#Marla Schaffel

[aleksakonstanta]

my mustard-seed

[eyreguide]

Review Jane Eyre the Musical - Theatre Raleigh Production

Earlier this year, Theatre Raleigh in North Carolina premiered the updated production of Jane Eyre the Musical by Paul Gordon and John Caird. Jane Eyre the Musical had its Broadway run back in 2000, and it is still my favorite musical version of Jane Eyre. Caird and Gordon brought Jane's story to life in an incredible way - capturing the lyricism of the novel in a way that felt true to the book, while also bringing all the emotion of the story in the beautiful melodies. I loved the Broadway cast of Marla Schaffel and James Barbour in their roles as Jane and Rochester, and still listen to the original cast recording on a regular basis.

Recently, Caird and Gordon decided to rework the musical into a "chamber piece". With a simpler orchestral accompaniment, slimmed down cast (different roles were covered by multiple people), and some changes to the lyrics and flow of the musical. I was excited to see this new version, and although I couldn't make it to North Carolina to see the show (and I really tried to make it happen, but life events got in the way), I was able to watch it through the special livestream event Theatre Raleigh held this past weekend. I'm happy to share my thoughts on it here!

Julie Benko stars as Jane Eyre in this production, and she is almost always on stage - a difficult feat for quite a lengthy production, but she was wonderful! In the early part of Jane's story, older Jane would wander around young Jane as she watched over her and relive the memories of her youth. The poignancy of older Jane and younger Jane together is such a highlight of this production. It gives so much emotional depth to Jane's story. Especially so when towards the end, Jane comes to see Mrs. Reed on her deathbed, and young Jane just stands off to the side - a specter that Mrs. Reed sometimes looks at, as she is reminded of how she treated Jane as a child. Ada Manie played young Jane as well as Adele, and her performance was also fantastic - I believed her as both characters.

Matt Bogart played Mr. Rochester, and I also found his performance to be magnificent. He played the mercurial nature of Rochester perfectly, and while the romance does proceed very quickly, I am so familiar with the duets in the show (Sirens and Secret Soul) that their romantic interest in each other feels perfectly valid when illustrated by song. I did watch this with my husband who had never seen this musical version (although he has read the book), and he felt that the rushed romance was the only real disappointment he had in this version.

Some of the lyric changes were surprising to me. I only got to watch this once, so perhaps they would make better sense if I watched it a second time, but a lot of it seemed unnecessary. The original was already so good. They did cut a few songs as well - Mrs. Fairfax's "Perfectly Nice", Blanche Ingrams's "The Finer Things", and Jane's later song "Rain" (cuts I didn't mind) and Mr. Rochester's "Farewell Good Angel" which was one I kind of missed, but I understand that it really focuses on Jane leaving rather than Rochester's reaction.

I still hope to see this version in person someday - whenever there is a new production of it in the U.S. I find it such a moving portrait of the novel, capturing the passion and the sentiment, and making it all feel real. ... In a heightened sort of way of course. I'm so glad that they released a filmed version of this, and I hope this production might be available to buy someday!

Here is the Theatre Raleigh playbill to see the full cast! https://theatreraleigh.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Jane-Eyre-Playbill.pdf

[kilesplaysthings]

Reading through the angst-ridden route that is Licht’s route (actually quite enjoying it, by the way. Can’t wait to see how he falls in love and learns how to forgive himself). And my goodness, I keep thinking of the song ‘Sirens’ from the Jane Eyre musical.

Super good musical, by the way. It’s passionate, dark and intense. I feel like this song especially could fit Licht’s inner turmoil at the fact that he’s starting to open his heart to another. Also Emma’s thoughts about wanting to help him:

Damn the passion, damn the skies

Damn the light that's in her eyes

I know too well where it has led before.

She saves me but I can't be saved

Frees me but I'm still enslaved

Now I battle what I most adore.

Oh, let me sail away

And make this vow

That what my heart wants I will not allow.

For as sirens call the sailors

She calls me now.

[hiran-ratchanichon]

The words have such deep meaning!

[cyanid-apple]

I believe I was the submitter for Jane Eyre ? If it helps I listen to the 2000 Broadway cast recording with Marla Schaffel as Jane Eyre and James Barbour as Rochester

[musicalsorwhatever]

“Sirens (Reprise)” is the thirty-fourth song in the 2000 musical Jane Eyre. The show featured music and lyrics by Paul Gordon, and a book by John Caird based on the 1847 Charlotte Brontë novel: Jane Eyre. It was nominated for five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. This song is performed by James Stacy Barbour as Edward Fairfax Rochester, and Marla Schaffel, who won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical for her performance as the titular Jane.

