Jane Eyre musical at Southwark Playhouse Elephant – review

Nineties nostalgia is very in right now, and if you’re seeking some on the theatre side you should get yourself to the Southwark Playhouse’s Elephant theatre pronto.

This musical version of the Charlotte Brontë classic has taken 30 years to reach these shores, having premiered in Toronto in 1996, just as Cool Britannia was peaking. Written by Paul Gordon (music and lyrics) and John Caird (book and lyrics), it’s a pretty faithful take on the story of the titular heroine’s journey from lonely orphan to Mr Rochester-loving governess.

In an age when more radical and raunchy revisions of classic texts are de rigueur, it feels rather quaint to be watching a production that tells it without any real contemporary twist. Jane (Charlie Burn) is every bit the god-fearing gothic heroine, while even the comparatively more free-spirited Mr Rochester (Ashley Gilmour) is the very template of enigmatic, smouldering paternalism.

Gordon’s songs lean heavily on soaring ballads and harmonies, many of which, to be frank, rather blend into each other. There are only so many iterations of Jane’s inner yearnings one needs in order to understand the central point that she’s a woman in love. However, a few of the numbers do make a deeper impression, notably “Painting Her Portrait” and the climactic “Brave Enough for Love”, both of which showcase Burn’s West End calibre vocals (she recently starred in Mean Girls).

Although the character arc of Jane never gets its full expression – she feels more Maria in The Sound of Music than fully-fledged proto-feminist literary icon – none of the blame for that can be laid at the feet of Burn, whose intensity is matched by Gilmour’s. They make a superb central pair with chemistry to burn (they’re anything but the “plain” types they claim to be), and are well supported by a multi-rolling ensemble including Isabelle Methven as Jane’s ill-fated childhood friend, Gemma Page as her vindictive aunt, Jonathan Andrew Hume as her sadistic headmaster and Hannah Lindsey as the infamous and ethereal attic-dwelling Bertha.

The Elephant is a broad stage that requires lateral thinking on the design-side, and Morgan Large keeps things simple with a large backcloth featuring projections evoking Thornfield Hall’s majestic North Yorkshire surroundings, suitably framed by twisted branches. Furniture is wisely kept to a minimum, the occasional bed being manoeuvred on and off, though sadly there is no room for the excellent seven-strong band (under musical director Ben Kubrick). Fire is a fundamental feature of any adaptation of Jane Eyre, and here it’s smartly evoked by the flickering screen and some subtle smoke effects.

Caird and co-director Megan McGinnis (who starred in another of Caird and and Gordon’s literary musicals, Daddy Long Legs), together with choreographer Georgina Lamb, lean heavily into the melodrama of it all, to the point it can feel a touch on the mawkish side. However, although it doesn’t quite convince as an overlooked masterpiece, there is no doubt it has merits, together with some stonking central performances, and is one that musical aficionados won’t want to miss.