This is not your parents' Playhouse Jr., the company that used to play to kids in the single digits.

And it's not your parents' Prime Stage, either, not just because that company wasn't around in their day, but because it never aimed its plays mainly at young children, anyway.

More specifically, Playhouse Jr.'s big musical, "Jane Eyre," isn't aimed at kids at all. I'd call it family theater, entertaining for anyone from about age 10 up.

That same label is the one preferred by Prime Stage, but to tell the truth, to call "The Crucible" family theater assumes that 10-year-olds are mature enough to handle an adult tragedy by one of America's great playwrights -- as some certainly are.

If you haven't been paying attention to Playhouse Jr. recently, family theater is its goal, though it still aims some shows at little kids. And if you don't know Prime Stage, maybe it's time you did, since this year's move into the handsomely refurbished New Hazlett Theater on the North Side suggests a deepening and broadening of its family theater mission.

These very different plays have two other coincidental connections. Quantum Theatre has served as a trailblazer for both, staging its own "Crucible" this summer in Mellon Park, and, more recently, "After Mrs. Rochester," a sort of commentary on "Jane Eyre." And both plays are at home in Halloween week: "Jane Eyre" has a large Gothic mansion, bats and a crazy woman in the attic, and "The Crucible" has witches, or so says the hysteria sweeping through Salem.

'Jane Eyre'

Like many of the so-called children's classics ("Gulliver's Travels," anything by Dickens), Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" is potent stuff, with adult moral issues and dark sexual conflicts. It's also a rich ugly duckling fantasy about an orphan girl with no apparent talent, beauty, money or social standing (as she's told) who wins the thrilling love of a mysterious hero.

	Caroline Nicolian, left, is Jane Eyre and Kalen J. Hall is Edward Rochester in Point Park University's Conservatory of Performing Arts production of "Jane Eyre." Click photo for larger image.

This version has music by Paul Gordon, book by John Caird and lyrics by both. I first saw it in Toronto in 1996 and it left little impression. Apparently New York agreed, because it had just a six-month Broadway run in 2000.

"Crabbed and monochromatic," I wrote about Toronto. Not so at the Playhouse, where director Penelope Miller Lindblom's cast of 25 fills Dick Block's unit set with movement and energy. Choreographer Ron Tassone wheels all these around the small Rauh Theater stage with ease, but it all starts with Lind-blom, who has shown before her flare for composing expressive stage pictures to tell a story.

"Jane Eyre" follows the heroine (played as a spunky girl by Gina Tomkowich) from an awful Dickensian orphanage to the aptly named Thornfield Hall. Grown up and played by Caroline Nicolian, Jane becomes governess to Adele (also played by Tomkowich, very sunny), the love child of the tormented Edward Rochester, played with strong presence by Kalen Hall.

His dark secret, of course, is his mad wife in the attic, danced with anguish by Alicia Pociask. This revelation is a moral crisis for Jane, who throws herself into the wilderness, only to be saved by a series of astonishing coincidences. That's the least adult thing about the story, which is otherwise full of the Joseph Campbell-like archetypes (female version) that give it power.

Lightening the story are addresses to the "gentle audience" and lots of comedy, mainly in Rochester's silly wealthy friends and the housekeeper, Mrs. Fairfax, played with a good-natured glint by Ashley Schmidt. There is also a chorus of six shadow Janes that amplifies all her joy and despair.

Not that Nicolian needs it. She has an astonishing clarity and self-possession, with such internal luminescence that your eye seeks her out even in the quiet background of a busy scene.

Gordon's score isn't distinctive to me, but it has some pretty or thrilling moments. Mainly, there's a lot of it, with the 2 1/2-hour show practically through-composed, its dialogue often underscored by David Pressau's small orchestra.

The program lists 44 songs, some just snippets, compared to 33 on Broadway, so I'm sure there is a history of development and tweaking of this musical which never achieved much success. It does at the Playhouse.

At Pittsurgh Playhouse, 222 Craft Ave., Oakland; Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2:30 and 8 p.m.; Sun. 2:30 p.m.; $7; 412-621-4445.

'The Crucible'

"Jane Eyre" is a Pittsburgh premiere, but of "The Crucible," Arthur Miller's tragic dramatization of the 17th century Salem witch-hunt, I recall a half-dozen productions hereabouts, including one at Point Park directed by Michael Rupert, now directing "Ragtime." And there was a high-profile 2002 Broadway revival with Liam Neeson and Laura Linney, directed by Richard Eyre (no relation to Jane).

	Tony Bingham stars as John Proctor in the Prime Stage production of "The Crucible." Click photo for larger image.

With this "Crucible," the premiere is of the New Hazlett Theatre itself, which I am happy to say feels both intimate and ample. The side seats (whether occupied or not) narrow the acting area, such that small audiences or large should feel equally at home.

"The Crucible" stays new, anyway, changing according to whatever is going on in the world. No longer is it about the Communist witch-hunt of the 1950s, but the self-delusion of personal righteousness, which then tries to force the inexplicable into the narrow confines of self-centered ignorance.

In fact, at this precise time in American civic life, the opening scene, in which Rev. Parris has to decide whether to join the burgeoning witch hunt or resist it, feels like politics -- a morality play in which a congressman, say, is faced with a scandal or public outcry, or even something like the Schiavo case. To denounce or defend? Lead the hysterics or resist? Thomas Putnam, Salem's wealthy landowner, seems like a Jack Abramoff client driven by economic self-interest.

This social dimension is stronger than it was at Quantum, because there the play was stripped down, with the focus on the intimate tragedy of John and Elizabeth Proctor. Here, though, we have both Putnams, both judges, a cast of 19 instead of 15 and a more communal tragedy.

Director Nona Gerard spreads the action out on Alfred Kirschman's multi-sectioned set but still preserves the claustrophobia of Puritan society. Deft details are many: in that first scene alone, you can see clearly that Betty is making believe, and the way the girls smirk at Proctor shows Abigail has bragged of her conquest,

Some of Gerard's witty details are too much. Abigail's red skirt signals her discovery of sex, and Paris' bejeweled book suggests his greed ... but in Salem? Similarly, the red apple Abigail offers Proctor screams Eden so loudly it's funny. I suppose these are to explicate the plot, like the too-open cheerleading of the Proctor side in court.

The girls are simultaneously scary and childish, led by Chelsea Lane's whiny Mary Warren and Laura Lee Brautigan's pasty-faced Mercy Lewis. Jennifer Murray's Abigail, having discovered sex and deduced that it makes everyone a hypocrite, turns private vengeance into a crusade.

Tony Bingham is an admirable Proctor, angry but not overwrought, and Bridget Carey is self-effacing as Elizabeth. They both grow under oppression. Fine character support comes from Robert Roberts' Giles. Angelo Gabriel Bruni plays Rev. Hale as a brisk, pompous man bursting with love of his own expertise, and Marcus Muzopappa is a physically imposing if sometimes faint Danforth.

Adult "The Crucible" may be, but it's also a great play for teenagers, who are perfectly ready to chew on its difficult questions about social behavior and faith.

At New Hazlett Theater, North Side; Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2:30 p.m.; $8-$15; 412-394-3353.