These clips are from the first public version of Jane Eyre: The Musical as performed in Wichita, Kansas in 1996. Marla Schaffel is Jane, Anthony Crivello is Mr Rochester.
Secret Soul
'Oh God' A piece cut from the show (and new to me!)
The Proposal
A Brief Note About Emails Etc.
I have only just begun to tackle the emails that have built up inside my inbox (there's only 841 new messages now!). It's slow going. I hope that no one's message gets lots but if you have sent word to me and I have not replied, remind me please. I am also aware that I am behind in replying to comments as well. It is more difficult to keep up with those.
This week is going to be quite hectic. I will be readjusting my Bronte thesis proposal. I've met with my advisor who has advised me to trim it down to two adaptations. The reasoning behind this decision is that I have such a huge amount of new material I could contribute it seems wasteful to retread adaptations which have already been studied. These two adaptations will be the 2006 mini-series and the 1996-2001 musical by Paul Gordon and John Caird. (Which reminds me, Anthony Crivello, if you're reading this, I have been carrying the package I prepared for you in my backpack for months now. I WILL post it! I feel like the world's worst fan...).
To make matters more interesting, I am once again in the middle of marking essays (some of which make my brain feel like bursting and not in a good way), I have a paper of my own due monday, and I will be presenting my first lecture on thursday (it is on Dickens, monomania and class tensions in Victorian England. I only briefly contemplated throwing in a Wuthering Heights reference but I've been good about sticking to Mr. D's work).
Screencaps from Wichita
I've made what I think are the only available stills from the Wichita performance of Jane Eyre: The Musical, featuring Anthony Crivello and Marla Schaffel. I've posted them here to keep them in one place, for anyone interested. More to come later (these are simply some of my favourite moments so far). Click on the images to see them full-sized.
From 'The Governess':
Jane nearly walks into Rochester's injured ankle. Some teasing about parents and the men in green.
From 'As Good as You'. Adele annoys Rochester with her 'dancing' so he tells Jane to lock her away. 
Recounting his affair with Celine Varens, and how he might have been different.*
*Having difficulty posting these last pictures. I will post them shortly, but until then you may follow these links:
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v521/carolinerigoleau/wichita-agay4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v521/carolinerigoleau/wichita-agay5.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v521/carolinerigoleau/wichita-agay6.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v521/carolinerigoleau/wichita-agay7.jpg
More Clips from Wichita
I arrived safely in Halifax after quite an interesting trip. Mechanical failures, cancellations, delays, fortuitous coinciences, and a former Prime Minister. That was only getting here. I was on the news this morning... But I digress. Oh, one more digression. They tell me that Jane Austen's brother was posted here. Looking around, there are more buildings from the 1800s than not. I couldn't count how many I passed today. They seem to be the norm. I only just got my residence internet connection running. And that took me hours. But here's a treat. More clips from the Wichita production of Jane Eyre: The Musical with Marla Schaffel and Anthony Crivello. My favourite of all of these clips is definately this clip of As Good As You. And, you know, there is something about him that reminds me of Olivier! In this case the research paid off!
The Opening Song is also very interesting. Anthony plays Jane's father, the elder Jane holds her infant self as her parents sing. The blocking is very good, I think. Especially in As Good as You, which is much better than that of the Broadway production I've seen.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tgsismfqcnw (Opening Song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j74khyEFCPc (As Good As You)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqXY9KmBZ8M (Painting Her Portrait)
The Most Amazing Thing Ever
At least for me. I did not know, until I interviewed Anthony Crivello that this recording existed. And now, Paul Gordon the composer of Jane Eyre: The Musical has put up one clip from it- a recording of the show's very first production in Wichita. Yes, this is a video from its pre-Toronto run! With Anthony Crivello. I never thought I'd see this day! And he promises to add more clips in the coming weeks so stay tuned. Believe me, for anyone studying JE adaptations, especially stage productions, this is very exciting.
