Review of "Pride and Prejudice: the Musical"

Adam and I are lucky to live in a city that has a good local theatre. A few years ago, we got to go see a production of a musical of "Daddy Long Legs" (my favorite epistolatory novel).

This year, we got to go see the primiere of a musical of "Pride and Prejudice".

The novel "Pride and Prejudice" is justly famous. It's beloved, and it's no wonder. The picture it presents not just of romance, but of family life and of friendship, is unparalleled.

I was so excited to go see it in musical form.

And mostly? I was not disappointed.

This was a really fun play. It started with a clever framing device: Jane Austen talking with her sister as she works on developing the novel we now know as "Pride and Prejudice". It's a novel she first wrote as a very young woman, and after having success with "Sense and Sensibility" she reworked it into a proper book.

Austen watching and interacting with her characters is a conceit that plays out well on stage.

So in the musical, Austen and her sister are the narrators of the story, and Elizabeth and Darcy and the rest come in as the characters they're imagining.  Occasionally, it goes meta, and Elizabeth and Austen argue together, and it's pretty funny.

Some of it works, and some of it doesn't. I kind of hated how the musical had Austen framing the novel as a matter of believing in love or not. That's not what "Pride and Prejudice" is about. 

Everyone in the novel believes in love. The problem is that some of them are wrong about what love is.

The most interesting part of the novel is the balance between reason and passion. Wickham and Lydia?  All passion.  Collins and Charlotte?  All reason.

Darcy and Elizabeth? They manage to be reason and passion, both together, all at once, nothing separate.

It's wonderful. THAT is love.

So, I kind of hated how the play had Austen characterize the book's theme: as a choice to believe in love. That's not the point of the novel. Not at all.

BUT, that said, there was still so much to love about the musical.

For instance? There was Mr. Collins' solo.

Oh my goodness. It brought down the house. It was HILARIOUS.

The refrain was:

 "Let us all now thank the Lord/
For Lady Catherine DeBourgh."

And I started cracking up the instant he's sung the first musical phrase, because I recognized the progression: it was exactly the notes we use to sing the Psalms in our church.

And it only got better from there. I was gasping for breath before the end, I was laughing so hard.

And so was the rest of the audience.

Mr. Collins leading the reluctant Bennett family along in his psalm of praise to his patroness? The clear indication that he'd forsaken the service of his Lord for the service of his patroness? 

I don't know if I've ever seen a better parody. It was AMAZING.

And they did other really clever things, especially in the stage craft. 

For instance: they had Austen's sister arguing Charlotte's part. She insists that it make sense for a woman to marry for position and security, and why wouldn't you do that yourself, Jane? and why can't you understand why this is attractive? and even as she's arguing it, Austen's sister walks into the scene in progress and becomes Charlotte, accepting Collins' proposal of marriage.

It's very well-done. I loved it.

Sometimes it seems like musicals I love never make it.  

But I really hope this one does.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

Why I love "The Scarlet Pimpernel" . . . the musical

I go in cycles in regards to the music I listen too. I listen to something for several weeks straight, and then have to give myself a break of about a year before I listen to it again (drives my husband nuts). 

Recently, I've been listening to a couple of musicals again: "The Scarlet Pimpernel" and "Jane Eyre". Lovely as "Jane Eyre" is, Sir Percy is definitely my favorite. I love the music, but it's the lyrics that blow me away, both with their humor, and with their depth of feeling. As for humor, I love the song where Sir Percy and his men are trying to convince the Prince Regent that all their covert trips to France are made for the sake of fashion, not, of course, to rescue endangered aristocrats from Madame la Guillotine. To really convince their liege lord, they offer an apology for male plumage:

"La, but someone has to strike a pose

And bear the weight of well-tailored clothes.

Each species needs a sex that's fated

To be highly decorated

And that is why the Lord created Man!"

I just love that: to "bear the weight of well-tailored clothes"! Oh, the burden of being a pretty boy! 

And then I'm also struck by how well it hits the achingly sad  notes of the story. There is a song Marguerite sings after Percy leaves her alone on their wedding night (on their wedding day he is told that she has ruthlessly betrayed some of her social enemies to their death - though this later proves to be false), in which she mourns the loss of the man she fell in love with, and says, singing to the absent Percy, 

"I miss him so

When I look at you,"

because, of course, he is the man she fell in love with, but the change in him is so complete that she feels that though she looking at her lover's face, he no longer inhabits it. It's just a horrible thought, the idea that you can miss someone who is right there.

And I can't listen to this soundtrack without noticing how often, and how well, the lyricists employ biblical metaphors. In the song "Madame Guillotine", the French citoyens sing, 

"Zing! Swing! Savor the sting!

As she severs you,

Madame Guillotine.

Slice! Come paradise!

Our Delilah will

Shave you razor-clean!"

I mean . . . that's funny. And then they go for the poignant in songs like "The Riddle", where the characters sing, regretfully,

"Every Judas

Once loved a Jesus.

But finally,

Treason will seize us.

And only fools

Follow golden rules."

I can never hear that first line, "Every Judas once loved a Jesus," without thinking, ouch. Love is required to make a traitor. Ouch, ouch, ouch.

But, by far, my favorite song is "Into the Fire" which, corny as it might be, has given me courage more times than I can count. 

"Into darkness, into danger, into storms that rip the night!

Don't give in, don't give up, but give thanks for the glorious fight!

You can tremble, you can fear it, but keep your fighting spirit alive, boys!

Let the shiver of it sting you, fling into battle, spring to your feet, boys!

Never hold back your steps for moment! Never doubt that your courage will grow!

Hold your head even higher and into the fire we go!"

It just reminds me so much of all of Jesus' commands to "take heart! Be of good cheer! Take courage, it is I, don't be afraid!" To me, the music of this song is a great soundtrack to those words in the gospel.

Finally, I admit that I just love all the melodrama and silliness and passion in this musical, much as I love the melodrama and silliness and passion in the Scarlet Pimpernel stories in general. I love Chauvelin's passionate song to Marguerite, "Where's the Girl?" in both its original form, and in his bitter renunciation of love at the end of the story. I love the ensemble effort in the eponymous "The Scarlet Pimpernel" where a ballroom of English nobility try to guess the identity of the national hero and Percy brashly claims the title in public, knowing that telling the truth is the one certain way to make sure his disguise remains in place. 

And I love all the trumpets. Seriously, this score has a lot of trumpets and they're used, well, triumphantly. It rocks.

Okay, I originally meant this to be a small part of a "7 Quick Takes" post, but it's way too long, so I'm posting it as is. Anyone else have a favorite musical that you don't think enough people know about?

peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell