EMMA at Rep Theater Review

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents “Emma”, December 3 - 21, 2025. Pictured L to R: Company. Photo by Jon Gitchoff. Courtesy of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis

– By Cate Marquis –

This year, 2025, was the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, and the author seems to be everywhere this year. The Repertory Theater of St. Louis joins in with the celebration with “Emma,” a stage adaptation of the author’s novel of the same name. “Emma” is not specifically a holiday story but the Regency setting gives it a festive air. Thankfully, this adaptation is not a musical but it does depart quite a bit from Jane Austen’s clever novel of a young woman who sets out to improve other’s lives with a little matchmaking.

Pretty, young, wealthy, well-meaning but a bit spoiled and headstrong, Emma Woodhouse (Adelin Phelps) lives in a fine English country mansion with her widowed father (Michael James Reed), who depends heavily on his reliable, loving daughter. Next door, lives Emma’s childhood friend George Knightley (Louis Reyes McWilliams), while another neighbor is widower Mr. Weston (Michael James Reed again), who has recently married Emma’s former nanny and friend Miss Taylor, now Mrs Weston (Kathryn A. Bentley), a bit of matchmaking that Emma feels she arranged and of which she is very proud.

Thinking she has found her purpose in life, Emma now sets out to play matchmaker for pretty Harriet Smith (Lize Lewy), whom kindly Emma has befriended despite their very different social standing. Miss Smith recently graduated from Miss Bates’ (Nancy Bell) boarding school, which was paid for by an unknown benefactor, but her parents are unknown. Harriet is being courted by a prosperous young farmer, Robert Martin (Ryan Omar Stack), but Emma is sure that Harriet can do much better, and sets out to find that better match.

The cast is rounded out by Jack Dryden as the young local vicar Mr. Eliot, Maggie Newstead-Adams as Miss Bates’ niece Jane Fairfax, and Ryan Omar Stack (again) as Frank Churchill, Mr. Weston’s long-absent son who was raised by a wealthy aunt, whose name he took. Olivia Balicki plays dual roles as Miss Bates elderly mother and Mrs. Elton. A few of the other cast members also play dual roles as more minor characters.

While Austen’s “Emma” has been described as a “comedy of manners,” playwright Kate Hamill decided that wasn’t enough and turns it into a farce for this stage version, adding a goodly dash of “Bridgerton” anachronism and a bit of satire as well. To make room for that, the story is a bit pared down from the novel, eliminating some character details and explanation rather scenes, which makes some of the character’s motivations obscure or even opaque. For example, it leaves out that romantic Emma has decided not to marry, so she can stay home to care from her needy father. Her matchmaking is an outlet from her romantic dreams. Her father, so full of quirks and worried about drafts and threats to everyone’s health, in his play is reduced to a single obsession, for gruel (which, oddly, was considered a health food at the time). He’s like someone always pushing kale salad, but with the fun-to-say “gruel.”

Whether all those changes are a good thing in this play might depend on individual taste. The fellow sitting behind this writer on opening night clearly did, laughing hysterically through the whole production. The rest of the audience had a more mixed response.

Leaving out so much makes what the characters do a bit more random or even nonsensical. On the other hand, the play has plenty of exposition, which Adelin Phelps even calls out as exposition everything she steps out of character to deliver it. Or half out of character, as when another actor joins her on stage at the end of these speeches, they invariably ask her who she is talking to. Emma, in these expositions and sometimes as an aside, sometimes acknowledges the anachronisms, and even comments that they have to be careful because “critics don’t like them.”

Some of the farce/anachronisms work the first time as comic bits but often they are repeated. When Miss Bates starts going on about how talented and “accomplished” her niece Jane Fairfax is, she breaks out in song, singing “Jane, Jane, Jaaanne” to the tune of “Chain of Fools.” It is sort of funny the first time but less so the fourth one, although that fellow seated behind me roared with laughter every time. Taste in humor is very individual.

The cast do fine but with farce, everything has to be a bit overplayed – at least. Adelin Phelps is called on to do a whole lot in this play, as narrator and main character, playing the sincere but misguided Emma while sometimes seeming to mock her own character, but she handles it all well. Jack Dryden and Olivia Balicki play the most over-the-top characters, Mr and Mrs. Elton, and look like they are having the most fun. The two voices-of-reason in this sometimes crazy play are Kathryn A. Bentley’s steadying Mrs. Weston and Louis Reyes McWilliams’ George Knightley, who try to bring Emma back down to Earth when she gets a bit…umm, ambitious. Maggie Newstead-Adams as Jane Fairfax is more likable and human than her enthusiastic aunt would have you believe, and is a real charmer in the production. Likewise, the sly, elusive Frank Churchill played well by charmer Ryan Omar Stack. Poor Michael James Reed as Mr. Woodhouse is reduced to just repeatedly saying “gruel” in the most unappealing way possible but get to do a bit more in his other role as Mr. Weston, whose life has become a joy with his new marriage.

The Rep always exceeds expectations with its sets and costumes, and “Emma” is no exception, giving them another chance to shine. The proscenium arch and stage sides are decorated with large painted roses, with a revolving set at the center back, which rotates to reveal various settings. Screen and projection behind that central set complete the picture. Costumes are Regency period but a little simpler to allow from a bit more movement and some quick changes, but still effective.

This show is light fare, which is suitable for the holiday season. but not something for every taste. Of the very strong shows in this season so far, particularly the remarkable “The Woman in Black” and “The Brothers Size,” this production is the least impressive so far, not because of cast or staging but just this particular farce version. But January awaits, a month that often delivers some of the season’s best drama.

The Repertory Theater of St. Louis’ “Emma” appears on the Mainstage theater of the Loretto Hilton Theater in Webster Groves through Dec. 21.

© Cate Marquis