Here is the video clip from 'Naughty Girl.'
A very big thanks to Paul Gordon!
Anthony Crivello Talks About Jane Eyre: The Musical
Evolution of Jane Eyre: The Musical Part Five- Broadway
We have seen the musical through its demo stage, previews in Witchita, productions in Toronto and La Jolla, and now we're at the end of the professional run. I meant to upload some clips from footage I have but my computer will not co-coperate. So, here are some stills instead.
Previously the show was not accepted because it was too faithful to the novel. This time around, it was not accepted because it was not faithful enough. It might anger a purist, but honestly, if adapting a novel for television is difficult the stage must be far more demanding, and it is. But the show does succeed in what it wishes to do. This is not a traditional rendering of the book, it is a dreamscape. This version puts the audience into Jane's mind as she thinks back over the events as she writes her memoir. Jane is always present, but there is no fixed set whatsoever. A church is constructed by fragments- windows, light pouring into them and casting their colours on the floor, objects fly in and out of view as scenes change and as Jane comes to new memories.
Some changes do not seem to have a purpose, however. The most glaring example is the rearrangement of scenes in the second act. The Gypsy scene occurs well after Mr Mason's accident and is followed directly by the proposal. Mr Rochester barely puts down his bonnet and takes off his skirt before he asks Jane to take a stroll with him in the garden. When Jane leaves him she stumbles across the moors to- Gateshead, where St.John Rivers is tending her aunt. Which brings me to the next point: changes to character. The previous versions had some excellent character development. This St.John is a nice guy, a little silly perhaps but alright. Blanche is also just a little silly, not very bright but she means well. I can't see why this change was brought about when these characters had been so well drawn in the previous versions!
Probably the most interesting facet of this particular version, for me, is Bertha. Seeing this version on film has left me with a lot of questions. Firstly, Bertha's first appearance is in Jane's bedroom. She reaches over and sees a sketch Jane has been drawing of Mr Rochester. Throwing it from her, she darts out of the room, through a passage and into Rochester's room where she sets the blaze. Throughout the show she is wearing a long Victorian wedding dress complete with veil (I think she loses the veil at the end...). Jane's connection with Bertha is considerably played down compared with the La Jolla production, but there are still some interesting points of contact. For example, the scene after the wedding.
I really like the staging of this scene. Because of the dream like quality of the setting we can go directly from the church to the attic. Rochester invites everyone to see his 'lovely wife!' and instantaneously the audience is plunged into the darkness of the attic- from the point of view of those within it. In the fleeting light of the windows we can see a shape moving, and sobbing. The wedding party enter to face us and Bertha. She is dragging a book around with her, and as Rochester encourages us to sympathise with her she seems frustrated by something in the book, or perhaps she cannot read it. She rocks back and forth, holding her fists to her head as she looks over it, then takes it to Grace Poole. Soon afterwards she recognises Rochester and attacks him- but, really, she barely touches him before she is restrained. In this particular performance I thought Rochester looked cruel in his treatment of Bertha. While he narrates his past for everyone, he runs his hand along Bertha's face. She seems to lean towards it, and when he moves off she looks stricken. At some point her bonds are released. Jane notices a rag doll- like the rag doll she had in previous versions- lying on the floor. She takes it to Bertha. The two- both in their wedding clothes- curtsy to eachother before Bertha leaves with Grace.
From here you can watch: The Proposal, Sirens and Farewell Good Angel, Secret Soul being recorded in the studio.
These are just a few of the things hidden away in the Bronteana archives:
Article on the show's innovations in stage lighting, Neofitou's costuming, interviews with Anthony Crivello and James Barbour on playing Mr Rochester (part of a larger series). Footage from the La Jolla performance comes to light, 'Vision, Flame, and Flight: Adapting Jane Eyre' by John Caird, and 'Jane's Journey' a series of interviews with all of the major cast members from the Broadway run, as well as John Caird and composer Paul Gordon- in 6 parts: one, three, four, five, six. (I can't find the link to four). And, finally:the highlights CD of the Broadway cast can be purchased from Amazon.com here.
