Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre, a musical adaption of Charlotte Bronte's famous novel, was a West Yorkshire Premiere for Mytholmroyd St. Michael's Amateurs.  They are never afraid to take on a challenge and I applaud the way they venture into somerthing new.

Unfortunately they lost their two leading principals in exceptional circumstances and had to start again from scratch approximately five weeks before their show commenced.  The character Jane Eyre, (Rachel Doyle-Richards) was also the narrator and introduced us to the young Jane, (Sophie Bingham) aged ten.  In their duet "The Graveside" they blended beautifully together.  Edward Fairfax Rochester, (James Russell) and Jane Eyre worked hard together and both gave commendable performances of very difficult roles.  Marilyn with her wealth of experience and stage presence excelled in her role of Mrs Fairfax the housekeeper.  All the smaller roles gave good support in both acting and singing.

All the children were confident in their characters, especially Helen Burns (Emily Johnson) Jane's school friend who died in her arms.

This show has an incredible amount of musical numbers, not particularly memorable, but all well delivered. The society also lost their Musical Director who was taken ill on the first night before the show commenced, (get well soon Peter) his duties were taken over by David Root who was orignally on the keyboard, (a talented M.D. in his own right) and the rehearsal pi\anist Joyce Gill was pulled out out the audience.  Who ever said "The Show Must Go On" must have had Mytholmroyd in mind.

Beautiful costumes perfect for the era, a good basic set with colourful projected scenes, (just needs a backing cloth next time) to make it spot on. 

This production could not have been put on without an excellent Director, congratulations Eric.

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