gwendolyngrace | New Production of P&P

Just came from a workshop production - actually, it was the dress rehearsal - of a new musical version of Pride and Prejudice, co-written by my mother's church organist/choir director, Amanda Jacobs.

For a workshop, it has great promise. I'm just jotting down notes, because production notes and structural notes are jumbled in my head and I need to see them all before I can make sense of them.

In no order:

1. Darcy gets held back until act 3, but this is more-or-less okay, since that mimics the structure of the book. OTOH, when he does finally get to sing, he needs a disseration, and it's cut a tiny bit short, Fine Eyes could develop more, go to a bigger climax before pulling down to its ending. Be aware that the length and breadth of his amount of song in Act 3 is predictable if you a. know the book and b. know anything about musical structure.

2. Ending of Act 2 is weak where it is. The London sequence presents a richer opportunity for a stronger, more ominous ending to the act, though this makes Act 3 barely a footnote compared to the rest. HOwever, there are opportunities to expand scenes in the final act, especially the finale. If so, though, reprise of "Silly Girls" has to change and become more ominous with it, bigger, more important, more dangerous.

3. I love that a great deal of the dialogue is direct from the book, but much of it could possibly move along more quickly if set to some of the backdrop music, more through-sung than a musical comedy. Partially production quality, but if backed with music, pickups would be quicker and more people could sing their stuff all at once.

4. Ballroom scene in mid-Act I, use quartet, not to introduce Darcy as a singing force, but to counterpoint not just Jane and Bingley, but Elizabeth and Darcy too.

5. Background/biographical information about Jane Austen and her personal barriers to writing will not play to anyone who is not already familiar with her life. Confusing to an uninitiated viewer.

6. Col. Fitzwilliam is a hottie. Putting glasses on may work for Clark Kent, but not for him. Oops, that was a production note.

7. Wickham may be a scumbag, but he shouldn't read as a scumbag immediately. His song needs to be angrier, more indignance, less smarmy.

8. I like bringing in the elements of well-known music like God Save the Queen and the Trumpet Voluntary. And Moonlight Sonata - that was just so damn funny. Some melodic themes that are supposed to be original have quite a lot of pastiche influence - for example, Eliza's stuff in Pemberly almost becomes "Think of Me" from Phantom once or twice.

9. I like the intertwining of Jane Austen into the story and how the characters interact with her, but there needs to be a more definite change when that happens, especially when they talk to her as The Author and not as a random extra on the set.

10. Mrs Bennett is perfect. Don't change her numbers a bit.

11. Lydia! She's too funny. The Redcoat number is great - a good opportunity for production number in the second act. When she comes back in act III we could see more of that fire.

12. You've got skeleton melodies and some really strong incipient orchestrations. Bloom them - let the songs build where they want to go, instead of holding them back, especially at the ends of numbers. Too often they just end.

13. Charlotte's number is sweet and quiet and a nice moment that the audience doesn't know what to do with. It might almost be too wistful, which denies the very thing she's singing about - her lack of romantic inclination.

14. Collins! Damn if that boy doesn't do physical comedy well. Another well-drawn character.

15. Catherine - you can do more with her. Frau Blucher in the flesh.

16. Caroline Bingley's chief melody line...is that a vocal exercise in there? It's something really sing-songy like that. I'd have to hear it again, but the fact that I could tell it was *something* else was distracting. ETA: It's either a hornpipe or Chip 'n' Dale's theme, depending on which one you want to associate primarily.

17. A few parts of the score are a bit repetitive, though probably not moreso than much of musical theatre these days. Might wish to revisit in terms of which themes are really important to repeat, and which are only convenient.

18. The score features a lot of solos compared to duets, trios, and quartets. The chorus is used effectively, but more use could be made of groups, counterpoints, and even dissonance.

19. Hey! Bingley's central theme (about Jane) is a modification of "Good Thing Going" from Merrily We Roll Along!

I think all my other notes are production notes, things like 'Elizabeth should look at Darcy at least once when she sings', 'this blocking is too straight-line', 'it's a play about a silk hat,' and 'Sing out, Louise.'

Elizabeth Bennett had two moments, though, not of her intention, that were priceless flubs. She called Wickham Bennett, and he corrected her so Austenianly that I have a feeling it happened before. It was one of those things where the falter would have gone unnoticed if he hadn't pointed it out, but then he said, "I'm Wickham, by the way," and she said, "Oh, I'm so terribly sorry," and it was just very cute. And then in Act II she was supposed to stop playing the spinnet for a beat, then start again, and she took too long and the accompanist started without her. But that's the youth of the cast.

All in all it was a very, very promising look at what might become a real candidate for the stage. I just need to be able to hear/see it again....