ETA: The promised stills: ('Does my forehead not please you?' And at bottom, Mr Rochester does a little dance in his gypsy skirt for Jane's amusement)
Evolution of Jane Eyre: The Musical Part Two- Wichita
I have to confess that my notes are nowhere to be found. I do wish to move on, so I will simply have to catch up later. Another reason for my silence resently is that I am graduating tomorrow and I have been running about making sure everything is coordinated for the event.
So, this version is probably properly called a demo. The performers are clearly not yet comfirmed in their roles (only the regular leads- Marla Shaffel and Anthony Crivello are featured). It is, however, from a live performance onstage unlike the previous recording we looked at in the previous post. I do know something about the staging at this point- there was a basic sort of scafold stage, and that this design was 'blown up' for the Toronto staging due in part to a lack of time to rework the setting- apparently.
The show has started to look more like what will become the standard set of songs for the remaining versions with a few important exceptions. This version generally features greater hyper-fidelity to the novel than the demo. In this version Jane's parents have a song but Jane's uncle Reed also! The scene illustrates Jane's arrival at Gateshead as an infant. 'How We Pity Her' is titled by myself. It consists entirely of the Reeds heaping abuse on Jane- and was thankfully a song never seen again. The chorus now comes further out of the background. They now feature in 'Jane's Letter' for instance.
The gem of this work is clearly 'Silent Rebellion.' It seems to be the descendant of 'My Hope of Heaven' although the tune is entirely different. This is the 'feminist on the roof' scene once again. The music is lovely, the lyrics also. I suspect, however, that negative reviews in the press led to the song being toned down and reworked into 'Sweet Liberty' (several reviewers claimed, with wild inaccuracy, that the show imposed radical feminist ideas onto the text of Jane Eyre- the offending items being, in fact, direct quotes or paraphrases from the novel). The same charge was levelled at 'Sweet Liberty.' The song survives to Toronto. I prefer these earlier lyrics for their way of capturing the inner imaginative life Jane has for herself on the 3rd floor.
'The Governess' is a delightful song which survives to Toronto and then La Jolla but was cut before the show went to Broadway. Imagine Jane and Rochester's first interview set to music which highlights the teasing banter as well as some of Rochester's changes of mood in that scene. 'Wild Boy' has been shifted to the moment when Rochester has just revealled Bertha to everyone. There and then he tells his story, followed by 'Gypsy Reprise' which is Rochester trying to persuade Jane to stay. It is a good song, except for one troubling bit of incongruity- he keeps referring to her as 'sister' which is stretching things a bit. I would have even preferred 'Janet.' For those familiar with 'The Gypsy', Rochester's pursuasion is sung with this tune but Jane has a separate melody which sometimes jars- appropriately marking a disjunction between their intentions. A sample of the lyrics:
Rochester: I am a scoundrel, we know this to be! The floodgates of tears are now open to me! Now, you intend to fly off- to be free! Oh sister!
Jane: And I could lie there by his side, his little Jane, his little elf. And who would care? Well, I declare 'I care for myself!'
Rochester: My little friend, you're a comfort to me! Dear sister!
Jane: What friendship exists in your lying to me? Dear master.
