Sunday 13 November 2011

Jane Eyre, The Musical {Yeah, I really like musicals...}

So...recently I've fallen in love with Jane Eyre, The Musical. The musical is beautiful, haunting and often sung in counterpoint which is pretty fun to sing along with :)  I love the story of Jane Eyre and I'm trying to read the original book now (so far, I've recognized a bunch of lines from the book that are in the musical!).  The full musical (as was seen on Broadway) is not available that I know of on CD, but I have the "Original Broadway Cast Recording".  I wrote a review / synopsis / almost analysis of the musical but it isn't on this computer (so I'll have to post it later).  In the mean time, here's a quick review.

For those of you who are not familiar with the story of Jane Eyre, she is a lonely girl who leaves her cruel aunt and cousins to live in a school where she is treated unfairly, but later becomes a schoolteacher.  Longing to live in a world outside of the school, she becomes a governess to the ward of a Mr. Rochester, a dark and brooding man who Jane falls in love with.  She finds out a terrible secret about him, however, that prevents them from being married...and...I won't tell you anymore from there. 

My favourite songs include...

Forgiveness - a solo sung by Jane's school friend, Helen, who teaches Jane that "forgiveness is the mightiest sword"
Sirens - the love song between Jane and Rochester.  Minus the annoying swearing at the beginning, this is a very beautiful song that has counterpoint in it that, as I said earlier...  is fun to sing :) 
Brave Enough for Love - it's the epic finale :)

The song has a really good message as well.  Even though Helen dies young, her words "brave enough for love" live on throughout the musical.  The musical is very moral as well.  The inspiration for this blog post was a phrase from Sirens Reprise where Jane realises she cannot marry Rochester.  She contemplates whether she could "have his heart" but "not be his bride".  She realises this is wrong, which in today's society is refreshing to hear!  Jane often prays for Rochester and prays to her "Maker".  (The musical also has much less swearing in it than some others. :D)

Rochester does seem to look for Jane to his salvation ("Are you my savior, are you my saint protecting me now with communion and light?", "My hope of heaven lies inside your precious eyes", etc.) which isn't Biblical.

I would (and am, right now!) recommend this musical (as with anything, to be viewed with discretion and a Biblical worldview!  :D)!!!

Brave enough for love!
"Klarabelle"

P.S. I'm thinking about reviewing different musicals, using a similar format...  what do you think!?

2 comments:

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