Jane Eyre: The Musical to get a "re-Think"

Oh, you had to go and do this to me, just when I'm putting the finishing touches on my thesis!

From Playbill:

Jane Eyre, the 2000-01 Broadway musical by composer-lyricist Paul Gordon and librettist John Caird, is getting a serious "re-think" by the authors, who aim to make a chamber version of what was previously seen as a 22-actor, large-set epic.

Songwriter Gordon told Playbill.com that he and Caird (of Les Miserables fame) have been huddling with director Rob Ruggiero (Ella, William Finn's Make Me a Song) about getting back to the essence of the novel by Charlotte Bronte — and the essence of what the collaborators created in earlier versions of the show, prior to Broadway.

Gordon said he and Caird are seeking to restore some song and book elements of the pre-Broadway Toronto version of the musical. For starters, they want to sharpen the narrative point of view so Jane is telling her own story, rather than the ensemble taking over that device. Some recitative between brooding Rochester and governess Jane will likely return, too, as will an important melodic section that linked Jane's mother to the future, Gordon said.

Caird and Gordon will meet this fall to hammer out a new 10-actor version of the show that would require perhaps five musicians. Gordon said the largeness of the Broadway production necessitated adding some fat into the writing that isn't necessary.

Gordon and Caird's goals now are "tweaking, shortening and clipping" and then presenting a version to Ruggiero for further collaboration. Hartford-based Ruggiero is the in-demand regional director who works all over the country (his next gig is staging 1776 for Goodspeed Musicals, followed by a New York mounting of the William Finn revue, Make Me a Song, a hit in Hartford).

Ruggiero told Playbill.com he's in discussions with regional theatres about giving fresh life to the "new" Jane Eyre in 2008-09.

The Broadway version of Jane Eyre is licensed through Music Theatre International and has had almost 90 North American productions since 2002, according to MTI. Its first post-Broadway staging was at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, CA, where Gordon's Emma, based on the novel by Jane Austen, is getting its world premiere Aug. 22. Gordon penned book, music and lyrics for it.

Jane Eyre has had a winding journey, not unlike the character herself — the show was seen in many readings; a Wichita, KS, staging; a La Jolla Playhouse run; a production at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto; and on Broadway, where it snagged Tony Award nominations for Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book, Best Lighting Design and Best Actress in a Musical for Marla Schaffel as the unglamorous orphan/governess/romantic figure/mistress of the house.

"Since Broadway," Gordon told Playbill.com, "I don't think I've ever stopped rewriting Jane Eyre. "John and I always imagined it as a more intimate experience..."

On the road to Broadway, there was a push — for better or worse — to make the 19th-century gothic romance bigger, better and shinier. "It lost that intimate feel," Gordon said.

Will the re-tooled Jane Eyre be spare, lean and actor-driven?

"Rob has interesting ideas about how to move the storytelling along," Gordon said.

For now, for the writers, it's about experimentation and exploration.

Gordon said, "We're going to look at every inch of the show. John calls it a 're-think.'"

Oh, the New York Times!

From an article on upcoming Jane Austen films:

And however much society has changed, Austen’s heroines — unlike the Brontës’ — deal with the believable, timeless obstacles of class, money and misunderstanding, which make her works adaptable to any era. As Ms. Huff said: “Everyone thinks she’s Elizabeth Bennet; not everyone thinks she’s Jane Eyre. Everyone knows a young woman trying to decide if the guy she’s attracted to is Mr. Right. Not everyone meets a Mr. Right who has a mad wife in the attic.”

This amused me greatly, dear readers. It amused me even further that the films in question adapt Austen for our age by trying to sex them up. And, flirtatous glances aside, the picture used to illustrate the article bears a striking resemblance to scenes from several Jane Eyre adaptations I could mention.




Poor Jane and Lizzy! Their entire lives, personalities reduced to how they sorted out with the menfolk!

