Jane's Journey Part 3

Another installment of transcripts I've made from an episode of 'Broadway Beat' from December (or Novemeber) 2000 (thanks again to thisbeciel for sending it to me!). This time, an interview with Marla Schaffel who played Jane Eyre in Jane Eyre: The Musical.

Marla Schaffel: I'd not read the book when I got it. I read it after I did the reading. And I definately felt some sort of spiritual connection with Jane Eyre. Definately on a very basic level. But, actually, the first version of the show was so complete I really didn't even need to read the novel. It was four hours long, basically, and so thorough that everything in the novel was basically included. And Paul's brilliance is that he also takes a lot of Charlotte's words and sets them to music which is so extraordinary for an actor! To have that kind of language to music that just takes it to another level.

Richard Ridge: What's interesting about this is they're so held back from all of those Victorian images and how they're brought up but you crack the veneer by the time the show ends, don't you?

Marla Schaffel: I think we do, I think why the show touches people as it does is because we all have that veneer to a certain degree, we all put up our walls. And we know that certain experiences finally tear them down and make us understand and forgive ourselves- it's such a large message of the piece. And how they come together and that the walls are knocked down by loving, losing and tearing yourself away from someone you don't want to be apart from but you know that it's the only thing you can do to survive. And then making choices. It's so universal.

Next time: James Barbour's interview.