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Photograph by David Allen

TheatreWorks' premiere of 'Emma' features (from left) Lianne Marie Dobbs, Travis Poelle, Timothy Gulan and Dani Marcus.

Musical puts a song in the heart of Austen's 'Emma'

By Heather Zimmerman

Emma Woodhouse is smart, beautiful, well-meaning, and one of the worst matchmakers in literary history. Now, with TheatreWorks' help, she'll be the most incompetent Cupid in musical theater, too.

The beloved Jane Austen heroine will meddle to music with TheatreWorks' world premiere of Emma, a new musical adaptation of Austen's novel of the same name. The show runs Aug. 22-Sept. 16 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View.

Emma, a wealthy young woman in early 19th-century England, shakes up life in her quiet country village when she decides that she has a talent for matchmaking. As Emma tries to engineer romances between friends and neighbors, and her schemes comically backfire, she begins to learn what true love really is--and that she herself is not immune to it.

Emma, which marks TheatreWorks' 50th world premiere production, was developed through the company's New Works Initiative. Audiences could see the show in development during the spring of last year, when Emma was on the bill for TheatreWorks' 2006 New Works Festival.

Songwriter Paul Gordon wrote the music, lyrics and book for Emma. Gordon has worked with such diverse names in music as Bette Midler, Quincy Jones, Alanis Morisette, Smokey Robinson and Dionne Warwick. But Gordon is no stranger to bringing literature to the stage. His music and lyrics for the Broadway musical Jane Eyre earned him a Tony nomination in 2000, and he has collaborated on musical adaptations of The Magnificent Ambersons and Daddy-Long-Legs.

The cast of Emma features Lianne Marie Dobbs in the title role; Dobbs has appeared in TheatreWorks' world premiere productions of A Little Princess and My Ántonia. The cast also includes Broadway actor Timothy Gulan as the gallant Mr. Knightly, Dani Marcus as Emma's long-suffering friend, Harriet, and veteran actor George Ward as the hypochondriac Mr. Woodhouse.

TheatreWorks founding artistic director Robert Kelley directs.

Tickets are $25-$61. For more information, call 650.903.6000 or visit www.theatreworks.org.