Eyre Apparent in Baltimore

Go see the Eyre Apparent exhibit, which showcases memorabilia related to Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre. The exhibit shows the novel's cultural significance and the different ways in which it has been interpreted. The exhibit is at the George Pea body Library, 17 E. Mount Ver non Place. Admission is free, and the library is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Call 410-659- 8179 or go to http://www.georgepeabodylibrary.jhu.edu/.

Eyre Apparent: An Exhibition Celebrating Charlotte Bronte'sClassic NovelThe George Peabody Library Exhibition GalleryJune 18 - October 31, 2007Hours: Monday – Friday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Saturday 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.;Sunday, 12 p.m. - 5 p.m.

This exhibition celebrates the enduring popularity of Charlotte Brontë’s most famous novel. A favorite with Victorian readers, Jane Eyre became a staple of the school curriculum and remains a cornerstone of the English literary canon today. From series books to comic books, dolls to playing cards, Eyre Apparent follows the novel from the mid-19th century to the present, revealing how shifting cultural contexts have shaped the book’s meaning, and the ways in which Jane Eyre continues to inspire our imaginations.

Not only is this exhibit fabulous, so is the library!

No Place Like Home

I have officially passed the minimum page-count for my thesis, and am preparing to round it off into a neat working draft. It has no introduction or conclusion; those will come later once I straighten out the argument. Tomorrow I am going to visit my thesis advisor for the last time.

I'm going back home. The graduate powers that be have approved it, and if all goes according to plan I will be there on the 22nd. This is good news for you because once there, I will have access to my books and my scanner so I can pick up work on the Bronteana Resource site. I have come across a lot of fabulous material which ought to be available there. There were casualties... My mother tells me that my desktop hardrive was stolen. Chances are I will never relocate everything that was stored on it.

But what remains is very shiny and interesting! For instance, there are these beautiful illustrations from Jane Eyre, an edition illustrated by F. Townsend, and dated circa 1896. In the image below, Mr. Rochester begins to regain some of his sight.

Oh How True!

The Guardian publishes today an interesting article about portraiture in the arts. Specically, how authors seems to give readers mere 'corner of the eye glances' when describing characters. Few authors go through the trouble of expending lengthy description on faces. There seems to be a practical reason behind this:

You can see why so few authors choose to make the attempt. Listing every feature will not only fatally hold up the narrative, but may antagonise the poor confused reader who can't remember what "aquiline" means and thinks that an "almond" eye must be brown and nutty. Besides, what purpose will it serve to expend 500 words on the tilt of this particular nose and the set of this particular jaw? No, indeed. Facial detail is rarely kept in mind at all by a reader. A devotee of Jane Eyre tends to remember that, say, Mr Rochester is a dark sort of man, and that Jane is a short sort of woman, and this is quite enough to go on - especially when one's attention keeps being caught by such things as cackles from the attic and beds catching fire.

This amuses me somewhat in light of how often I hear of how handsome Mr Rochester is. Oh, there are dozens of reasons why he is not ugly, believe me. Charlotte didn't really know that her character was handsome all along, or that she is just showing that Jane really didn't know what real love was until later and then he sort of prettifies. Or that she doesn't actually describe him as ugly at all ("He was rather an ugly man"), or... Nevermind the long sections of the novel concerned with how worthless is valuing people based on their appearance.

Mr Rochester is a darkish man, and Jane is kinda short. I can live with this.

Wuthering Heights at York Theatre Royal

The following article is from The Press.

SUE Dunderdale surveys the task of directing Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte's windy, wild tale of ill-fated love and vengeance.

"It's a fantastic story and it's a Yorkshire story," says Sue, whose production of Jane Thornton's adaptation opens at York Theatre Royal on June 2.

"All the cast, the stage management and me, we all went up to Haworth, walking up to Top Withens, which they say may be the site of Wuthering Heights, though it's now a ruin.

