A Misguided ‘Jane Eyre’ Aims at Withering Heights

NEW YORK — When “Jane Eyre” opened in Toronto in 1996, the show was an earnest, conscientious, respectful addition to the Masterpiece Musical genre that “Les Miserables” established with such crowd-pleasing self-seriousness. Now, after four years of fine-tuning and a box-office success at California’s La Jolla Playhouse in 1999, the adaptation of Charlotte Bronte’s beloved 1847 novel has opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre with the earlier production’s intentions intact.

And that, dear reader, is the good and the glum of our story.

Oh, don’t forget the bland. And the tasteful, the ambitious, the dull and the interminable.

And the dark? Indeed, the Yorkshire Moors are very, very dark throughout Jane’s terrible orphan childhood with her awful Aunt Reed at Gateshead House, through the child’s punishing education at the cruel charity boarding school, through her trials of loss and love as governess at the mysterious Thornfield Hall. Why, whenever tiny shafts of sun are permitted through the slats of a floating window onto one of John Napier’s uncharacteristically simple, cinematic settings, the light feels like a guilty pleasure--not a flying helicopter, mind you, but almost as garish.

The project is the love child of Paul Gordon, best known as the California composer of the pop songs “Next Time I Fall” and “Friends and Lovers.” He reportedly came up with the idea while searching an airport bookstore in 1991. He has collaborated with John Caird, the Englishman who co-directed the unforgettable “Nicholas Nickleby” and the profitable “Les Miserables,” which hover competitively over the proceedings.

Gordon writes in the composed, second-generation, slush-operetta style of “Les Miz,” with much intense crooning and that familiar wall-of-sound amplification. Caird has adapted Bronte’s breakthrough romantic story with an admirable minimum of extraneous theatrics. Co-director Scott Schwartz may be responsible for perking up the darkness with some unobtrusive bits of comic relief.

Some of the plot has been condensed, notably Jane’s travels from Thornfield and the real source of her ultimate inheritance. But Jane still talks to her dear readers at the beginning and watches over her young self during the trials. Napier, the real innovator behind the ‘80s mega-musicals, has scaled down the vision with current fashion, though still relying on the turntables lampooned--now and forever--in “Forbidden Broadway.”

The big difference in the novel’s adaptation--and an unsettling one--is the casting of the pretty Marla Schaffel as Bronte’s plain Jane. Schaffel has a strong, burnished voice and an admirable no-nonsense accessibility. But it will take more than a black taffeta dress (meticulous costumes by Andreane Neofitou) and arms that hang at her sides like weights to make her seem like the ordinary, mousey girl who redefined the romantic possibilities of 19th century heroines. No matter how hard Schaffel tries to drab down, she still seems like a Cinderella in waiting.

James Barbour has more fun, albeit with more varied material, as Edward Rochester, tormented master of the house who wins Jane’s heart with an offbeat, rough-and-rumpled variation on the Byronic brooder.

Mary Stout, reportedly with the production since the first workshop, has a grand time as the housekeeper, Mrs. Fairfax, a character worthy of Angela Lansbury, though the woman’s jokey bad hearing is mysteriously cured as the evening drones on.

The stage is populated with a chorus of Jane’s stern spirits, righteously dressed in black and living in the shadows. There is also a full complement of Dickensian villains, all played with cartoon nastiness, and two spirited little girls (Lisa Musser as young Jane, Andrea Bowen as Adele) who are admirably unafraid to be less than appealing.

Gordon knows his musical way around voice blending and can insinuate amusingly into comic melodies. But there is also a never-ending march of righteous songs about how the secrets of the heart are the secrets of the house, and the mystery of the house is the secret of the walls. And, all along, we can’t help thinking that someone is reworking too hard at the mysteries of making a hit international musical when the parade has already passed.

* “Jane Eyre.” Book, additional lyrics and co-direction by John Caird, with music and lyrics by Paul Gordon. Co-directed by Scott Schwartz. Sets by John Napier. Costumes by Andreane Neofitou. Lights by Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer. Music direction by Steven Tyler.