[camelliabi]

Marla Schaffel and Anthony Crivello during the original Toronto production of Jane Eyre the Musical.

[bryrosea]

what's your favorite jane eyre version?

Oh...are you sure you want to ask me that? SURE? Because I’VE GOT FEELINGS ABOUT THIS. Buckle up. 

So, firstly, Jane Eyre is near and dear to my heart as it is for many people. I have read the book, conservatively, dozens of times and seen most (although not all) of the modern adaptations. There have been over twenty film and TV adaptations of the story over the years and I think one reason it’s been tried so many times is that they never get it quite right. There is no Definitive Adaptation in the way the Ehle/Firth Pride & Prejudice is for many people, for example. Every version has it’s adherents and it’s detractors. My three (argh!, okay four) favorite versions below: 

(cut, because this got EXTREMELY LONG)

COMFORT AND FIDELITY FAV: 1983 BBC Minseries (Zelah Clarke and Timothy Dalton)

This is the version I grew up watching (my mom is also a big Jane Eyre fanatic). It’s by far the most complete in terms of the events of the book. It’s like…five hours? Four? Long, anyway, so it gets to play out a lot of scenes that don’t make it into other versions. Do you like Miss Temple? This is pretty much the only adaptation where she gets any screen time. Ditto a lot of the Lowood and St. John storylines. This version is really faithful in terms of Bronte’s language too, which I appreciate, since that’s a big draw of the story for me. This is, however, an older film, clearly shot largely on a sound stage, and it shows in production value.

Zelah Clarke’s Jane is calm and self-contained. She’s short enough to play Jane (as no other actress in the part really is) but a little too sturdy for the “childish, slender creature” Bronte describes. Clarke is honestly a little too quiet and prim for my taste; I like to feel the fire brewing in Jane, barely repressed, and Clarke misses out there for me, a bit. 

Dalton is likewise too polished to really be Rochester. Yes, he is overly handsome for the part, but so are a lot (all?) of the film Rochesters, it’s more his manner that’s the issue, for me. He never seems really on the edge in the way my favorites are in the part.  

So yeah, I actually prefer several other actors in both the Jane and Rochester roles to this particular pairing, but the story adaptation itself can not be beat. When I’m home sick on the couch for an entire day and missing my mom, this is the version I pick. 

AESTHETIC FAV: 2011 Movie (Mia Wasikowski and Michael Fassbender)

I have mixed feelings on Fassey in this role, but he makes no major offenses, and Mia Wasikowski is KILLER. More solemn than Ruth Wilson, but with a greater sense of Jane’s interior world than Clarke. 

This version makes what I think is a really smart film-making decision, starting the story in media res with Jane running from Thornfield and telling the meat of the tale through flashbacks. This allows the director to wrap the Lowood and Morton parts of the story (the dragging-est parts, lbr) around the more interesting Rochester and Thornfield stuff, breaking them up so the story doesn’t sag at the end the way some productions do. 

The absolute worst thing about this version, though, is the ending. It cuts off super abruptly after the Jane/Rochester reunion in what I find a deeply unsatisfying way. All of this big (and very effective) emotional build-up to the reunion and then BLACK SCREEN immediately after? Bah. I like time to savor them coming together. Just five more minutes at the end and I would be sublimely happy with this version. 

It is, however, a gorgeous adaptation with the scenery and cinematography and OH MY FREAKING GOD, the costumes in this one. They are so period-accurate and lush and detailed. I mean: 

[X] [X]

So yeah, when I’m looking for a quick Jane Eyre fix with gorgeous eye candy, the 2011 is my go to. 

ACTING AND TRASH FAV: 2006 Miniseries (Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens)

This is the version I re-watch the most and Ruth Wilson is my favorite Jane. She is actually really gorgeous, but has such weird, rubbery alien features that she’s the only actress to play Jane who I can actually imagine someone calling “fairy” and “sprite” and “imp.” Even though in this language-altered version (see below) Rochester sticks to just calling her a witch (sigh). Wilson plays a very young Jane, her emotions closer to the surface than others - she smiles, laughs even, where other actresses have chosen to keep Jane stoic - and it WORKS. She is the quintessential Jane, for me. She owns the role. 

Toby Stephens is Maggie Smith’s son and DAMN does he do the family acting chops proud here. This miniseries is four hours long, so the first time I saw it I was surprised at how quickly it skims over Jane’s childhood - she’s on her way to Thornfield by about 17 minutes in - but once I saw the first scene with Stephens and Wilson by the fire I was like OH I GET IT. MORE OF THIS, YES. This version lingers lovingly over the Rochester/Jane relationship and gives them lots of chances to interact and talk that many other adaptations don’t, making their relationship feel the most earned and deserved, to me. 