Lastly, and I know how you have been waiting for this, we get to St.John Rivers. In the demo, he is a remarkably well-rounded character. In fact, his character is far better delineated in the demo than in more than a few films I've seen in my travels. He loses some ground here, but not much. If anything he is a little too loathesome, or more loathesome in this version, but less genuinely pious. The previous 'Standard of the Cross' was clearly not only about his devotion to God, but his inward stuggle against his own nature and inclination. This version is very much about the 'White Man's Burden': "All my hopes and joys, the powers of my race, are held within the light of Jesus shining from space," (at least that's what it sounds like he is saying). We are further encouraged to dislike him when he, quite rightly, is mortified that Jane wants to travel to India unmarried. It is faithful to the novel, yes, but without the softening of knowing his own struggles and his genuine faith it comes across as even more repulsive. His final musical line is rather Satanic in tone. The register is very high, and the words remind this little reader too much of the Temptation of Christ: "Giving your soul to me would be like giving your soul to God! I tell you this to purchase your Heavenly bliss, by yeilding to destiny's holy kiss.' Thankfully Rochester's voice comes in just in time! The characterisation is still far superior to the very benign, cute- even- St.John Riverses of the cinema.
And, look here! I actually uploaded something all by myself! Here, for your listening pleasure is 'Silent Rebellion.'
Songs: Secrets of the House, Parents' Theme, Gateshead, As I Lay Myself Down to Sleep, How We Pity Her, Naughty Girl, Children of God, Forgiveness, My Maker, Jane's Letter, Perfectly Nice, Silent Rebellion, The Governess, As Good As You, Painting Her Portrait, The Gypsy, Secret Soul, Second Self, The Chestnut Tree, Slip of a Girl, Wild Boy, Gypsy Reprise, Farewell Good Angel, The Standard of the Cross/Morton, A Voice Across the Moors, Finale, Brave Enough for Love.
Wow... it's true... (ie, Jane Eyre at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto).
Yes, another post about Jane Eyre the Musical. I have finally been able to download the three CDs of demos and performance audio from its early days. And, well, I think I will be busy for quite a while, despite any notions the U of T might have against studying musicals- I defy them! So there. Besides, I already have spent a year on this. And what a year it has been- very strange indeed. I'm not truly someone who is terribly fond of musicals. I don't follow them, I have never been to a Broadway show. I do enjoy some of them, but it isn't something I normally indulge in- I'm certainly more inclined towards classical music. But this show is different. I think I found out about it when I mentioned in my personal blog how much I enjoy Jane Eyre. A new friend of mine then asked if I had heard of the show. I said something about how I knew of it, and that I should go and see it some day- thinking it was still playing in Toronto! ...When it closed there nearly 10 years ago. She directed me to this website, and so it began.
I believe all musicals tend to go through a wild, chaotic journey on their way to the big stages of the world. It is also my understanding that they never stop changing. Each venue alters, even the most seemingly perfected shows. Again, this show is different... it changed drastically, and often. That first conversation about the show laid the groundwork in my mind for viewing the different versions: the earliest- Toronto- was "like a musical version of a BBC drama" while Broadway was far less comprehensive in scope. This is a positive way to view it. I've read many of the reviews, which tend to be extremely negative: the dense, vibrant Toronto show was nominated 'bloated' and critics complained that it seemed to include 'everything from the novel'. many others simply didn't like Jane Eyre to begin with, and criticised the show on that ground.
I am meandering a little. What I wanted to say is that, now that I have heard most of these early drafts, I guess they ought to be called, I have to agree: it is like a musical BBC drama. In fact, it is better than most dramas, which is remarkable. How difficult it is to compress the novel into a 3 hour production is one thing, but how about with the demands of a live audience and staging concerns? I would think it would be a nightmare, an impossibility. But, it worked... splendidly. More than once! I have far too much to comment on at the moment, but there are a few things I would like to note now, about the Toronto production (with Marla Schaffel as Jane Eyre and Anthony Crivello as Edward Rochester):
The scenes concerning Jane's youth are excellent. It is a shame that these were seriously compressed in the later versions. The pacing is just right, while covering everything it seems: Jane sings of her reading in Bewick's before the Reeds come in, taunt her for being: ugly, poor, dependent, and ungrateful. John strikes her, she fights back and is thrust into the Red Room where she is haunted by fears. Julia Severn is singled out at Lowood- only the second time, in the history of such adaptations I think. There are problems- mostly with sections at Thornfield. By comparison with her earlier life, and her time with the Rivers', Jane's relationship with Rochester is rushed. It also seems like Orson Welles was a model for this early conception of his character- his appearances and lines sometimes are accompanied by loud, rumbling, dramatic cues.
