By Alayna Een and Eliza Een, Front Row Reviewers
Based on the classic novel by Jane Austen and adapted by Paul Gordon, Jane Austen’s Emma the Musical will make you fall in love with the Utah Shakespeare Festival cast. This year’s musical in the festival line-up is fun and appropriate for all audiences and especially appropriate for an approachable introduction to Jane Austen’s works.
Emma Woodhouse is the highest-born young woman in her home of Highbury, where she lives with her indulgent father and receives frequent visits from her quarrelous family friend (and quasi-relative), Mr. Knightley. After successfully encouraging the attachment of her governess to Mr. Weston, Emma sets out to find a match for her friend Harriet. But her good intentions are met with censure from Mr. Knightley and unwelcome advances from Mr. Elton, the man she had hoped to pair with Harriet. To further complicate the social scene, the charming Frank Churchill, son of Mr. Weston, makes his first visit to Highbury and the accomplished Jane Fairfax returns home to visit her kind but silly family, the Bates. Emma’s perfect world is rocked when her arrogance leads to a falling out with friends, a secret engagement is revealed, and her matchmaking efforts for Harriet fail. In this humbling moment of introspection Emma begins to wonder, for the first time, if perhaps she has found a true match after all—this time for herself.
Valerie Rachelle’s crisp choreography is delightful to watch and incredibly purposeful. Some of my favorite moments are in the early number “Relations” when the full cast is onstage and passing letters to every person—but skipping over the orphaned Harriet. And later in the musical when Mr. Knightley swoops in to save Harriet from embarrassment by asking her to dance, the bold elegance of movement achieves a show-stopping effect. Doubling as the director, Rachelle’s choice to highlight Emma’s daydreaming and demonstrate her innocent manipulation of others with a puppet motif is incredibly effective, especially when it is turned on its head in the second act as Emma suffers the poignant effects of her own hubris.
Rounding out the production team, Jason Lajka (scenic designer) crafted a beautiful manor house with exquisite latticed greenery and wisteria framing the stage. It adapts easily to every scene, with the addition or removal of furniture, and sets the audience firmly in the era. Lauren T. Roark (costume designer) created the colorful and versatile costumes that enrich the experience and complement the characters and their social status. From simulating an oppressively hot day in “Box Hill” to coloring Emma’s daydreams, William Kirkham’s versatile lighting transforms the space scene by scene and Lindsay Jones makes the talented singers easy to hear and understand.
Thanks to the excellent actors, within the first moments of the opening number, a Janeite can pick out and properly name the characters: Emma with her poise and confident stance (executed in ballet-perfect third position), Frank Churchill and his exuberant grace, Harriett and her awkward bearing. Many of the characters are caricatures of their counterparts in the novel, and some of the events of the plot are simplified to accommodate the plethora of songs and reprises, but the Shakespeare Festival cast brings out the best in the musical. Rhett Guter (Mr. Knightly) is the least silly person onstage, always ready to do the right thing and happy to reprimand Emma. But even his harsh moments have soft undertones, which Guter brings out in the many ways he says Emma’s name—sometimes in frustration, other times with something between a smile and an eye roll. Mr. Knightley is our family’s favorite Austen hero, and Guter’s performance truly does him justice. In the titular role, Allie Babich (Emma) allows the audience to laugh with and at her in situations where Emma thinks she knows best but the audience knows better. This lets Babich cleverly acknowledge the fourth wall without breaking it. She sings very well and is an excellent embodiment of both the perfectly proper gentleman’s daughter and the day-dreaming dramatist sides of Emma’s character.
Like a period-appropriate Mary Poppins, Heather Renner (Jane Fairfax) pulls off the practically perfect foil of Emma. Her performance in the song “The Recital,” which pits the two against each other in a sort of Regency era sing off, is particularly delightful. Gilberto Saenz brings the charismatic Frank Churchill to life long before his first line through his smooth, confident presence in full-cast numbers and in the day-dream sequences. His smiling suavity with Emma and genuine longing in “It Feels Like Home” is lovely.
Harriett and her songs demonstrate a single mindedness that helps make her story arc clearer and more satisfying for the audience, and this is helped along by Laura Brennan’s great performance of the naive character. Her unending love of the quiet Mr. Robert Martin (who Cameron Vargas fills with good-natured simplicity) keeps the audience rooting for the couple—despite Emma’s interference—and the “Mr. Robert Martin” is one of the most memorable refrains of the show.
Chris Mixon (Mr. Woodhouse) is the crotchety old man who says what’s on many people’s minds but is deemed too impolite to leave their lips. He enlivens many scenes with his stark declarations and has funny interactions with many characters. Jim Poulos’s Mr. Elton has a Mr. Colins-like energy (his Pride and Prejudice counterpart) that gives his character a cringey humor that adds to the comedy of the show, and Poulos plays it well. Mr. and Mrs. Weston (Tim Fullerton and Kat Lee) have a great energy, especially in their touching scene near the end of the show, and Mrs. Elton (Marissa Swanner) steals the show in her fan-hitting first scene. The two Bateses (Melinda Parrett as Miss Bates and Evelyn Carol Case as Mrs. Bates) are delightful in their antics in “Have a Piece of Cake,” and Parrett’s reconciliation scene with Emma is one of the emotional centers of the show.
The Utah Shakespeare Festival’s performance of Jane Austen’s Emma the Musical is phenomenal. To paraphrase a line from the novel, I would say that it is faultless in spite of all of the faults in the play itself, which misses some of the finer points of the story for a strict Janeite. Each performer is strong individually and comes together really well for the group numbers, which are some of the most fun moments of the show. If you’re looking to add more Regency era fun and romance to your life, be sure to catch the English Regency Garden Party Greenshow, which starts at 7:10 p.m. and runs Monday through Saturday (alternating with The Hills of Appalachia and Paiute Heritage and Celebration).
Utah Shakespeare Festival presents Jane Austen’s Emma the Musical by Paul Gordon
Randall L. Jones Theatre, 35 S 300 W, Cedar City, UT 84720
Plays on select dates until October 7, 2023, 2:00 PM and 8:00 PM
Tickets: $36–91 (no children under age 6)
Contact: 435-586-7878 or 1-800-PLAYTIX, guestservices@bard.org
Utah Shakespeare Festive Facebook Page
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