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Jane Austen-Centric Musical Lab “Austen’s Pride” to Be Held in NYC

2005’s “Pride and Prejudice”

Everyone knows Jane Austen is a master of wit, but as a new musical suggests, she also has serious vocal chops. BroadwayWorld reports that an invitation-only musical lab called “Austen’s Pride” will be held June 19 and 20 at the 5th Avenue Theatre in New York City. The project from writer-composers Lindsay Warren Baker and Amanda Jacobs centers on Austen (Lisa O’Hare, “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder”) as she reflects on her most famous novel, “Pride and Prejudice.”

“Austen’s Pride” sees the author searching for new inspiration. “Her latest work has sold out and become a huge success, which has her publisher looking for another manuscript,” BroadwayWorld summarizes. “Jane’s sister Cassandra (Courtney Balan, ‘Falsettos’) suggests that she revisit one of her earlier manuscripts, ‘First Impressions.’ To please her sister, Jane revisits her earlier manuscript and as the characters come to life on stage, she discovers them evolving and changing alongside her. By the end of the musical, she has come to learn who she is as a writer and as a woman.” The lab will also feature Kara Lindsay (“Wicked”) as Elizabeth Bennet and Ryan Silverman (“Phantom of the Opera”) as Mr. Darcy.

“Pride and Prejudice” was first published in 1813 and traces the passionate sparring and eventual romance between Miss Lizzie Bennet and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy. The beloved book has received dozens of screen adaptations and retellings including the 1995 miniseries toplined by Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, Sharon Maguire’s 2001 romantic comedy “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” and the 2005 feature film starring Keira Knightley. Its most recent iteration was last year’s “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” a supernatural-horror take on the novel toplined by “Downton Abbey’s” Lily James. A modern, Texas debutante ball-set retelling of the classic is being developed at Warner Bros.

Go to the “Austen’s Pride” website to learn more about the musical.

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