Jane Eyre: The Musical!

Last night I took myself to see the musical version of Jane Eyre put on by Seattle Musical Theatre. I'd heard of it before, but a few weeks ago I was struck with another bout of insomnia and what else do you do when you can't sleep at 1am but buy musicals off Amazon.com? I was actually hoping to find something in a similar vein with The Secret Garden and I guess I hoped that another musical based on a book set in England way back when would do. The first time I listened to it, I was alternately bored and deeply annoyed. A few more listens and it started to grow on me. In my opinion there's plenty of room for improvement in both musical/lyrical execution (sorry, that sounded snobby, but I promise I'm not smart enough to be a real snob). You can hear in the music when they were trying to hard and it gets a little clumsy. I think it would have benefited from a more delicate touch? They definitely edited down the story but didn't seem to want to do that with some of the music, particularly lyrics. It's a very wordy book, I'll grant you, and even though the story of Jane Eyre can be quite melodramatic, it seems that certain musical moments could have done with some restraint. I will say I really enjoyed playing "Guess the Musical" and finding which portions sounded just like other plays. There were snippets of Into the Woods, Wicked, The Secret Garden, and an incredibly hilarious parallel -- we'll say "parallel" rather than "rip-off" -- with Anastasia the animated musical at the end of the number "Sweet Liberty" ("at laaaaaaast!"). Even that just made me more fond of it, oddly. So I finally decided, "What the heck, I'll give it a whirl."

It was an admirable production in many ways, and definitely a fun way to spend my evening. I quite enjoyed it and I'd be interested to see how it would go with a full orchestra and more resources. It must be hard to condense such a long book, and one that is from Jane's perspective and so includes much inner thought and observation versus action. They did a decent job of hitting the high and low points: school for orphaned girls, Thornfield, scowly yet charismatic leading man, crazy lady in the attic, etc etc. And while I know they needed to detail Jane's growth towards strength, forgiveness and faith and her relationship with Rochester, it seems like they skimmed over the harshness of her childhood and her distress while wandering alone after she leaves Thornfield. I mean, those are major traumas! But her childhood was just her cousin tearing a few pages out of a book and her aunt scolding her once and that's about it. And her desolate wandering lasted about a minute and a half and consisted of her kneeling on the ground while the chorus of spirits (hey there, Secret Garden, how ya doin'?) who act as the spokespeople of her inner thoughts said "I cried a lot and I was hungry and it SUCKED" (I'm just a fan of show, not tell, especially in a play, which by its nature is largely about showing). It seems to me that her turmoil and sadness and, consequently her eventual happiness, would have had a lot more meaning if she actually appeared to suffer deeply in her life. Oh well--again, it's a damn long book and they needed time to sing, I guess.

Song-wise, I was pleased by the addition of a number of in-between, move-it-along songs. The cast album I have is a single disc and one thing that bothered me about it was how uneven it seemed--in terms of plot timing they'd have a number of songs crammed together, then skip important story lines and then have a song that seemed overly long for how small it's plot point was. The full show evened it out nicely. And seeing it performed live made me reconsider and even enjoy songs that bug me on the CD--that's why I love going to musicals, you may know the music backwards and forwards, but when you see it performed by actors in character on a stage it takes on an utterly new life.

Casting-wise they did a pretty decent job. Jane Eyre had a wonderful voice, youthful but strong and very clear--I was thoroughly blown away by her opening number in act two, it was the first time her acting really moved me. The little girls who played Jane and Helen were excellent, I wanted to hug them both and I was quite impressed with Helen, who had her own song and managed it nicely. A few cast members were a little shaky on their pitches, particularly the man who was a chorus member/Mr. Mason, he was consistently under pitch and I think he might be the reason that when the chorus performed segments of harmony it was naggingly off. And they seemed to agree amongst themselves that belting it out was always the right way to go, no matter what the mood was supposed to be, bless their hearts.

But lets get down to the important part: Mr. Rochester. He was definitely the best part of the show. He seems to be from the fist-making school of passion. I don't know, maybe it's a 19th century man thing, but I've never really made a fist to display my distress and high emotion. He was actually quite charismatic; and while he could have stood to be a bit more scowly and mercurial at times, I give him a solid and enthusiastic thumbs up. I want to see him in more plays. And what of his voice? Let's just say that I want to have his voice's babies. Sing to me Edward, sing loud.

Sleeeeeeeeeeeeep?

Today was a strange day. Friday night Liz and I watched Scream (haven't seen it in YEARS--still good!) and I went to bed at about 11:30. Wasn't sleepy... Wasn't sleepy... So I watched the 2008 remake of Prom Night on Netflix. Not a good movie, but funny--the killer was Jimmy from That Thing You Do! ! Also, it seems like if everyone is dying of stab wounds there should be WAY more blood. And by "way more" I mean "any". Apparently if you're stabbed--even have your throat slashed-- you die so instantly that your heart pumps out NO blood. Still not sleepy. Watched I Know What You Did Last Summer --man, I never realized how boring and utterly useless Freddy Prinze Jr.'s character was. Still not sleepy. Finally fell asleep at about 3am...

