JANE AUSTEN’S EMMA: THE MUSICAL


The meddling matchmaker you can’t help but love has returned to Chance Theater for the holidays—and in finer, feistier fettle than ever—in Mandy Foster’s incandescent star turn as Emma Woodhouse in the captivating return engagement of Chance’s 2018 holiday treat, Jane Austen’s Emma: The Musical.

If Jane Austen didn’t exactly invent the contemporary romantic comedy, she came pretty darned close to it in novels like Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, and modern-day romcom lovers will find all the elements of their favorite literary genre in Austen’s Emma, from the initial sparring that makes it clear from the get-go that that our titular heroine and estate-owner-next-door Mr. George Knightley (Jeff Lowe) are made for each other, to the cast of quirky characters who surround them, to the eleventh-hour crisis that makes it seem that all is lost for our heroine and hero, to the final fade-out where true love triumphs for one and all.

Taking center stage throughout the musical is its entitled yet enchanting 20-year-old narrator and star, who takes it upon herself to find mates for just about every single townsperson in her midst.

Take for instance Miss Harriet Smith (Sadie Alexander), the “natural daughter of nobody,” who Emma is convinced might well be the illegitimate child of royalty, and therefore entirely too blue-blooded a potential spouse for bumpkin farmer Robert Martin (Luc Clopton).

Instead, Emma picks her own match for Harriet, a cute but dull young vicar named Philip Elton (Davide Costa), who unfortunately for Miss Smith only has eyes for Emma, who unfortunately for Mr. Elton does not return his feelings in the slightest, leaving the young cleric no choice but to marry the pretentious but moneyed Augusta (Cynthia C. Espinoza).

Further complicating the romantic mix are the much-talked-about Frank Churchill (Blake Rhiner), a handsome Londoner who excites more than just Emma’s curiosity, and Miss Jane Fairfax (Sierra Jimenez), a comely orphan who plays the piano entirely too well for Emma’s liking.

 Add to that a half-dozen or so of Emma’s friends and family members with at least as many quirks as Cher’s entourage in Clueless, Amy Heckerling’s 1990s Emma update, and you have one marvelous (and in the case of Emma: The Musical) melodious mix.

Paul Gordon’s catchy, tuneful songs run the gamut from Emma’s witty “I Made The Match Myself” to Harriet’s hilarious lament “Humiliation” to Mr. Knightley’s drop-dead gorgeous “Emma,” and no one knows the value of a reprise or two better than Gordon.

His book, meanwhile, manages to compact Austen’s novel into a brisk two-and-a-half hours, maintaining a delectably tart Austenian tone while peppering it with just enough wink-wink humor (Robert Martin has been reading “Pride And Prejudice” and is not all that impressed) to keep it fresh and fun for a contemporary audience.

I raved about Casey Long’s masterful direction when reviewing Emma’s 2018 Chance Theater debut, and his inspired vision six years later ends up topping even that.

Long once keeps Emma surrounded by the entire cast of featured characters until suddenly she’s not, just one reason his direction impresses. (There’s also the scene where Emma manipulates her “victims” like a master puppeteer, and another where she imagines three different versions of the yet unseen Mr. Frank Churchill.)

And though the vast majority of Emma’s 12-member cast are fresh and new this second time around, it’s hard to imagine the 2024 reprise working to such perfection without the return of the completely captivating Foster as its leading lady and the gruffly charming Lowe as the man it takes her nearly two acts to figure out is precisely her own match.

Foster once again manages to make the pretty darned insufferable Emma pretty darned endearing, and if Lowe’s Mr. Knightly gives Pride And Prejudice’s Mr. Darcy some stiff competition in the initially off-putting department, it’s no wonder he comes to win Emma’s heart because he definitely wins ours.

I absolutely adored Alexander’s wide-eyed and wonderful Harriet, Clopton (Mark in Chance Theater’s Rent) couldn’t be more delightful as local yokel “Mr. Robert Martin,” runway-ready Rhiner is a dazzlingly dashing Frank, Jimenez makes for the most exquisite of Jane Fairfaxes, Costa is terrific as the ambitious Mr. Elton, and Espinoza is a hilarious scene-stealer as the woman who henpecks Elton into submission.

Last but not least, Deva Marie Gregory (a bubbly Miss Bates), Elisabeth Hunter (a warm Mrs. Weston), 2018 cast returnee Glenn Koppel (a crusty Mr. Woodhouse), and Jonathon Lamer (an engaging Mr. Weston) complete a uniformly topnotch cast.

Musical director/pianist Lex Leigh not only elicits all-around splendid vocals but doesn’t miss a note as the production’s one-man orchestra throughout, whether accompanying songs or Austen-era gavottes.

Masako Tobaru and James Markoski share credit for Emma’s vividly lit, storybook-ready production design enhanced by costume designer Bruce Goodrich’s elegant Empire fashions and Haven Hanson’s period-perfect wigs.

Jordan Jones is stage manager and Carina Leland is assistant stage manager. Gwen Sloan is associate costume designer. Wyn Moreno is dialect coach. Laurie Smits Staude is dramaturg. Shinshin Yuder Tsai is casting director.

I fell in love with Jane Austen’s Emma when I first discovered the sparklingly tuneful, wonderfully witty, uber-romantic musical at the Old Globe back in 2011, and I fell just as hard for its 2018 Orange County Premiere at the Chance. Emma Woodhouse’s return to Anaheim Hills is the best possible Christmas present any musical theater lover could wish for.

Chance Theater, 5522 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim Hills. Through December 22. Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:45, Fridays at 8:00, Saturdays at 3:00 and 8:00, Sundays at 3:00.
www.chancetheater.com

–Steven Stanley
December 7, 2024
Photos: Doug Catiller, Benjamin Busch

 

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