Posted by Ruth on 10/14/2008, 12:34 pm, in reply to "I'm all ears...! n/m"
24.15.155.139
I've decided to break up my writeup into sections because I have so much to say on the subject that if done in one post it would be ridiculously long. :-p
First of all, a bit of background. I found Jane Eyre about a year ago through a Marla fansite. I was immediately hooked and have listened to the cast recordings a bizarre amount of times.
Then we moved from California to Chicago and I think Jane Eyre was the only thing I listened to on the long drive up.
I found out about Emma from Mr. Gordon's website and listened to that recording a ridiculous amount of times as well. when I found out it was coming to St. Louis, I began to get hopeful. 266 miles isn't that far away, right? :-p
I knew my Dad would never let me go alone, so I had the problem of finding someone who didn't mind driving 5 hours just to see a musical.
Several possibilities came and went, and I think a lot of the problem was that I was insistent on going opening weekend. I really wanted to see it at it's freshest and I also wanted to meet Paul Gordon.
I finally found someone who was willing to take me but not to see the show. 8-O She goes to collage in Chicago, but her family lives in St. Louis. I was so excited to be going and my mom was so excited about not having to take me that she offered to pay for my friend's ticket so that she could still go with me.
did I mention that my Dad paid for this whole thing as a birthday present for me? :-) Thanks Dad!
This was all decided just a week before, so I was very nervous when I called the ticket office. Needless to say I got tickets. I had the choice of being 4 rows from the front on stage right or being much further back but in the center.
Well, I had had a bad experience the last time I went to see a show. It was Les Mis, and I was very excited, but I made the mistake of joining my friend's school group for their ulra-cheap tickets. No wonder they were cheap. We were up on the balcony in the very last row. >_< I was so far away I couldn't even see facial expressions. I was not going to make that mistake again.
Guess which one I chose? :-p
Anyway . . . the week flew by and we drove up, with the addition of two more girls who wanted in on the fun.
Then the big day arrived and we drove into St. Louis, or I should say we tried to. We ran into horrible traffic and I was so afraid that we'd be late that I'd miss some of the show I'd waited so long to see.
We drove up to the theater on the stroke - I mean the stroke - of 5:00. then, miracle of miracles, the employee out front led us to a reserved V.I.P. spot right at the entrance! Wow!!! I ran like mad and got my tickets and as they were leading us to our seat's I could hear the announcer saying something about "No cell phones in Austen's time", and I realized how close we had gotten. *wince*
Then, it started.
Act 1: The Piano Lesson
The show opens with a 2 second scene (blink and you miss it) with Emma practicing the piano (badly :-D), Miss Taylor comes in and says something to the effect of "I wont be here to motivate you to you lessons anymore because of my marriage."
This gets Emma all excited and as the company takes their places for the wedding, she begins to tell us of her part in that affair. This is of course,
I Made the Match Myself. The first half of this song is the actual wedding and during that Emma scatters rose petals across the stage, as she leads the procession. (These petals are never swept away and remain for the duration of the play.)
The company then seems to melt away and we are transported to Emma's house where she repeats to a less-than-enthusiastic Mr. Knightly her success. She then decides that her next project will be Mr. Elton, who appears at the edge of the stage in a beam of light. Mr. Knightly is unsuccessful in discouraging her.
Mr. Woodhouse is great in this scene and says for the first time his oft repeated lines "I don't like change!" and "Why must young people marry?"
Next the company comes out and announces that we are in fact at
Hartfield; and say a few interesting things about it. They melt away once again and form a dinner party at said Hartfield.
Here Emma finds the perfect match for Mr. Elton in Harriet Smith, and we get our first look at Emma's "magic wand." For whenever you hear that particular "bling" on the piano, you are transported into Emma's imagination, a place where every one moves as she directs.
With a wave of her hand and a bibbity-boppity-boo she transforms Harriet's awkward stance into one that is winsome and graceful, and turns Mr. Elton's civil gesture into a proposal of marriage. On bended knee no less!
With her hands she draws them together like a puppeteer and sends them dancing across the floor.
Next up: Is Harriet a "Gentleman's Daughter"? :-D :-P
God bless,
~Ruth
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