Last week it was our privilege to be invited to a reading of a musical adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, written by Lindsay Warren Baker and Amanda Jacobs, that is being prepared for a Broadway run next year. The idea of Jane Austen on Broadway is exciting enough, but one becomes wary of adaptations after suffering the slings and arrows of Hollywood; however, we are pleased to report that this adaptation is as delightful as hoped.

The musical originally was produced by the Ohio Light Opera Company last year, and the authors are still revising it, both to trim the running time and make it Broadway-ready. The play still betrays its operetta past; the complex melodies and clever wordplay bring Gilbert and Sullivan to mind, in the best way. The adaptation is true to the original novel in form and spirit with the added conceit of Jane Austen herself taking part in the story, waiting for the characters to reveal their actions and giving them gentle direction when necessary (a pretty good approximation of the act of writing fiction in our experience). Conceive all that is charming in Mrs. Bennet complaining to an astonished authoress about having to marry off five daughters, or Jane Bennet asking plaintively if she might leave her room, or Elizabeth begging the authoress to put her out of her misery at the Netherfield ball. Such a device could be twee, but here it worked well.

Though it was only a reading, the cast played their roles beautifully. We were especially pleased with Marilyn Caskey’s Mrs. Bennet, and hope that she is retained for the Broadway production. Though the writers concentrated on Lizzy and Darcy’s story, the humor, thankfully, is not forgotten; Mr. Collins (the best-looking Mr. Collins ever, by the bye) was so earnest and eager in his toad-eating that one laughed with him as much as at him; Lydia singing about how she can’t resist a redcoat will be a showstopper; and imagine, if you will, a center-stage death-glare standoff between Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Jane Austen herself. (Guess who wins.)

The play is smart and funny and everything Jane Austen on Broadway ought to be; Janeites will absolutely love it. We so much look forward to seeing this in a full production, and will keep AustenBlog readers apprised of developments as the Broadway debut of this play approaches.

Howard Kissel, theatre critic for the New York Daily News, also attended the reading and was as pleased as we were.

Thanks to producer Lori Bajorek for the kind invitation to the reading.

Alert Janeite Carmen sent us a photo of Miss Dashwood and Miss Marianne from the upcoming BBC adaptation of Sense and Sensibility.

Alert Janeite Laura’s mum spotted this one and passed on the word. The Hartford Courant has a feature article about all the Jane Austen media going on these days, including the current and upcoming films and books; and Web sites were not forgotten, including AustenBlog!

Mark Twain was not Jane Austen’s biggest fan. Twain found her writing tedious, her characters dull and her stories offensively sentimental, complaints he also lobbed at the novels of Sir Walter Scott and James Fenimore Cooper.

“I often want to criticise Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can’t conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin,” he wrote in a letter to Hartford minister Joseph Twichell in 1898. “Every time I read `Pride and Prejudice” I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.”

And in “Following the Equator”:

“Jane Austen’s books, too, are absent from this library. Just that one omission alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn’t a book in it.”

Rarely, with the possible exception of his ill-fated investment in the Paige Compositor typesetting machine, did the Sage of Farmington Avenue exhibit worse literary judgment.

Hee. We’re always up for some good-natured Twain bashing. (Though sometimes we suspect he was only winding up his friend who was a Janeite, rather than truly anti-Austen.)

Oh, and we think we’ve discovered the source of Miss Hathaway’s corset/digestion issues: even the relatively comfortable late Georgian long stays aren’t meant to be worn while sitting with one’s knees up in that unladylike posture. No wonder she was having trouble breathing, and the edge of the bottom of the stays were probably digging into her solar plexus. Sit up straight like a lady and there’s no problem.

Yes, Gentle Readers, we weary of the film and it’s not even in wide release yet. But there’s still lots of good stuff out there, so we shall continue to bring you everything worthy of notice, and then some.

First up is Fellow-ette’s hilarious parody of the film, Un-Becoming Jane.

Jane Austen:

Despite my prodigious talent, my budding genius, and my formidable wit, I am vastly intimidated by your literary critique because you are a most agreeable–a most happily-endowed–what I’m trying to say is, you’re hot. And it is a truth universally acknowledged that even the most brilliant woman is speechless in front of …

Tom:

Your stories need more boning, you dig? More horizontal rhumba. More fornication.

Jane:

My luscious cherry lips are agape.

Thanks to Alert Janeites Diana I-C and Kirsten for sending us the link. (more…)

The Spoof reports that Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting, will complete a previously undiscovered manuscript by Jane Austen.

Speaking from his offices, a Spokesman said: “This is a literary marriage made in Heaven. We will be inventing a brand new genre, Grit Chick Lit, and it should have something to appeal to both men and women, young and old, and all points in between”

When asked if this was really such a good idea, the spokesman denied that they were cashing in on a recent upsurge in an interest in the work of Ms Austen, but he did say that Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Beckinsale, Robert Carlyle and Ewan McGregor were in talks to star in the film.

This is a satire, of course, but we wonder if they knew that Irvine Welsh was an Friend of Jane before they wrote it?

Alert Janeite Joan Ellen sent us a link to a site about Distinguished Women in History, which of course includes Jane Austen and also a quotation from Northanger Abbey on the front page!