October 2008

Dear Subscriber:

WHAT A TIMELY AND TELLING start we had to the season with Frost/Nixon, as just days before, both conventions reminded us that the power of image control is crucial. From the use of the all important close-up to carefully selected long shots of the audiences and the like, both productions reiterated the play’s message of the importance of knowing television. Also, while the conventions drew an impressive 38 to 39 million viewers on the major speech nights, I think it is important to remember that the Frost/Nixon discussion on Watergate drew 44 million watchers. Remarkable that to this day, it still boasts the largest television audience of any political discussion in history. Hearing memories of this time from audience members was always interesting.

WE NOW MOVE from the high-stakes arena of politics to the high-stakes and compelling arena of love with Paul Gordon’s fresh, new chamber musical based on the Jane Austen novel of the same name, Emma. With a score full of charm and romantic, clever lyrics accompanied by piano, cello, violin and oboe, Gordon’s Emma musicalizes Austen’s 19th-century masterpiece, giving a new voice to the 21-year-old matchmaking heroine, Miss Woodhouse, who vows never to be matched. Of course, true to Austen form, she is, and even if you slept through British Lit and failed to buy the Cliff’s Notes, it is readily apparent (to everyone except Emma) that her longtime friend and sole critic, George Knightley, is also her soulmate. Even though Miss Austen designs the narrative to allow us to guess the tale’s conclusion from the outset (affording us our own turn as matchmaker) Mr. Knightley only hopes for such an ending and Emma has never imagined it; the joy then comes in watching the characters discover this unplayed future for themselves.

THE LOVE STORY is satisfying enough in its own right, but the real appeal of Austen in general, and this piece in particular, is as much the quality of the narrative as its content. Emma navigates the artifices of class and social structure with a razor-sharp wit and silver-gilded tongue that might just as easily serve a graciously constructed but witheringly lethal rebuke as a sincere compliment. And because of Miss Austen’s mastery of politely uncivil discourse, the real trick—and delight—comes in discerning the difference. This ability to consistently land the gracious insult is also quite possibly one of her most powerful draws. Afterall, we love her heroines, not because they are perfect—Austen’s view of perfection is thus: “Pictures of perfection, as you know, make me sick and wicked.”—but because they are perfectly flawed. In Emma’s case, a clever tongue and the occasional misguided intervention in the personal lives of others are not seen as real shortcomings, but rather as beauty marks that lend her character and distinction.

BY THE SAME TOKEN, we love Miss Austen not because she is a beacon of 19th-century feminine virtue, but because she is so wonderfully gifted in her chosen vice. To ground her in the contemporary culture in which she has become so prominent, she is that colleague that you love to sit by in tedious meetings because she is endlessly entertaining with a running sotto voce dry commentary on the whole proceeding. You may get caught laughing out loud at her biting wit, but she never bats a cool eye. This is the Jane (as millions know her) who translates so easily from Regency England into modern America in such mainstream box office titles as the 1990s teen adaptation of Emma, Clueless, the fictionalized biopic Becoming Jane and the Jane-as-life-guide film The Jane Austen Book Club. In a July 2007 article for The New York Times, reviewer Caryn James addresses Austen’s widespread popularity:

She has entered pop culture more thoroughly than other writers because she is almost spookily contemporary…Beneath the period details, the typical Austen heroine offers something for almost any[one] to identify with ...[H]owever much society has changed, Austen’s heroines…deal with the believable, timeless obstacles of class, money and misunderstanding, which make her works adaptable to any era.

ROBERT KELLEY, Artistic Director of TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, California, where the musical originally premiered, directs this co-production with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and reprises his role along with Lianne Marie Dobbs as Emma and Timothy Gulan (The Three Musketeers) as Mr. Knightley. This fated couple is joined by Dani Marcus, Richert Easley (Dr. Seward in last season’s Dracula), Suzanne Grodner (Much Ado About Nothing), Julie Hanson and Brian Herndon along with Erin Maguire, Alex Organ, Travis Poelle, Christianne Tisdale and Kurt Zischke. Also attending the ball are local actors Donna Weinsting and Michael Brightman with Webster Conservatory students Sam Hay, Aaron Sitrick, Josie Adams and Courtney Leigh Helford. John Ezell brings his signature scenic design to rest in Highbury while Fumiko Bielefeldt clothes our heroine and company in stunning period apparel. Dennis Parichy and Michael Miceli set the scene for love with their respective lighting and sound designs. Laura Bergquist provides musical direction for Paul Gordon’s beautifully orchestrated score, and Mary Beth Cavanaugh choreographs.

OUR STUDIO THEATRE SEASON starts with the world premiere of St. Louis playwright Carter W. Lewis’s play Evie’s Waltz. Layering humor and heartbreak, Lewis delivers a piece that could be ripped from today’s newspaper headlines. A family is struggling to reconcile their teenaged son’s delinquent behavior with their memories of the little boy that they used to know. He has been expelled from school for bringing a gun to class. An unexpected visit from his girlfriend calls them to account for their own actions and turns their backyard barbecue into a high-stakes came of cat and mouse. A compelling look at the limits and liabilities of parental love and responsibility, Evie’s Waltz plays in the Studio October 22–November 9.

THE OFF-RAMP SEASON continues November 5 with Rob Ruggiero directing Douglas Carter Beane’s scathing comedy of manners, The Little Dog Laughed. This Tony Award nominee draws its satirical sights on Hollywood, as Diane, the agent who makes Bebe from television’s Frasier look like a newborn kitten, jockeys for position for her rising star, Mitchell, played by Chad Allen (best known for his work on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman) and ultimately for herself. Seemingly fueled by the fires of hell itself, Diane’s ambition knows no moral, ethical or strategical bounds, making her a powerful force, indeed. That’s why she is only slowed, not stranded, by her boy-next-door client’s realization that he might be gay and even worse, he might be in love. Beane’s rapid-fire script crackles with a venom-laced elegance and wit that pays homage to Noel Coward’s cast of deliciously shallow, eloquently elite characters while providing several laugh-out-loud moments as well. Catch this richly funny, fast-paced comedy through November 30 at the Grandel. Be advised that it does contain brief nudity.

FALL TAKES US in quite different directions at each of our venues, from Regency romance to contemporary comedy of manners to a delicate dance of blame for three, but lest Miss Austen think us wicked, we have ahead the promise of three shows featuring several very real, very entertaining characters.

See you at the theatre,

Steven Woolf
Artistic Director


P.S. Several people thought that we overlooked a typo in our last letter when I mentioned the play, [title of show]; however, that is the name of the show, as it is printed. The title refers to a space on an application that the characters must complete. If you would like to catch the production, hurry, as it is closing soon. And don’t forget that there is a lovely exhibition of John Ezell’s scenic designs, models and renderings at the Des Lee Gallery on Washington Avenue. It’s open from Thursday–Saturday and runs until November 22. It certainly is worth seeing.