Listen to the Gateshead scene here.
Probably the most surprising element of the production, at least from an audio point of view since this is all I have to go on, is the inclusion of John Eyre as a speaking character. After Jane reads his letter, we hear- at least- him singing:
John Eyre:
I had a dream of a child;
tossed in the world, bereft and alone.
I wish to share with this child
the life that I've lived, the fortune I own.
And now, in my twilight years, I long to see her face...
Listen to this scene here.
Several moments made me smile, or surprised me. Mr Rochester's first entrance at Thornfield was delightful. It recalled the passage where Mrs Fairfax explains that they always keep the house in readiness because she had 'observed' that Mr Rochester was 'put out' to find the house swathed up, and a bustle of activity when he arrives. Well... now we get to see what Mr Rochester is like when 'put out':
Mrs. Fairfax:
The master is coming! Quick, air out his room!
Send for the steward, the butler, the groom!
Must I do everything by myself?
[...]open the [sluice?]
the longer he waits, the [...] the excuse!
[...] don't you know?
Look for Adella and see that she's dressed!
Get her out of her pinafore, into her best!
Send for the baker, [...]
Must I do everything by myself-
Mr Rochester: *with byronic fanfare*
THIS HOUSE!
THIS HOUSE WILL BE THE DEATH OF ME!!!
WHAT FATE WAS IT MADE ME RETURN to pace this [...] miserable place?
I could be in Paris, or-
And then, I believe, the partially deaf Mrs Fairfax assures him about finding him some pheasant for supper while he tries to get her to understand that he hates pheasant. It is futile. I wonder if she has gone deaf from the dramatic music? But it ends on a subdued, comic note:
Mrs Fairfax:
[...] Just leave it to me-
I see you appear to have injured your knee!
Mr Rochester: ...My ankle, woman.
Listen to this scene here. Be sure to go to Paul Gordon's website here to hear his latest work!
Another favourite scene of mine... 'why the deuce should you journey so far? What good could it do her?'
ETA: And here is you may listen to the scene with Julia Severn.
Marla Schaffel on Jane Eyre
Copyright 2000 Plain Dealer Publishing Co.Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio)
November 26, 2000
Sunday, FINAL / ALLSECTION: SUNDAY ARTS; Pg. 2I
HEADLINE: GIVING VOICE TO JANE EYRE';ACTRESS DEVOTES FIVE YEARS TO MUSICAL FINALLY SET TO OPEN ON BROADWAY
BYLINE: By ALEXIS GREENE; NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE
Nobody promised Marla Schaffel it would be easy.
It was 1995 when Schaffel, a dark-haired actress with an enticing soprano voice, performed the role of Jane Eyre at the first public reading of John Caird and Paul Gordon's musicalization of the Charlotte Bronte novel.
Now it is 2000. More readings, several workshops and two pre-Broadway productions later, "Jane Eyre" will finally open at the Brooks AtkinsonTheatre in New York Dec. 3, and Schaffel will star in a part to which she has devoted much of her young career.
"It's been very hard," says Schaffel, talking about the last half-decade during an interview at her Jersey City, N.J., apartment. Schaffel, two rambunctious Australian shepherds named Hotspur and Illyria, and one intimidated cat recently moved from Manhattan to a row house here. "Thehighs have been great, and the disappointments have been great. I'm not avery excitable person anyway, but we're on Broadway, and I think I should begoing Whooeee' - you know, dancing in the street. But it's just another day in a show that I love dearly. Because it has been five years."