"It was the first time I'd been there in 20 years; the last time I was there, there was a French film crew making a film about the Brontes. Isabelle Huppert was in it, of course; she seems to be in every French film."

Revived by Yorkshire pudding and onion gravy, Sue returned to the work in hand: staging Thornton's compact adaptation of the tragic story of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, first performed on the much smaller Hull Truck stage in 2003. "Damian Cruden the Theatre Royal artistic director had already decided on using this version, partly because it has a cast of only five, which has its advantages and disadvantages and we're focusing on the advantages," says Sue.

"I've gone for a young cast because it's very much a teenage love story. They feel that if they don't marry, they will die. Cathy married at an extremely young age; she was 17 when she married Edgar, and once she dies, Heathcliff feels dead too. He may be walking around, but he feels dead inside. Cathy died partly because she stopped eating, and so did Heathcliff."

advertisementRecords show the average age of death in Haworth at the time the Brontes lived at the Parsonage was 26, the same age as the cast's average age. "I think that makes it right that it's a very young company," says Sue.

Among her casting selections is Joel Fry for the mixed-race role of Heathcliff.


Sue Dunderdale
"I think he's an extraordinary actor. I spotted him at RADA three years ago, when I was working on a course on acting on camera.

" I was doing various film scenes, and one was from Neil LaBute's In The Company Of Men, and there was this extraordinary-looking young man, who didn't stop moving before we started, but once he was on camera he had this incredible stillness about him. That was Joel.

"I then saw him playing Abraham Lincoln in The American Play, and again he was remarkable in that."

No doubt she will be looking to bring out the intensity in Joel Fry that she found in the book. "It's the intensity that strikes you. When I read the novel again, it was like reading one of the Russians. It's like reading a Yorkshire version of Dostoevsky. It's not Jane Austen," says Sue.

"It's the expression of her soul. When you read that all Emily Bronte's life was an interior life, where all she did was walk on the moors, you realise her freedom was in her imagination and in her spirit, and that's what draws you in.

"No two people should be more together than Cathy and Heathcliff, but she makes the major mistake of her life and that destroys them as they miss out on each other.

"We may all like to pretend that we've never done that in our lives, but in her writing Emily has no such pretence. Cathy's decision destroys her life and lives around her."

What Emily did was to frame the story in her inner being and in the world she knew, says Sue.

"Edith Wharton wrote about the same subject, so did Henry James, and they were very different from Emily's spirit, which was close to Dostoevsky, but they all deal with missed opportunities - but Wuthering Heights is more cruel than the rest, extremely cruel.

"There's a grimness and a dryness that make it so Yorkshire," Sue says.

"It's all about being thwarted and thwarted is such a Yorkshire word, isn't it!"

Wuthering Heights runs at York Theatre Royal, June 2 to 23. Box office: 01904 623568.

Second Edition Life of C.B. Goes on Sale

According to the Yorkshire Post, an exciting auction is in the making this weekend:

A RARE copy of a biography about the life of Charlotte Brontë which created a scandal in 19th century society is to go under the hammer tonight as a part of a weekend of activities celebrating Yorkshire's most famous literary family.
The second edition print of Elizabeth Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Brontë is the prized item among a collection of 90 books which are being auctioned off at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth.

The book, which dates back to 1857, triggered two threats of libel action when it was printed and is expected to fetch hundreds of pounds.

The threats came from a woman who was said to have had an affair with Charlotte's brother Branwell Brontë and from the family which ran a school near Kirkby Lonsdale which the biography claimed had been the inspiration for Low Wood in Jane Eyre.

Now Brontë fans can get their hands on a 19th century copy of the book which was part of a collection bequeathed to the Brontë Parsonage Museum by Arthur D Walker, a librarian at Manchester University.

Museum librarian Ann Dinsdale said: "It is very rare to find a second edition copy of the biography. The book resulted in libel actions being threatened and was very controversial at the time.

"The rest of the collection includes scholarly editions and literary criticisms of the Brontës."