Okay, so this version of the Rochester/Jane relationship is kind of controversial among fans because it sexes up the story a good bit. 

But I don’t caaaaaaaare. It’s hot, and they’re hot, and the original literary couple is fucking BRIMMING with unexpressed passion that the novel just kind of elides over a la conventions of the time, anyway, so I don’t even really feel like it’s all that OOC. 

My biggest issue with this adaptation is that all of the language is modernized throughout (not, like, ‘omg, he did wha?’ but not Bronte’s original poetry, either). There are many, many times when characters say their lines in this where I can hear the echo of the books actual text lurking, unsaid AND BETTER, and it makes me periodically sad. 

PROBABLY ACTUAL FAV: Jane Eyre: The Musical (Marla Schaffel and James Barbour) 

Okay, so hear me out now. The dark melodrama of this book was actually MADE to be a Broadway musical and there was a fabulous one written by Paul Gordon and John Caird. It premiered on Broadway in 2000, unfortunately at the same time as the juggernaut that was the Producers, and didn’t do very well, closing after a few months. It did get some Tony nominations, though, and you can see Schaffel and Barbour doing a BALLER rendition of “Sirens” at the 2001 Tony Awards

I saw this musical in person when I was in high school while it was doing an pre-broadway trial at the La Jolla Playhouse. I loved the book Jane Eyre before, but it was seeing that performance of the musical that really kicked me over in full-blown obsession with the story. I have listened over and over and over to various versions of the cast album for over fifteen years now. 

The Broadway cast album is amazing, definitely, but I honestly believe that one of the reasons the musical didn’t do as well on Broadway is that it changed a lot from the lush textually-faithful version that I saw in La Jolla. The best recording to listen to, in my opinion, is the original cast recording from Toronto (with Anthony Crivello as Rochester). If you know the book at all and listen to it you will be blown away by how faithful to the text and moving the music is, I guarantee it. 

This is the version that lurks in my mind the most and informs my reading of the book. There are whole passages of the novel that I can no longer read without hearing the music superimposed over them, delicately picking out phrases and weaving them into intricate melodies. This is my favorite Jane Eyre version. 

So...8 million words later...does that answer your question anon? Ha ha...ha?

[locke-writes]

