INTERVIEW: ‘Pride and Prejudice’ musical to receive virtual opening night
Photo: Sharon Rietkerk, Mary Mattison, Melissa WolfKlain, Chanel Tilghman and Tara Kostmayer star as the Bennet sisters in Pride and Prejudice. Photo courtesy of Kevin Berne / Provided by The Press Room with permission.
With Broadway, off-Broadway and regional theaters halting their productions in light of the coronavirus pandemic, theater-makers have had to get creative on how they present their beloved art form. The folks at Streaming Musicals — a company that is definitely ahead of the curve — have decided to take the next step.
On Friday, April 10, the company will stream, for free, the virtual opening night of Pride and Prejudice, the new musical adaptation by Paul Gordon (Broadway’s Jane Eyre). The production, according to press notes, was filmed this past winter when it played TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in Palo Alto, California. Audience members can expect high-definition video and sound, and some profits will be shared with the artists behind the production, which is par the usual for Streaming Musicals.
Welcoming the viewers for the 6:30 p.m. presentation (to be encored at 10 p.m.) will be Broadway star Beth Leavel, recently of Broadway’s The Prom. She will be joined by Sirius/XM’s Julie James. In addition to offering an introduction, the two will interview cast members during intermission.
Pride and Prejudice is one of the most beloved novels by Jane Austen, and it has been adapted for the big screen and the small screen many times before. In this production, directed by Robert Kelley, Marry Mattison plays Elizabeth Bennet, and Justin Mortelliti portrays Mr. Darcy. Despite their class differences, the two characters overcome their pride and prejudice to find true love.
Gordon is a successful adaptor of classic texts, and he is responsible for Pride and Prejudice’s book, music and lyrics. He is also the creative force behind such shows as Jane Austen’s Emma, Daddy Long Legs and Sense and Sensibility. He is perhaps best known for the Broadway run of Jane Eyre.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Gordon about the virtual opening night. Questions and answers have been sightly edited for style.
What inspired you to adapt Pride and Prejudice into a musical?
Initially, I didn’t want to adapt it. I had already adapted Emma and Sense and Sensibility, and I felt that it was time to move on from Austen. But when TheatreWorks Silicon Valley Artistic Director Robert Kelley approached me a few years later with the idea, I just couldn’t say no. I wanted it to sound different from my two previous Austen musicals, so I went a little more contemporary with some of the music in the score. I felt this particular story could live in a world that was modern, and I believed that Elizabeth Bennet was a woman of our times.
How long has this project been in development?
I started working on it about three years ago. I had seen several film versions in the past, so I was familiar with the story — now all I had to do was read the novel. Reading Austen is always such a delight, but when one is reading a book to ‘musicalize it,’ the note-taking and my own inner monologues take away some of the joys one gets from just reading a novel for pleasure.
It was a ton of work to figure out how I was going to tell this story, and I did a lot of things wrong in the beginning. But thank goodness, the show was chosen to be part of the New Works Festival that TheatreWorks Silicon Valley holds every year, and through that workshop I was able to really shape the piece, see what was missing and do the work necessary to move the show forward.
I always go into any workshop thinking, ‘My work is done; this is perfect,’ only to discover just how very wrong I am. I received fantastic feedback from the reading (and by ‘fantastic,’ I don’t mean the show was fantastic, I mean the ‘notes’ were fantastic and of course ego-deflating — as it turned out I didn’t get everything right the first time). And so, I went back to work and made the necessary changes that helped shape the show by the time we went into rehearsals in November of 2019.
You have adapted quite a few classic texts into musicals for the stage. What is it about these stories that you love so much?
I was a pop songwriter for 20 years, and most of the songs I wrote during that period were about myself. A love gone right. A love gone wrong. How do I feel today? Am I sad? What inner emotions can I explore? Well, you get to a place where you become bored with yourself and wonder, how many more songs can I possibly write about my last breakup or my next breakup?
So, when I decided to write a musical based on Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, an entire new world of creativity had opened up to me. Suddenly, there was a universe of language written by a genius that had little to do with my own life, that I could devour and create my own music and my own way of telling new stories. In essence, I discovered brilliant authors: Bronte, Austen, Webster, Dickens and Wilde — and I could play with their words and stories and create something new. (And they wouldn’t sue me.) It was completely exhilarating and gave me new creative life that had been missing for quite a few years.
Are you excited about the free streaming event? What can fans expect?
Yes, I am. Fans can expect to see a live stage show that is cut a little like a movie. It’s not the same as being in a theatre — but it should be the next best thing, giving fans a very integrative viewing experience. Right now, I’m very interested in exploring the streaming model as I believe it can literally save our industry. Streaming will never replace live theatre, and it shouldn’t — but it can enhance it in ways that we are only just beginning to explore.
I am excited by the idea that we can create stage musicals, film them and share them with the entire world with no running costs and no threat of closure. And what especially excites me about our April 10 virtual opening night of Pride and Prejudice is that we are giving it away for free as a gift to our community. Right now, while we are in this crisis, the idea of sharing a new piece of theatre with the world — especially a Jane Austen musical — is a small ray of light during these dark days.
How well did the world premiere of the musical go a few months ago at TheatreWorks?
Our world premiere went exceptionally well. It apparently broke all box office records for TheatreWorks. And actually, I had no plans to film this version of Pride and Prejudice, but in the third week of rehearsals I started to become aware of just how great this cast was. The costumes were looking fantastic. I started hearing the orchestrations for the first time, and suddenly I knew that this was a production that we needed to capture. Opening night was a delight. The audience was with us from the downbeat, and I was thrilled with how the show turned out. (I’m often not pleased with my own work.) But this one felt special.
What do you hope is the future of the show?
I hope the show is able to be seen by a much larger audience than would be seen in one regional market. I hope that these great actors get the attention they deserve, and it leads to more work for them. I hope all the creative artists who put their hearts and souls into this production get a little lift in their careers. I hope, eventually, that this new financial model that we are setting up at StreamingMusicals.com helps actors, musicians and designers make a living from theatre. And I would love to have audiences enjoy Pride and Prejudice in theatres around the world for many years to come.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
StreamingMusicals.com presents a virtual opening night for Pride and Prejudice Friday, April 10 at 6:30 p.m. (with an encore at 10 p.m.). The screening is free of charge. Click here for more information.
