When a lioness has children, she stops making love to the lion. The lion gets jealous—sometimes so jealous he eats the children. You'd think this would upset the lioness. Far from it. They make love again like the children never existed. I find that idea terrifying
-Jane Doe's catchphrase
Jane Doe is one of the six main characters in the musical Ride the Cyclone. She was a member of the St. Cassian Chamber Choir and lost her head in the Cyclone accident, causing her to not know who she is during the musical and her experience in the afterlife.
History
Little is known about Jane's previous life. She was a St. Cassian student, and went to the fair with the choir students. Jane died in the Cyclone accident, losing her head. This made her unidentifiable, and since no relatives came to claim her body, her name is unknown. She was buried as Jane Doe, and given a Catholic funeral.
Plot
Jane is the last choir member to be introduced. Throughout the show, Jane accidentally scares the others, especially Constance. After The Ballad of Jane Doe, the other teenagers start to sympathize with her situation, throwing her a birthday party. After realizing that the traditional birthday song requires a name, Ocean and Ricky compose a new version, the New Birthday Song. When it is time to vote, Ocean decides to vote for Jane instead of herself. She does this because she realizes that she had a life to want back, but Jane didn't. Jane is brought back to life as Penny Lamb, a character from Legoland. Though it is unknown whether she was Penny before the accident, or if she was simply reincarnated as Penny once she went back to the other side.
Musical Numbers
- Karnak's Dream of Life
- Tragic Fact
- Waiting for the Drop
- Fall Fair Suite
- Uranium Suite
- The Ballad of Jane Doe
- The New Birthday Song
Costumes
- Jane's school uniform is a grey pinafore over a white shirt with long sleeves. Her hair is blonde and she has black contacts, similar to a dolls head.
- In "Talia", Jane, Ocean and Constance wear white dresses with flower embroidery on them, and have matching flower crowns.
- In "Space Age Bachelor Man", she dons a cat tail along with cat ears or a mask depending on the production.
- In "The Ballad of Jane Doe", Jane wears a different pinafore which has metal structs going down it to prevent it from moving during her flight. She also has a harness which isn't visible.
- In "The New Birthday Song", Ocean and Noel place a party hat and a blanket over her.
Trivia
- Jane Doe is a name commonly given to unidentified female bodies. It is based on the name for unidentified male bodies, John Doe, and started being used around the 1930s.
- It is not entirely clear if Jane Doe was Penny before the accident, or became Penny upon her resurrection, or in fact remained Penny in both cases. Emily Rohm, who originated Jane in the Chicago Shakespeare production and multiple other productions through the years, believes that Jane was not Penny before the accident. The script for the musical does not answer this question either way – in fact, it leaves the decision up to productions by offering two different options for Jane Doe's video at the end of the musical: one showing her having a full life as Penny Lamb after being resurrected, or another showing her life as Penny Lamb before her death on the Cyclone.
- Penny Lamb is a character in a play called Legoland, which is also written by Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell. The only known recording of Legoland is of Penny and Ezra Lamb singing Eminem's song 'Stan', but the script is available for purchase in book form. It is unknown if this is the same Penny Lamb that Jane is resurrected as.
- It is likely that Jane's head was replaced with her doll's head after her death, which is why her doll is headless and she is not. (See: Theories)
- Ocean refers to Jane as an 'it' on multiple occasions
Gallery