The auction opens the Brontë Society's annual weekend which runs until Tuesday. Tomorrow night four Brontë biographers will explore some of the stories which surround the family at a panel discussion in West Lane Baptist Chapel (7.30pm).

Juliet Barker, Edward Chitham, Rebecca Fraser and Lyndall Gordon will take part. Brontë Parsonage Museum deputy director Andrew McCarthy said: "It promises to be a fascinating evening."

Bronte Birthplace on the Auction Block

The following news is courtesy of Richard Wilcocks, chairman of the Bronte Society and editor of the Bronte Parsonage Blog:

Barbara Whitehead, owner of the Brontë Birthplace in Thornton, wants it
to be known that it is to be auctioned by Eddisons on 21 June. She
apologises for the short notice. The auctioneer's website is at
www.eddisons.com


The auction will be held on 21 June 2007 in the Banqueting Suite of the
Leeds United Football Club at Elland Road in Leeds. I am told that the
catalogue is still being prepared. If you want one, phone Eddisons at
the Leeds office with your details: +44 113 243 0101

The guide price is 200,000 pounds

Bronte's Back...

According to Variety, the 'Bronte' biopic is back on track and due to start filming in September:

Michelle Williams, Bryce Dallas Howard and Evan Rachel Wood are lining up to star in "Bronte," a biopic written and to be directed by Charles Sturridge.
Pic is set to shoot in September.

Icon Entertainment Intl. has picked up foreign sales for "Bronte," with ICM representing the project in North America. Alastair Maclean-Clark and Basil Stephens of AMC Pictures are producing. Sturridge's screenplay is based on an original script by Angela Workman.

The Bronte sisters and their brother Branwell grew up in isolation on the Yorkshire moors and went on to write some of the most enduring novels in the canon of English literature -- Charlotte's "Jane Eyre," Emily's "Wuthering Heights" and Anne's "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall."

As children, they created epic fantasy worlds to entertain themselves, led by the charismatic Branwell, but when he descended into alcohol and opium abuse, the sisters had to find their own way in a world dominated by strict patriarchal conventions. This initially forced them to disguise their identities by publishing under male pseudonyms.

Sturridge commented, "My family comes from Yorkshire, and I grew up with five sisters, so this is a story I have always wanted to tell."

Costume Show at Haddon Hall

From Matlock Today:

HADDON Hall is currently home to an exciting collection of costumes from last year's BBC adaptation of Jane Eyre filmed in the area.

Eight outfits are on display throughout the hall placed in rooms where they would be most appropriate.In the banqueting hall Jane's governess dress takes pride of place next to Rochester's everyday outfit.

(...)

Designer Angela Galer said: "The important thing is the script, I look for what will fire me up.

"When you meet the actors you get a better idea of what to do. The actress who played Blanche was very blonde and suited light colours, while Lady Ingram suits darker, more dramatic colours."

Adaptation: the Cage Match

Forgive the silliness of this post but the news today is a little silly, and having just finished the coursework for my master's degree, I am ever so slightly giddy this afternoon. The MA colloquium at Dalhousie University was last friday. I presented a paper on 21st century adaptations of Jane Eyre on a panel about 18th and 19th century constructions of gender, authorship, and identity. It all went well, after the equipment arrived for the video clips... During question period, comments came simultaneously from the Victorian moderator and one of the ph.d's about- of all things- the elements of Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea which they claimed were obvious in the clips I had chosen! This is the beautiful thing about conferences - getting a totally new perspective on your work. I always take notes during question period, but I had to ask them to slow down so I could get everything.

This brings me to a bit of silly from The Herald:

Perhaps TV bosses feared the wrath of Wellsian literary purists, who have consistently complained that Lee Evans, playing the drama's underdog hero, Alfred Polly, is much too much the knockabout prole.

