Musicalizing Jane

I've seen plenty of film adaptations of Jane Austen novels (Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility, etc.)--and, yes, I've watched many of them more than once--but I had never seen Austen animated on stage. As part of the New York Musical Theater Festival, Joel Alden (book, music, lyrics) has cleverly adapted Emma for the stage. Unlike Austen, it gets a bit exhausting and long-winded, especially when untangling plot elements in the second act, but, happily, like Austen, it often deals in wit, spirit, smarts, and the pure pleasure of watching intelligent characters define and refine themselves anew.

"Poise and Prejudice": offoffonline review: Emma

The film incarnations of Austen's material often skew toward the gauzy and hyper-romanticized; on stage, I found something much more cutting in the social dimensions of Austen's ideas and, particularly, in the budding friendship between Emma (the excellent Leah Horowitz) and the lower-class, underprivileged, rough-around-the-edges Harriet (the fantastic scene-stealing Kara Boyer). There's something truly unsettling about watching Emma attempting to refine and transform Harriet into a "gentleman's lady"--it's truly proprietary, controlling behavior, and a dismal look at the possible roots of Emma's celebrated benevolence. In this setting, it appears that Emma's "helping" of others only helps her to feel more superior.

The hackneyed plot of the avuncular male transforming the ugly duckling into a swan has found its way from nineteenth century novels to contemporary reality TV. For a woman to chisel another woman in her own image feels fresh and a bit daring, but also dangerous--and not altogether removed from contemporary feminist debates on the ways in which women can often become each other's worst, and most limiting, enemies. Food for thought.

And on a side note, I love this fantastic promotional photo of Emma standing juxtaposed with the New York City skyline. This anachronism finds its way into the costumes as well--the women wear white dresses cut from white material that looks to be the same cotton as that used in T-shirts. The men, more unfortunately, wear jeans with their long, period jackets and boots. For some, their tight black jeans are hardly noticeable; for others, the obvious denim origins of their duds are distracting, making them look more like lumberjacks than lords of luxury.

Photo 1: Harriet (Kara Boyer), Mr. Knightley (John Patrick Moore), and Emma (Leah Horowitz) [Photo by Ken Howard]

Photo 2: Promotional photo by Steven Rosen