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Grimeborn Opera,
Arcola Theatre, London, until August 23, and touring
Producer: Ledwell Productions
Music: Neal Hampton
Book and lyrics: Jeffrey Haddow
Director: Alexandra Cowell
Musical director: Guy Murgatroyd
Cast: Elora Ledger, Alexandra Cowell, John Faal, James Beddoe, Rachael Liddell, Matthew Tilley
Running time: 150 minutes, including interval
Jane Austen loved music, but words were her supreme medium for conveying the nuanced feelings of her finest characters and the vicious superficiality of the mercenary social climbers that served to highlight the quieter virtues.
In “Sense and Sensibility, The Musical”, it’s the music, meticulously whipped along by musical director and pianist Guy Murgatroyd that compels, while the spoken words take us to the brink of parody.
“Sense and Sensibility”, rather than any other of Austen’s works, lends itself to the comic opera-musical theatre treatment because of the character of Marianne, played by Elora Ledger.
A defier of the social mores of Regency England and bursting with emotion, Marianne has feelings almost designed for the musical expression of Ledger’s strong, sweet mezzo-soprano that complements the rich baritone of Matthew Tilley as Willoughby.
The character of her buttoned-up sister Eleanor, defined by sense, is less obviously apt for the musical stage.
Played by Rachael Liddell, she is all furrowed brows and anguished eyes, while the reserve of James Beddoe, as her mellow-voiced suitor Edward Ferrars, becomes comically awkward.
His agonies reach an unbearable pitch with the arrival of Lucy Steele. In one of the many instances of doubling necessary given the cast is only six-strong, Ledger plays Steele.
That augments the absurdity, as acknowledged in a scene, when the arch doubler Alexandra Cowell, who caricatures the nerve-jangling Mrs Jennings, as well as directing, remarks that Mrs Dashwood is never present at the same time as she is; even she can only be one character at once.
Meanwhile, Ferrars’ acute embarrassment at finding himself in the presence of both Lucy Steele and Eleanor, the two women whose hopes he has raised, is at once faithful to Austen’s brilliant plotting and yet stripped of the original subtlety to a farcical extent.
For purists, the joy of Austen is her restraint. In this production, we must be content with more overt drama, peaking with Marianne’s brush with death to a bravura piano accompaniment.
The production’s greatest claim to authenticity is in its Austenesque triumph over constraints as the six-strong cast, backed by three musicians in a small-scale theatre deliver a happy ending to gladden the heart.
Sense & Sensibility, The Musical.
Grimeborn Opera,
Arcola Theatre, London, until August 23, and touring
Producer: Ledwell Productions
Music: Neal Hampton
Book and lyrics: Jeffrey Haddow
Director: Alexandra Cowell
Musical director: Guy Murgatroyd
Cast: Elora Ledger, Alexandra Cowell, John Faal, James Beddoe, Rachael Liddell, Matthew Tilley
Running time: 150 minutes, including interval
Jane Austen loved music, but words were her supreme medium for conveying the nuanced feelings of her finest characters and the vicious superficiality of the mercenary social climbers that served to highlight the quieter virtues.
In “Sense and Sensibility, The Musical”, it’s the music, meticulously whipped along by musical director and pianist Guy Murgatroyd that compels, while the spoken words take us to the brink of parody.
“Sense and Sensibility”, rather than any other of Austen’s works, lends itself to the comic opera-musical theatre treatment because of the character of Marianne, played by Elora Ledger.
A defier of the social mores of Regency England and bursting with emotion, Marianne has feelings almost designed for the musical expression of Ledger’s strong, sweet mezzo-soprano that complements the rich baritone of Matthew Tilley as Willoughby.
The character of her buttoned-up sister Eleanor, defined by sense, is less obviously apt for the musical stage.
Played by Rachael Liddell, she is all furrowed brows and anguished eyes, while the reserve of James Beddoe, as her mellow-voiced suitor Edward Ferrars, becomes comically awkward.
His agonies reach an unbearable pitch with the arrival of Lucy Steele. In one of the many instances of doubling necessary given the cast is only six-strong, Ledger plays Steele.
That augments the absurdity, as acknowledged in a scene, when the arch doubler Alexandra Cowell, who caricatures the nerve-jangling Mrs Jennings, as well as directing, remarks that Mrs Dashwood is never present at the same time as she is; even she can only be one character at once.
Meanwhile, Ferrars’ acute embarrassment at finding himself in the presence of both Lucy Steele and Eleanor, the two women whose hopes he has raised, is at once faithful to Austen’s brilliant plotting and yet stripped of the original subtlety to a farcical extent.
For purists, the joy of Austen is her restraint. In this production, we must be content with more overt drama, peaking with Marianne’s brush with death to a bravura piano accompaniment.
The production’s greatest claim to authenticity is in its Austenesque triumph over constraints as the six-strong cast, backed by three musicians in a small-scale theatre deliver a happy ending to gladden the heart.
Barbara Lewis © 2025.
By Barbara Lewis • authors, books, literature, music, musicals, theatre, year 2025 • Tags: authors, Barbara Lewis, books, music, musicals, theatre