Emma, 10/5

I'm a sucker for Jane Austen stories, so unsurprisingly, I went into Emma with high expectations, as I did Austentatious, but Emma certainly did not disappoint me.

If you're not familiar with the story of Emma, I'll just say Clueless was adapted from it. And I don't know what planet you're from if you haven't seen Clueless.

So yeah, I loved Emma, it's definitely up there as one of my favorite shows in the entire festival. The music was beautiful -- it was appropriate to the 19th century, and was very classical, and really wonderfully fit the show. There were several strong ensemble numbers, where the company beautifully harmonized, and some wonderful standout songs, including Mr. Knightley (Josh in Clueless)'s ballad, "Emma," and Emma's act-one closer, "Never Again." John Patrick Moore as Mr. Knightley and Leah Horowitz as Emma offer beautiful renditions of these songs, and Ms. Horowitz is a wonderful Emma. She commands the stage, has a beautiful song, and really makes you feel for her character, despite some misdeeds on her part.

I was never that familiar with the actual story of Emma, so I'd be interested to know what was cut from the original story, as I imagine much had it to be to fit in all the songs, but I must say it was wonderfully adapted. I was never confused, and honestly can't imagine what could have possibly been cut. It seems like that would be a giant task when attempting to adapt a Jane Austen novel into a musical, so bravo to the creators for that.

I just had a couple of qualms with the production, particularly the setting. There was mini-houses all over the set, which were constantly being carried on and off and rearranged. They were used sometimes as chests, sometimes as actual houses, but as a whole, they seemed unnecessary, and just clogged up the stage. I hope a setting is better conceived in future productions.

But, probably at least partially due to solid source material, Emma features a tight book, a great score, and I think is up there with Unlock'd as best of the festival.

The only other problem was that I kind of believed that Sir Elton had deeper feelings for Mr. Knightley than for Emma...