“Jane Eyre: A Musical” at Southwark Playhouse Elephant
Louise Penn in South London
★★★★☆
9 September 2026
This musical adaptation of Jane Eyre (music and lyrics by Paul Gordon, book by John Caird) makes its long-awaited British premiere 30 years after it was first staged. Its Broadway production led to five Tony nominations in 2001. Since then it has been revised, with this chamber version now being produced at Southwark Playhouse Elephant. The show adds a spiritual and operatic layer to Charlotte Brontë’s Gothic romance.
Photo credit: Victoria Davies.
Young Jane Eyre (Emily-Rose Samuel on press night) arrives at her Aunt Reed’s (Gemma Page) home as an orphan and resented dependent. Her cousin John (Connor Wood) bullies her, and when she retaliates she is dispatched to a charity boarding school, an austere and deeply religious place. At Lowood, she makes friends with Helen Burns (Isabelle Methven), offering a series of touching scenes between the two, but when Helen dies during a tuberculosis outbreak at the school she faces a lonely existence before accepting a position as governess at Thornfield Hall.
Jane Eyre’s strength, in both novel and musical, is from this point, as Jane (Charlie Burn) makes an intense connection with her employer, Edward Rochester (Ashley Gilmour), a troubled man with shadows in his past. They meet when he falls from his horse – stylized here, but effective – and sparks begin to fly. The daunting Thornfield Hall is full of shadowy staircases and strange sounds. Housekeeper Mrs Fairfax (Page) is affable, but remote. Jane’s pupil Adele (also played by Samuel) is mischievous, French, and flippant; her origins are spelt out in this score rather more than in the original book.
Photo credit: Victoria Davies.
Using the cast as narrator/chorus throughout the proceedings adds a warmth that the story may otherwise lack, and the use of the floor space in this venue, with only projections to indicate a change of scene, allows effective blocking and interesting movement from the cast. Choreographer Georgina Lamb, lighting designer James Whiteside, and set/costume designer Morgan Large all add value to the atmosphere.
The story is much stronger in the second half, with Jane’s “Painting Her Portrait” adding drama. As the interval comes at a curious point in the narrative, there is a lot of ground to cover thereafter, including “My Hope of Heaven” (the proposal), what really is on the upper floor (a sweet moment between Jane and the mysterious woman lost in her insanity), and the ending, which “tempers judgement with mercy”.
With direction by Caird and Megan McGinnis, this production opens out the spiritual themes of the story from the start, opening with the mysterious connection between Rochester and Jane, miles apart. Themes of forgiveness, love, and loss thread through from the death of Jane’s parents through to the eventual reconciliation of the two lovers, joined forever by that string from his rib to hers.
Brontë purists will notice a few changes, but they are sympathetic to the original story, while a generous runtime allows scenes often excised in adaptations to be fully explored, such as the fortune-teller. This is not the only musical treatment of Jane Eyre – there have been operas, and even a ballet of the story – but it is perhaps the most sweeping, sentimental, and symbolic. Above the stage, quotations from the novel speak to Jane’s independence, faith, and state of mind, and tree branches suggest the oppressive and mysterious nature of Thornfield.
I might question the pacing of the first half, but the performances are uniformly excellent, especially the lead pair and young Samuel, who has a lot of emotionally charged moments as young Jane. This is a fine adaptation that is well worth your time.