Then again, no TV exec ever paid any heed to literary purists, as the latter are mostly blinkered, vinegar-faced, nit-picking plonkers who do nothing but complain - as I know from having incurred such folks' wrath in reviewing Jane Eyre (at this point, allow me to wave two fingers at all the blinkered, vinegar-faced, nit-picking plonkers who run the website bronteblog).

(You will probably find a retort from said BB here, or at the sidebar link). I am quite glad that I didn't get into criticising critics in this case. I do enough of that as a graduate student. I must say, I'm not enjoying writing academic papers on adaptation simply because most of the critical writings go something like this:

It's unfaithful! It's corrupt, and debased, and sacriledge!!
Hey, adaptations can't be just like the book. In fact, adaptation is a hugely complicated issue which leads absolutely nowhere.
It's the best version evaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!
That means absolutely nothing.
Yeah, well, so does saying that it's hugely complicated.
Touche.
Sacriledge!!

It might be better if we adopted an American Gladiators sort of forum to settling the matter, at least then it would be entertaining.

Theif Makes off With Tsunami Aid Lace

Last year we were thrilled to learn that the then upcoming BBC production of Jane Eyre was creating jobs for tsunami survivors by helping to rebuild the lace industry. Unfortunately, there are some really low people in this world:

Fashion raiders leave aid project in tatters

Ed Thomas

A FASHION designer from Belsize Park is distraught after thieves stole an entire collection of clothes that were going to raise funds for tsunami survivors.

Andrea Galer, who famously tailored Richard E Grant's overcoat for the film Withnail and I, has lost months of work and thousands of pounds following the break-in at her studio in Haverstock Hill.

Burglars entered on Friday night and made off with unique samples due to be marketed to leading fashion stores and sold to aid Sri Lankan survivors of the 2004 tsunami.

"Every single item in the collection has gone, about 20 pieces of clothing," said Ms Galer, who set up the Power of Hands Foundation to help Sri Lankan lace makers.

"It constitutes everything I have been working on for the past four months. I have financed this entire project by myself and built it up over two years.

"The clothes were just getting ready to be presented to the big fashion stores.

"Now the whole collection is lost. This project was designed to save lives. It makes me very sad."

Ms Galer's clothes have graced the silver screen for productions including Jane Eyre, Mansfield Park, Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie's Poirot and Spooks.

Having started out her career 30 years ago in a shop in England's Lane, she has become a leading designer highly sought-after by film and television directors.

As well as designing for the big screen, she is also passionate about helping the traditional Sri Lankan lace makers rebuild their lives following the tsunami disaster.

"I am the only person in the world who is helping this group of people," she added.

"The Power of Hands Foundation is a huge project, and these were the first samples aimed at helping the lace makers rebuild their lives.

"The whole collection has been taken by someone who either doesn't know what they've got their hands on or who is deliberately trying to sabotage the project.

"It looks like a professional job. The door wasn't forced open but may have been opened with a special key."

Police have launched an investigation into the burglary.

A spokeswoman said the break-in took place around 11pm, just at the time when the nearby pub would have been closing up.

"Given this was on a Friday night, there is a strong chance that witnesses might have seen something suspicious.

"All the ladies' items were made from Sri Lankan silk. No arrests have been made at this stage and enquiries are continuing."

If you have information which might help the police, call 020-7404 1212.

Please, tell me more.

This reviewer has a most interesting opinion of Jane Eyre: part genius, part 'drivel.' Indeed?

Rereading Jane Eyre confirms memory's hunch that the first half is wonderful and the second half is drivel.

That said, it deserves a prize for both its opening sentence and its last. "There was no possibility of taking a walk that day" should be studied by anyone who wants to write a novel. It is a sentence that is quiet, modest, matter-of-fact, but that draws you in immediately. By the end of the second sentence, we have met Jane's odious aunt Mrs Reed, and the wretchedness of Jane's orphan childhood and her lovelessness among the Reed cousins begins to unfold.

advertisementProbably as many people believe that the novel ends "Reader, I married him" as there are who think Sherlock Holmes was always saying: "Elementary, my dear Watson." In fact, the closing words of the book are, "Amen; even so, come, Lord Jesus!" You can't get further over the top than that, and I love to think of a modern novelist trying to make a hit by imitating the Jane Eyre formula and copying this device.

