We’re starting a new feature on AustenBlog this week: the Tuesday Open Thread. Each Tuesday, this post will include links to articles that didn’t quite make the cut for a full-blown web post during the previous week. We will occasionally break our usual “six degrees of Jane Austen” rule for something we find especially interesting or amusing or just gives us an opportunity to make a snarky remark we can’t resist (see the second link below). We currently envision presenting the links without much commentary, but don’t hold us to it. In comments, discuss the links or anything at all Jane-related or tangentially related.

• Mrs. Elton would approve of an article in the Telegraph about the revival of Bristol, complete with anti-Bath trash talk.
• “I am happier even than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh.” (Thanks to Alert Janeite Tina B. for the link!)
• P&P Remix: Darcy the Society Serialist! (Not the Horror!P&P Trailer we linked a while back) (Thanks to Alert Janeite Zoe for the link!)

Look for more changes on AustenBlog this summer!

Broadway Mouth reviews the original soundtrack of the 1959 Broadway musical adaptation of P&P called First Impressions.

In studying the OBCR, it’s not fully easy to say where the show might have gone wrong. The book is by the talented Abe Burrows, and, according to Filichia, is “a much wittier book than has been alleged, with incisive dialogue and characterizations,” though in Coming Up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950s, historian Ethan Mordden asserts that Burrows attempted to re-write Jane Austen, which was not a wise choice (for the record, since the production rights are licensed by Samuel French, the libretto can easily be purchased online or, I’m sure, from the Drama Book Shop). Whichever the case may be, the cast recording fails to ignite the heart or romance of the story.

Despite these problems, the Broadway Mouth ends the review with:

Still, when another Austen show reaches Broadway, I want the CD.

We can’t help you out with the CD, but there are a few songs available on the Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice MySpace page…and a little bird has told us that the Bennets might be treading the boards as soon as next year! (And the writers, Lindsay Warren Baker and Amanda Jacobs, will be at the JASNA AGM in Chicago this October, where they will talk about the process of putting the play together, perhaps with some scenes and songs included.)

Vermont Public Radio interviewed Kelly McDonald & Deb Barnum, co-regional coordinators of JASNA’s Vermont Region. You can listen to a recording of the interview online or download it as a podcast.

Delta College in Michigan will be holding auditions for a stage production of Pride and Prejudice in September. It’s unclear which adaptation will be used or when the play will take place, but we’ll let everyone know if we hear anything! And if you get in the cast, do let us know!