them. Much more so than in the recent film version with William Hurt. With the success of The Full Monty and the eventual invasion of The Producers, Jane Eyre simply didn't stand a chance. It opened during the holiday season and audiences were flocking toward lighter fare. Jane Eyre limped through spring, but simply couldn't hang on through the summer. I would love to see it come back, but with the original staging, which was innovative and unique. Far more creative lighting and set design than any other show that season.

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The staging was just breath-taking. It was one of the first shows I ever saw and the scrims of light moving seamlessly across the stage brilliantly evoked the atmosphere of the piece. Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer deserved the Tony that year for Lighting Design. Don't get me started on Marla Schaffel, I'm still shocked that she didn't win.

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