That sounds like a challenge- don't tempt me!

As with so many Victorian novels, the best bits of the book are not in fact concerned with the man-woman relationship but rather with childhood. I was surprised, on this reading, to discover that Jane's horrible experience of tantrums with the Reeds, her being locked in the Red Room, and her being sent to Lowood, the hateful evangelical school, are so short. They are the bits that had stayed most vividly in my mind.

When interviewed by Mr Brocklehurst for her place at the school, Jane is asked, " 'And what is hell? Can you tell me that?' 'A pit full of fire.' 'And should you like to fall into that pit, and to be burning there for ever?' 'No, sir.' 'What must you do to avoid it?' I deliberated a moment; my answer, when it came, was objectionable: 'I must keep in good health, and not die.' "

Nothing in the book - not the midnight prowlings of Mrs Rochester nor the drama of Jane's interrupted wedding - quite exceeds the brilliance of this exchange. But, though the second half of the story is so unsatisfactory and in parts so boring, it is not unrelated to Jane's talk with Mr Brocklehurst. Jane Eyre is not merely a justly popular novel. It is also one of the great documents of 19th-century Protestantism.

Dear Readers,

Never fear, more Bronte posts will be coming along shortly. I have only just finished the coursework section of my master's and am plunging into the thesis. My advisor is doing a great job keeping up the pace with the writing, however I don't find time for much else nowadays. For instance, I am required to present a conference paper based on the thesis (what there is so far...) at a colloquium next week. So, as I toil away on that, I will have to post here only intermittently, and depending on how difficult I find revision.

I do have some news- quite a lot, but this will have to wait. I will mention that the highlight is that I have corresponded with Dr. Jo Baker who is currently working on the first film adaptation of Charlote Bronte's Shirley since the 1920s- and, when it is released- the only available adaptation of the novel. There isn't much to tell, except that she is still working on getting the script right. Encouraging news, nevertheless, for those of us waiting in breathless anticipation. It is still on track!

April 20th, 2007

Please take a few moments to remember thirty two lives today.

While you live, shine; for life is short and time will have its tribute.

-inscription from an ancient Greek stele.

L'heure passe, l'amite reste. (Time passes, friendship remains).


-Class of 1921 momento, Dalhousie University.

(all pictures were taken by me on April 20th- offical day of mourning for Virginia Tech).

Clips from the Dutch Version of Jane Eyre the Musical

Thank you to Robas for sending along the links to these rehearsal clips from this Dutch language production of Paul Gordon and John Caird's Jane Eyre: The Musical. This production is currently running in the Netherlands until April 30th. For more information, visit the show's homepage here.

Ruth Wilson Nominated for BAFTA

Nearly eight million viewers tuned in on Tuesday night for the final episode of Life On Mars to find out whether DI Sam Tyler was mad, in a coma or back in time. And now John Simm has reaped the rewards of his journey back to 1973 after being nominated in the best actor category at the Bafta awards.

The hit series also received a nod for best drama and audience award, although John's talented co-star Philip Glenister, whose character Gene Hunt is famed for his macho policing techniques and one-liners, lost out on a mention. He'll have another chance at Bafta glory though, as he's the star of next year's sequel Ashes To Ashes.

Victoria Wood, meanwhile, will be celebrating after earning a record 12th Bafta nomination for best actress in Housewife 49, a drama she wrote and starred in about a real-life Lancashire housewife's wartime diaries. The 53-year-old comedian has only won once, in 1986, for best light entertainment performance with An Audience With Victoria Wood.

