Jane Eyre, the musical classic

Act Two

Jane Eyre and Blanche sing "Nearly Mine."

Rochester sings "She's Who I Am."

Society men find themselves amusing.

Adele thanks Mr. Rochester for the gift of a tutu.
 

Jane flees Thornfield in "Tangled Road."

“And it doesn’t matter
What others may think.
No, it doesn’t matter
If God Himself may shrink
And turn His face
Away from me,
And leave me in the night.
I swear that she
Will be
My guiding light.”

Edward Rochester, “She’s Who I Am”

~~~

     As the second act opens, Jane finds herself ministering to the unexpected guest, one Mr. Mason, who’s been seriously wounded. Edward sends him away with a surgeon, but gives Jane no explanation of the strange events (LULLABY—REPRISE). But Jane’s mind is on other things. She has received a letter asking her to return to Mrs. Reed, who now lays dying.

     Jane departs that very night, and discovers her aunt's conscious is troubled. Mrs. Reed admits that when Jane was a child, she had a living relative who wished to adopt her—but Mrs. Reed told him Jane was dead. When Jane returns to Thornfield, Mr. Rochester is waiting impatiently for her. He states he’s found her a new position; assuming he’ll soon marry Blanche, Jane in-voluntarily admits she’s angered Rochester hasn’t noticed she has a woman’s heart. But Jane is wrong. Mr. Rochester is deeply in love with Jane (YOU WERE WITH ME THEN). Fully reconciled, Edward and Jane are floating on air, and in a whirl of activity, they plan their wedding and their new life together (ALL THE WORLD’S GOLD).

     The evening before the wedding,  Jane is awakened in
the middle of the night by a strange figure who tears her
bridal veil to shreds.  Disturbed, Edward contemplates his
love for Jane (SHE’S WHO I AM). The wedding begins—
but is soon interrupted by Mr. Mason, who claims
Rochester is already married to Mason’s sister, Bertha.
Bitterly, Rochester reveals that the mad woman who set
his bed afire, who stabbed Mr. Mason, and who torments
his life is, indeed, his wife.

     Shattered, Jane flees Thornfield and wanders, until a
stranger—a young minister named John—saves her at the
brink of collapse (TANGLED ROAD). After a full recovery, John reveals he’s discovered all of Jane’s past, including a part even she doesn’t know: Jane is an heiress. The long–lost relative who wished to adopt her has left her a large inheritance. But John has the sparse life of a missionary on his mind, and he wishes Jane to join him as his wife (NEW HORIZONS). Jane still loves Rochester, and therefore can marry no one. Infuriated, John leaves, and Jane plans to discover what has become of Edward.  But when Jane returns to Thornfield, she finds it in ruin. Bertha has set it to flames, killing herself, and badly  wounding Rochester, who tried to save her. Blind and crippled, Mr. Rochester has resigned himself to loneliness, but Jane soon makes it clear that their life together is not over—but only just beginning.  (YOU WERE WITH ME THEN—REPRISE).
 

"It’s as if I had a string somewhere under my left rib, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your frame. And if you cross over to Ireland, I’m afraid that cord will be snapped, and then I’ve a nervous notion that I should bleed inwardly.”

Edward Rochester, Jane Eyre, the musical classic, Act Two

For the world premiere cast, click here.

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