Jane Eyre was performed by the Royal Academy of Music’s Musical Theatre Company at the Susie Sainsbury Theatre, London.
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
This version of Jane Eyre, further developed in the US in the late 1990s, was completely new to me. It’s a pacy adaptation which omits a few incidents and combines some. Most of Charlotte Brontë’s plot is, however, intact and some spoken lines are verbatim from her pages.
Paul Gordon’s score (accompanied by John Caird’s book and lyrics) is rich and melodic and provides an evocative subtext to the action. And it is beautifully played by an eight-piece band, deep in the forestage pit conducted by MD Ian Sutherland. I particularly admired Kumjung Lee’s wind work on flute, alto flute, piccolo and soprano recorder.
There are two casts for this show who do three performances each. I saw Cast A. Each cast comprises 13 performers. All are students on Royal Academy of Music’s one-year post graduate Musical Theatre course which operates as a company.
Of course this is the Royal Academy of Music so you expect a very high singing standard and you get it. Lucy Carter ….
Read the rest of this review at Musical Theatre Reviews: https://musicaltheatrereview.com/royal-academy-of-music-jane-eyre/
