Playwright Geetika Lizardi wrote to tell us that she has collaborated with composer Michelle Lord to develop a musical from an award-winning screenplay she wrote about Jane Austen’s life. The musical, called simply JANE, will be showcased at Artrix in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire on June 23-24, 2006 to get audience reaction and they hope to move to London after working on it a bit more. From Geetika’s e-mail:

I’ve been a Jane Austen fan since childhood and this project began as a feature film script called “JANE” that I won a few awards for in 2004 before optioning it to First Serve Entertainment. Of course that’s around the time “BECOMING JANE” was announced so I decided then to adapt my script for stage. By all accounts, “BECOMING JANE” is a great script, so I’m glad it’s getting made. However, it does sound limited in scope — just Jane and Tom’s relationship — and I strongly feel that there’s so much more to Jane’s story that deserves to be told! Her choices later in life, moving to Bath & saying “no” to Harris for example, are tremendously significant and moving, especially when set to music!

We could not agree more. Who needs a Made Up Story when the real thing is so very interesting? And what a fantastic opportunity for real Janeites to be involved in a story about Jane. We hope that some of our readers get to see the show, and do report back to us!

The actress Maggie Grace, formerly of the TV show LOST, told Esquire magazine that her idea of the true definition of manhood was Mr Darcy while she was growing up. So does that mean she’s over it now? And if not, the line forms to the right. No pushing, ladies.

Alert Janeite Deborah wrote to let us know that Anthony Lane’s profile of travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor in this week’s New Yorker contains a Jane Austen reference. The article is not available online, but Deborah sent us the following tidbit:

The gist of the story is that Fermor (aged 90 or so) is about to take an overnight ferry trip somewhere and Lane offers to get him a cabin so he won’t have to sleep on deck. Fermor declines, saying that he has a bottle of wine and a copy of Persuasion, so what more could he need to pass a moonlit night in the open air? Sounds about right to me.

Sounds about right to us, too!

Also in the New Yorker, review of a new biography of the author Harper Lee (who wrote the Editrix’s favorite non-Austen book of all time) refers to Miss Lee’s one-time wish to become “the Jane Austen of the South.” We understand that the notoriously reclusive author is a Friend of Jane.