they sprout among the peonies - Michael Anania

Fruit Salad - Tom Cardy

The Violet Hour - Sea Wolf

Simple Little Things - Audra McDonald

3 Small Words - Josie and the Pussycats

The Proposal - Marla Schaffel & James Barbour

Love, Me Normally - Will Wood

If It Makes You Happy - Michael Cera Palin

Come Along - Cosmo Sheldrake

when i’m at therapy - The Blue Dinosaur

Tardigrade Song - Cosmo Sheldrake

Boyfriend - Dove Cameron

Jigsaw - Conan Gray

Spy Again - Curt Mega

Celebrate the Reckless - MAGIC GIANT

The Railroad - Goodnight, Texas

Me Myself & I - 5 Seconds of Summer

Fever Dreams - Dio

History - BONNIE PARKER

Hey Love - The Daughters of Eve

Greek God - Conan Gray

Cubs in Five - The Mountain Goats

It’s Cool - First in Flight

Welcome to the Family - Avenged Sevenfold

Kiss Me - Sixpence None the Richer

What’s Up? - 4 Non Blondes

There She Goes - The La’s

There She Goes - Sixpence None the Richer

I Don’t Want to Wait - Paula Cole

She’s So High - Tai Bachman

Tom’s Diner - Suzanne Vega & DNA

Mr Jones - Counting Crows

Crash Into Me - Dave Matthews Band

Collide - Howie Day

Lovefool - The Cardigans

Barely Breathing - Duncan Sheik

3AM - Matchbox Twenty

I Hate Everything About You - Three Days Grace

Still Ill - The Smiths

Somewhere Out There - Philip Glasser & Betsy Cathcart

My Eyes - Neil Patrick Harris & Felicia Day

The Starry Night - Starry Original Cast

Finale - Anastasia Original Broadway Cast

Keys of Life - Klaus Nomi

A Duo - Philip Glasser & Dom De Louise

It’s DeLovely - Ella Fitzgerald

Kids In America - The Muffs

867-5309/Jenny - Tommy Tutone

Fake - Oxford Remedy

Flowers Never Bend After the Rainfall - Simon & Garfunkel

You’re Dead - Norma Tanega

Nevermind - Deaf Havana

The Bad Thing - The Mysterines

If I Fail You - Dylan Saunders

Vampire Money - My Chemical Romance

Poisoning Pigeons in the Park - Tom Lehrer

Viva Las Vengeance - Panic! At the Disco

Holidays in the Sun - Sex Pistols

Let It Out - The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals Cast

Inner White Girl - A Strange Loop Cast

I Love You (As Much As Someone Like Me Could Love Anyone) - Galavant Cast

Pretend to Be Nice - Josie and the Pussycats

Teenage Demon Baby - Foxy Shazam

Flightless Bird, American Mouth - Iron & Wine

When We’re Older - James Blake

Washing Machine Heart - Mitski

You Don’t Own Me - Klaus Nomi

Lightning Strikes - Klaus Nomi

Crying Is Cool - The Sonder Bombs

Redwood Reverie - Plas Teg

Go Home. Play Music. Feel Better - Michael Cera Palin

Lemon Lime Lips - Naethan Apollo

Seventeen - MARINA

Totally Fucked - Spring Awakening Cast

Along the Way - The Hunts

Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - The Four Lads

Ballroom Blitz - Sweet

Davy Crochet - The Backseat Lovers

Mother Mary - Foxboro Hottubs 

Soup is Good Food - Dead Kennedys

Valentine - The Hunts

This Time Tomorrow - Brandi Carlile

Sofia - Clairo

Oh Ana - Mother Mother

Kill the Sun - Motherfolk

One Step Ahead - Joey Richter & Curt Mega

Your Stupid Face - Kaden MacKay

This Side of Me - Toddy Walters

i had gay sex with god (it could’ve gone better) - Juno Lev

Listen on Spotify

[glassprism]

Hi! I was researching about the Broadway adaptation of Jane Eyre, and I looked at the Wikipedia page for the actress Marla Schaffel, who played Jane. The wiki says that “She left the theatre after turning down the coveted role of Christine Daaé in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera”. I was wondering if you have any insight onto why she turned it down, and what the situation with that was? I couldn’t find any information on my own, and I figured that you might have some insight. If not, I understand. Thank you!

I legitimately have no idea, and do not particularly care much either (I think I’ve said it before, but I really don’t follow the personal lives of actors involved in Phantom at all; my interest is in the show and how the actors portray the characters, beyond that I have no interest), but I did some Googling and found this thread in which one member states that she turned it down because she did not want to “sleepwalk through a role”.

Keep in mind this is a BWW thread and the poster states that they only heard the story and have no idea if it’s true... so if true, it sounds like she turned it down either because she found the role boring or, maybe, didn’t think she’d do justice to it. The thread makes it sound more like the former, which (if true), I can actually understand. Christine is my favorite character and I think there’s lots an actress can do with it, but on paper, she does come off as someone who spends all her time entranced and pushed around by others.

But that’s just what I found through a really fast Google search. Don’t know if it’s true! Perhaps someone else will.

[brothermarc7theatre]

Musical Monday

Hello and welcome to this week’s Musical Monday post! This week’s show will continue our perusal through the 2000-2001 Broadway season. I have never seen a production of this musical, which also has a straight play counterpart. However, I have listened to its score, and it is quite pretty. Here we go!

Musical Monday date: 6/17/2019

Musical: Jane Eyre

Book, Music, and Lyrics: John Caird, Paul Gordon, and Paul Gordon

Broadway Run: December 10th, 2000 - June 10th, 2001

Awards Won: None

Other: In addition to Best Musical, Jane Eyre did receive nominations for Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score, Best Actress in a Musical (Marla Schaffel), and Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Jules Fisher, Peggy Eisenhauer). Marla Schaffel did win the Drama Desk award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical.

Fun Fact: John Caird’s two Tony wins are for directing (The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby; Les Miserables)

Jane Eyre, as mentioned above, has a lovely score to it, and is certainly a musical worth seeing should you ever have the opportunity. If not, then there’s always the masterpiece novel. Until next week, make every effort to go see a show this week!

[mistress-light]

N O C T L U N A   W E E K

Day 1: Lyrics - Brave Enough for Love - Marla Schaffel, James Barbour & Jane Eyre Ensemble 

[bewareofitalics]

Look what Paul Gordon posted on Facebook!  Marla Schaffel and Anthony Crivello rehearsing for Jane Eyre!

[yuramec]

Marla Schaffel ....voice of Dionisia?....yup shes perfect -w-. 

AND THIS SONG IS PERFECT!.

[cdaae]

May 20, 2001, Marla Schaffel, James Barbour, Mary Stout, Elizabeth De Grazia, Video

https://www.mediafire.com/?9ltgfafbfjm7w

[sinfonium]

Brave Enough For Love - Jane Eyre