Musicals are notoriously difficult to birth, requiring skilled collaborationas well as large numbers of dollars. But "Jane Eyre" has had a harder labor than most. A 1995 workshop in Wichita, Kan., led Canada-based producer and theater owner David Mirvish to take the show to Toronto in 1996, with an eyetoward Broadway. But mixed reviews returned the creative team to the drawingboard.
By the time "Jane Eyre" had its second pre-Broadway stand in 1999, at LaJolla Playhouse in California, Caird's book and Gordon's score had gonethrough numerous changes, and American Scott Schwartz had joined EnglishmanCaird as co-director; James Barbour had replaced Anthony Crivello in the leading role of Edward Rochester, the moody, secretive owner of Thornfield Hall, where the orphaned Jane Eyre is hired as a governess; and Mirvish had departed.
"After Toronto," Schaffel recalls, "there was a reading where I felt I nolonger had an active character to play. And I was very clear to them at the end of that reading that we were not going in the right direction. And partof that has been the struggle about whether and how the ensemble should bethe voice of Jane. But Jane just became an incredibly passive character. And that's not for me."
Bound for the arts
Inaction is not Schaffel's approach to life, onstage or off. Raised in what she describes as the "cultural wasteland" of Miami, Schaffel nonetheless decided that she wanted to be in the arts. She just didn't know which art to choose.
"I started studying piano at 6; I wanted to be a classical pianist," the32-year-old actress relates about her childhood exuberance. "I started studying ballet and I wanted to be a ballet dancer. I always sang, and Iwanted to be an opera singer."
"When I was 10 or 11," she remembers, "I saw Teresa Stratas perform Mimi inLa Boheme' at the Metropolitan Opera. It rocked my world. She was the most spectacular actress I had laid eyes on. She was so vulnerable, and her physicality was so beautiful. When the sound came out of her, and she was hunched over, it just came from her bowels. She threw caution to the wind when she was performing. I decided I wanted to be that kind of actress."
In 1990, Schaffel graduated from the acting program at New York City's Juilliard School. Four years later, with hard-won credits on her resume, including a stint as Fantine in the endlessly running "Les Miserables," sheauditioned for Caird, who had directed "Les Miz." He was looking for a singer-actress to play Jane Eyre for a reading at Manhattan Theatre Club.
"I remember wearing my hair up for that audition," says Schaffel, "and trying to be as small as I possibly could. Jane Eyre is supposed to be very short. Bronte herself was not even 5 feet. And she is supposed to be plain.I wore flats and a dress and no makeup whatsoever."
"I sang my normal songs," Schaffel recalls, "which is one really high soprano number and one big belt number, and then John asked for a monologue- I had been asked to prepare a Shakespeare monologue. It was some compilation of Portia's lines from The Merchant of Venice,' and I went up on my lines in the middle of it. And John totally fed me the lines, to help getme on track. I was stunned. And I was mortified."
Only one choice
Schaffel was the only actress Caird called back for the role."I saw all the qualities of Jane in Marla," the director said during arecent telephone conversation. "Spiritual and emotional intensity and intelligence. The actress playing Jane has to be able to think and convey to an audience that she is thinking. Marla has the clarity and analytical powers essential for playing a Bronte heroine."
Because of Schaffel's commitment to "Jane Eyre," at times it feels as though her career is on hold while she waits for productions of "Eyre" to materialize. Even after La Jolla, months passed before the producers found a suitable, and available, Broadway house, and last summer Schaffel used the time to star in "Enter the Guardsman," an off-Broadway musical.
Finding her way into the role after a hiatus also brings challenges. "Jane's openness and vulnerability are the hardest things to get back to," says Schaffel. "I'm not generally a very vulnerable person, and it's hard for me to open myself every time we start the show again. Also, I've changed so much in five years, and my life has changed drastically - I was married around the time I got the show and now I'm no longer with my husband - that I have to remind myself to remember the unjaded, youthful side of Jane. Each time it becomes a process of tearing down my walls."