She is up against The Virgin Queen's Anne-Marie Duff, Samantha Morton for Longford - a drama about the moors murders which leads the nominations with four nods - and Ruth Wilson for Jane Eyre. Businessman Alan Sugar and fiery chef Gordon Ramsey are up against each other in the features award category for their programmes The Apprentice and The F Word, while others battling it out include Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant in the comedy performance category for Extras.

Ever popular Dawn French is also nominated for her comedy role in The Vicar Of Dibley while the hit series' Christmas special is up for the audience award - the only one to be voted for by the public. Best entertainment performance is being fought out between Ant and Dec for their Saturday Night Takeaway, Stephen Fry, Paul Merton and Jonathan Ross.

The Baftas award ceremony takes place at the London Palladium on May 20.

Hungarian Jane Eyre Illustrations and Adaptation

Bronteana reader Ancsa writes to tell us about her blog containing some wonderful illustrations she produced of Jane Eyre, such as the one at right.

The illustration is based on a Hungarian stage adaptation of Jane Eyre. I would love to know more about it, because it seems like one of the most unusual adaptations I have come across, from what I can gather from the production photos. It looks like the entire show takes place in bed:

Sir, please be serious now, I must make the bed!

Jane wins in the end, after knocking Mr Rochester off the bed.

The gypsy scene, or 'this little piggy.'

Jane Eyre on Alibris

Alibris.com is a wonderful website for buying used and well-loved books, but going through the catalogue today, while trying to find an elusive item for someone interested in Jane Eyre musicals, I can across this bizarre catalogue copy:

Jane Eyre. By Jim Collins





About this title: A discussion of several UFO sightings including a description of the objects and speculations about their origins.





...No, I'm not seeing the connection here. Everyone is free to snark at will (it has been some time since there was real snark on Bronteana). I know I found those Star Wars parallels with the 2006 adaptation of Jane Eyre, but this might be getting silly.

Bronte Land: the Place to Be!

From Summit Daily News, the Bronte Land hoax makes second place of best April Fool's day media hoaxes:

2) Bronte Land

My friends in Haworth, Yorkshire, shared this one with me. A few years ago, during the week of April first, one of the weekly newspapers ran a front page cover story claiming that the entire village of Haworth had been sold to an American company - I believe it was Disney - and would be turned into a theme park, to be called "Bronte Land."

(For those of you scratching your heads over this one, the mid-19th century literary Bronte sisters not only put their hometown of Haworth on the map - thanks to the success of novels such as "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights" - but also have continued to be the main industry for the village, making it the number-two literary tourist attraction in England, after Shakespeare's Stratford-upon-Avon).

Anyway, the highlight of "Bronte Land" was going to be a huge monorail, stretched out over the entire length of the moors above the village. Every so often, a local will bring up the "Bronte Land" hoax again and, with a profound shudder, show you a copy of the newspaper.

My dear readers, Glaukopis- my Cambridge friend and fellow Classicist- and I had planned an intricate and (hopefully) amusing hoax for you, but since we have gone to grad school, our lives have shrivelled up into pathetic nothings and trips to the library. Our plan was to create a fake audio demo for a musical version of Jane Eyre. We had difficulties... no men were willing to take part, and both of us wanted to play Mr Rochester (although she has by far the best Bertha laugh). We began writing our own songs, in fact, and also modified some pre-existing songs with new lyrics (our favourites were: 'Mawidge is glowious!' from A Perfect Match, and 'Deep in my secret soul, I'm-a kill him!' from Secret Soul, just to give Bertha more than some spooky trilling in the background).

I mention all of this because it is fairly certain that we will never, ever, ever, record it (although I still have recordings of her singing As Good As You). I was writing a ballad for Mr Rochester's 'Nameless Bliss' song. It would have been brilliant, believe me... if I could write music.

You can listen to the original, non-bastardised versions of these songs from the fabulous Toronto cast recording below:

Secret Soul
Perfect Match (the guilty pleasure. This song is terrible, but so fun- Gilbert and Sullivan meet George Frederick Handel).