The Age (Australia) has a review of the “Regency Cabaret” featuring the ghosts of Jane and Cassandra Austen.

There is wit in the loving sibling rivalry between the two women. Jane, for example, confesses that, if in the early 19th-century Pride and Prejudice had been on TV, “we would have watched it religiously”.

An in-depth article in the Telegraph (U.K.) discusses John Leslie’s storied past and his present as Wickham in a touring production of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.

Look closely and you will see that his army breeches are a little bit too short and his cavalry boots keep slipping down, while his giant red and gold jacket looks as if it was made out of a pair of theatre curtains. Never mind, for he gives it his singing and dancing best as villainous George Wickham in this adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice.

“I’ve just arrived from London to join my regiment,” is his booming opening line and, for much of the play’s first half, he is forced to trot back and forth across the stage in a series of Regency dances. It’s not his fault that he looms above the rest of the cast like a Scots pine in an orchard, nor that some in the audience are cross-eyed with boredom by the interval. Gah. Its like watching Farrow & Ball paint dry. Get on with it!

Later, Mr Wickham sings, plays a ripple on the piano and famously elopes with young Lydia, bringing shame upon the Bennet family.

“It seems I attract the ladies,” he muses, at one point, although, during this matinée performance at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford, there is no cognitive stirring in the stalls to indicate that yes, we’re all quite aware of that, thank you very much.

However, it seems that John was not guilty of the transgressions with which public opinion charged him. Sound like anyone else we know? (Hint: rhymes with “Marci.”) Seems to be a hint of Sir Walter Elliot in there, too:

Apart from the play, his main income comes from renting out his former home…

Since Your Gentle Editor is also an Ignorant Colonial, she was unfamiliar with the history and did not understand the fuss. This article proved most enlightening.

Sify.com has an article about Namrata Shirodkar, who plays the Jane character, Jaya Bakshi, in BRIDE AND PREJUDICE.

“My character is nice - but Jane is milder as I have done more outgoing characters in films like Tera mera saath rahe.It’s a very subtle character with very basic guidelines.There was homework to do because of the script. I had to go through the script a couple of times to understand the graph of Jaya. Even though she’s quiet, there are certain definitions to her character-like the look she gives or the kind of feelings that she goes through because of pain or happiness. You need to give in to the fact that this is how you are going to be. This required understanding.”

In other B&P news, the Telegraph (U.K.) has a great article about Gurinder Chadha and the process of making B&P.

In Bride and Prejudice, the Bennet family of sleepy Longbourn, Hertfordshire, become the Bakshis of Amritsar, a city equally far removed from Indian high culture and society. Elizabeth Bennet has become Lalita Bakshi, while Mr Darcy is a wealthy heir to an American hotel chain, who meets Lalita while visiting India for a friend’s wedding. With swift changes of locale that would do justice to any Bollywood film, the action ricochets between India, London and Los Angeles.

“I decided to make a film that would play to suburban audiences round the world, who may not be familiar with Bollywood,” says Chadha. “All my decisions after that were about helping ordinary movie-going people through the process. Pride and Prejudice is a universal love story that’s sort of familiar to people. So they can sit back, not worry they’re going to miss the story, and just get into a different film language.”

The Jane Austen Society may be reaching for the smelling salts, yet Bride and Prejudice cleaves remarkably close to the original novel.

“The book’s themes have all been brought out, but with an Indian twist,” says Chadha. “Script editors told me to move away from the book. But I said no. I wanted to come back to the book at every turn.”

Sounds good to us.

Quick like bunnies, you New Yorkers–hie thee to the 45th Street Theatre for two readings of a musical version of EMMA set in modern-day Connecticut, part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival. The musical won the Director’s Choice Award. There is a reading at 4:30 p.m. and one at 8:00 p.m., today, September 20. Tickets are $15.

As always, if you go, we would love to publish your report.