...and woke up at 4:30pm. I slept for 13 1/2 hours. I NEVER do that, no matter how late I stay up I'm usually awake by 11 at the latest. SOMETIMES noon. I only sleep that much when I'm sick. Did I get sick and not know it? And so I've spent only a few hours awake today and wasted most of my weekend. On the other hand, I suppose weekends are supposed to be for resting up and enjoying yourself and I do love sleep. But in the interests of not throwing off my sleep cycle horribly and screwing myself when I have to wake up for work on Monday, I am going to force myself to go to bed now at 12:12 am even though I am not tired (I took the sleeping pill to prove it!). We'll see how this goes. And maybe, just maybe, if you're lucky, tomorrow I will tell you about how I spent the few hours I was conscious tody. They involve the words "Jane Eyre" and "the musical"!

A Musical To Do List

I love making lists. Always have, always will. Mom says I got it from Dad, who is also a list maker. We apparently both create lists of random things: to do, movies to see, movies we've seen, what we want to read, etc. etc. etc. Apparently we also leave them around and forget them (I sure as hell know I do). Over the years I've made various attempts to organize my lists and keep them. I write them in my diary; now I'm keeping a list of books I've read in 2009 on my blog; my Netflix queue (over 300 and going strong) is any movie I'm even vaguely interested in looking into; Amazon.com's wishlists are for books and music I'm even vaguely interested in looking at/listening to. Maybe it's because I'm such a naturally forgetful person that this helps me to avoid thinking, "That sounds awesome" and then having it drift away. The only things I can usually remember are quotes, actors in movies, and the lyrics to musicals. Or maybe it just makes me feel like my life has some order or direction, who knows. But I loves me a list. So here's another one: Musicals. I don't know why, I'm at work, it's lunchtime, I'm bored--all that points to, "Let's write some lists". Here we go:

Musicals I've Seen Performed (in no particular order):
1. A Little Night Music
2. Wicked (I want to say 3 times?)
3. Ragtime (3 times)
4. Phantom of the Opera (2 times)
5. Rent (at least 4 times, I think)
6. Miss Saigon
7. The Secret Garden (student performance)
8. Into the Woods (student performance)
9. Godspell (student performance)
10. Guys & Dolls (community theatre)
11. West Side Story (student performance)
12. Anything Goes (student performance)
13. LesMiserables (2 times)
14. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
15. Aida (not the opera, alas)
16. The Lion King (I think 3 times? maybe just 2)
17. Spring Awakening
18. Cabaret
19. Jesus Christ Superstar
20. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat
21. The Fantasticks (community theatre)



Musicals I NEED To See:
1. Marie Christine
2. The Music Man
3. [Title of Show]
4. Titanic
5. Caroline or Change
6. The Secret Garden (a non-student performance)
7. Into the Woods (a non-student performance)
8. Assassins
9. Sweeney Todd

And there are plenty of other musicals I'd willingly see if they were around and the price were right. Those are just the ones that I thoroughly enjoy and so I feel like my musical life truly would not be complete until I'd seen them. It's ever-changing, too, as I discover new musicals. Example: I'm probably going to go see Seattle Musical Theatre's production of Jane Eyre next weekend. That's right, Jane Eyre: THE MUSICAL! It's not life-changing, but it's fun to listen to and I am intrigued by the idea of seeing it (thanks, in large part, to Westmont College's amazing '08 production of the Polly Teale stage adaptation. Not musical, but still reminded me how much I enjoyed Jane Eyre).

At any rate, lunch is over now, so I suppose list-making time is done. That was fun! ...for me, at least. Maybe not for you. But I place the blame squarely on you for continuing to read. It's not my fault you don't like lists or musicals.

I Kind of Hope I'm a Badass

My ankle, which I injured on Christmas Eve, is still troubling me. I can walk just fine, but I can't really point my foot or stand on my toes. In mechanical terms that's an issue, in aesthetic terms it means that I can't wear high heels. This is unacceptable. For someone who is 5'10" (or 5'11"? I can't really remember) you wouldn't think it would be a problem, but I do loves me some high heels. I'm actually a little worried I broke my ankle--apparently my boss had a friend who did that and didn't realize it until a month or so later he tripped and ended up going to the doctor who informed him that it had indeed been broken for a while. In a way that would be freaky. In another way, that would make me totally a badass who walks around on broken bones.

Of course, this has led me to a grown up activity called "Finding A Doctor" (God bless my newly acquired health insurance). I've done it before, granted, when I lived in Santa Barbara, but no matter how long I've been "an adult" I still feel like a stupid kid. Grown up stuff is boring! You know what I did last weekend? My taxes. And got my car fixed and (finally) got my WA drivers license. This weekend it's credit card business and finding a doctor. Maybe things like that make some people feel adult and accomplished, they make me feel lost and slightly frightened (although at least with taxes there's a soothing refund at the end).

Will I ever feel like an adult? Or do you contstantly feel unprepared for life and as if you shouldn't have to be doing such and such for at LEAST another few years. On the plus side, my inability to grasp my adultness will keep me from rushing into such things as marriage and children (assuming of course there were any men in my life with whom to engage in such activities. I'm double protected....um...hooray?)