Anne and Gilbert: The Musical

Director Anne Blythe-Cooper and the Hobart Repertory Theatre bring us the musical Anne and Gilbert, sequel to their successful production of Anne of Green Gables last year. Many principle and ensemble performers reprise their 2023 roles, alongside a few new faces and the very welcome addition of a live band (replacing last year’s prerecorded accompaniment). As a sequel, written around 40 years later, the plot is self-contained, however, the musical (like the first) is unashamedly written for those who already know and love LM Montgomery’s original novels. If you’ve never read them, while you may miss out on unacknowledged depths of character, relationships and events, you’ll still have no trouble enjoying a lively, entertaining night at the theatre with this production.

Anne and Gilbert condenses Montgomery’s second and third novels about spirited, loveable orphan Anne Shirley, charting her journey from schoolteacher in Avonlea, Prince Edward Island to university student at Redmond College, Nova Scotia, with a central focus on the titular love story between Anne and fellow Avonlea student-turned-teacher Gilbert Blythe, who has loved Anne since they met, while Anne has always denied feelings for her childhood friend and academic nemesis.

Unavoidably, collapsing two whole novels into a stage musical of around 2.5 hours leaves some character development a little wanting, and makes assumptions about backstories, losing some thematic richness, but this production makes the most of everything available in the script and brings Avonlea and Redmond to life with heart and commitment. As in last year’s production, the ensemble work strongly together dramatically, comedically and musically in an even interpretation where sensitive duets are contrasted well with energetic full-cast numbers, with the raucous, riotous schoolroom scenes in particular feeling larger-than-life and packed with enthusiastic detail.

Meophy Smith-Williams as Anne (a role she shared last year) brings a thoughtful vulnerability, particularly in songs such as ‘A Jonah Day’ where she wrestles with both affection for Gilbert and the moral challenges she faces at school. Vocally confident and with always a twinkle in her eye, her Anne catches some of the vibrance of Montgomery’s beloved hero, though the script has buried the younger Anne’s fanciful quirks, leaving a more subdued representation of the maturing Anne. Smith-Williams is well balanced by Will Norris’ reprisal of his role from last year, in a wholesome, generous, devoted, slightly tortured Gilbert.

Other strong performers returning from 2023 include Miki Browne as a sunny, loyal Diana (her duet ‘Gilbert Would Never…’ with Anne is lovely); Caroline Senkbeil, bouncy as young Paul; Elise Bagorski in various comic roles; Grace Burdick in multiple supporting roles; Astrid Tiefholz as the stern but caring Mrs Lynde; and Holly Jury as (this year) Josie Pye, equally persuasive in scowl mode, flirt mode and, ultimately, selfless-friend mode. The addition of Jonty Hilton as Royal Gardner brings comedic energy (occasionally too caricatured!), and Director Blythe-Cooper also steps into the cast (to replace an injured performer) as an affectionate, matriarchal Marilla – her duet with Tiefholz, ‘Our Duty’, is mature and moving.

Musically the cast are confident (if inexplicably sometimes slipping into American accents in song, while dialogue is Australian), and supported by musical director Gabrielle Cayoun on piano, violinist Rock Liu, cellist Elijah Harper and Aleks Folvig (onstage as Moody Spurgeon MacPherson) on banjo. A marathon performance for the offstage trio, which never felt too thin for the large cast. The challenges of offstage band placement in the small Playhouse unfortunately created occasional sound imbalance in parts of the auditorium, making vocals tricky to hear, but on the whole it was refreshing for a production to avoid stage mics and instead rely on (generally) strong projection and diction from a capable cast (climaxing in the quartet ‘Just When I’d Given Up Hope’ at the Redmond ball). A similar venue challenge was managing a large cast on the small stage, with some scenes performed downstage in front of a curtain (hiding larger sets for other scenes) feeling claustrophobic, though on the whole choreography was well designed to overcome this. Janet Smith’s gorgeous costumes tie the production together, visually transporting us to 19^th century PEI for the evening.

Anica Boulanger-Mashberg

Anica Boulanger-Mashberg is a Hobart-based writer, editor and reviewer.

Images by Wayne Wagg and Bob Linacre