It has continued to be difficult," says Schaffel, "but it has continued to be great."
Marla Schaffel woreflats, a dress, no makeup and her hair up to audition for the part of Jane Eyre, a role she not only won, but also has been working on for five years in changing versions of the musical, "Jane Eyre." The show based on the Charlotte Bronte novel of the same name is finally set to open on Broadway Dec. 3. James Barbour stars as Edward Rochester.
(above right: Mary Stout as Mrs.Fairfax, and Marla Schaffel as Jane Eyre at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto. Blogger is not allowing me to post the other pictures at the moment, so check back in the morning to see how Jane changed from Toronto to Broadway).
ETA: (above left. Marla Schaffel as Jane Eyre with young Jane played by. Publicity photo for the La Jolla production. Bottom Right. Marla Schaffel as Jane Eyre from the Broadway production).
Anthony Crivello on Jane Eyre
There's so little left about the early days of this musical, and so far my research helper, Kristin, has been unable to track down what I could call Mr. Crivello's take on playing Rochester in particular, but she did turn up this very insightful article (I've actually taken the liberty of cutting out some of the material about Crivello's other work, and his experiences training as an actor but if anyone would like to see these, do not hesitate to email me). It's quite a shame. I think his performance on the cast CD is glorious, but alas, this is all I will ever know of it! (My sister has told me that she auditioned for the show's Toronto run but never told me, and thus I didn't know about the musical until it had closed).
Jane Eyre star glad to be back playing Toronto Anthony Crivello last here in Spider Woman debut
Copyright 1996 Toronto Star Newspapers, Ltd.
The Toronto StarNovember 27, 1996, Wednesday, METRO EDITION SECTION:
ENTERTAINMENT; Pg. E1
By Rita Zekas Toronto Star
It's a shame Anthony Crivello will have to lose his goatee. It looks so good on him. But it won't sit right on Mr. Rochester.
Crivello plays Rochester to Marla Schaffel's Jane in Jane Eyre, the musical play that opens Dec. 3 at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. He's happy to be back in Toronto. He was last here in '92 playing Marxist revolutionary Valentin in Kiss Of The Spider Woman, which debuted in Metro prior to its Broadway run. Crivello went on to win a Tony Award in the best featured actor category for Valentin."The Tony helped to continue to put me in the public eye ," he allowed.
In fashionable black turtle neck, Crivello looked contemporary Italian. And his body English speaks Italian, given his penchant for waving his hands around dramatically for emphasis. Crivello was in on the birthing process for Jane Eyre. He brought together the key people, John Caird and Paul Gordon. Canadian-born Caird, co-director of the Royal Shakespeare Company's productions of Les Miserables and Nicholas Nickleby, adapted Charlotte Bronte's classic novel and is the director. Gordon wrote the music and lyrics. Crivello knew Gordon from Les Miserables on Broadway, where he was Javert and Gordon did the score."That meeting was 4 1/2 years ago," Crivello recalled. "We had a rehearsal in Wichita, Kansas last year. (Far from the madding New York critics.) We played to a house of 650 seats as part of the subscription series. There were 21 performances, by the final week it was SRO.
"Jane Eyre has universal themes: redemption, forgiveness, lack ofimportance in status and wealth. In Wichita, people from age 8 to 80 were crying their eyes out. When Rochester asks, 'Jane, will you marry me?', the audience talks back: 'Say, yes!'"It's lyrical, has romantic sweep, complexity of individuals, and is so emotional," he enthused. "It is a character-driven piece, you don't have the kind of mechanics involved with musicals these days. You go back to that glorious story of Bronte's, a Gothic epic. John Napier's set is a representational piece with labyrinth and corridors and hallways. It is a metaphor for Rochester's mind."
And once again, here is where you can listen to the Toronto Cast recording.
(Above right: Anthony Crivello as Mr Rochester. Above left: Marla Schaffel as Jane Eyre).
