Austentacious: No Pride & Extreme Prejudice

Austentacious
9.25.07

Austentacious is, as backstage comedies tend to be, a loving joke at the expense of the theater -- in this particular case, it comes as a look at the often well-meaning disasters that lurk in community theaters. The action takes place in a church hall that serves as home to the Central Riverdale Amateur Players. Their veteran director has just left them for a better job; their current production is their first without him, and the show follows this production from auditions to opening night. This production, entitled Austentacious, is an adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The premise? A common complaint about the novel is the question of, "why can't the character just say what they're feeling?" So in hopes of simplifyng matters, Emily has written her very own dance-infused telling of the story: the characters will express themselves through dance. The result is Pride and Prejudice told with a clog-off in Amsterdam that becomes a tap-off on 42nd Street, and a giant pirate ship... to name just a few of the outlandish storytelling devices.

The motley crew features the fairly typical array of characters -- and caricatures. Emily must audition for her own show, but will ultimately be cast as Elizabeth Bennett because she's sleeping with Dominic, the new -- and rather incompetent -- director. No production (nor backstage comedy) is complete without its token self-obsessed performer: Lauren, convinced she will be cast as Elizabeth, is cast as a sister, and will try anything to make her part bigger. She drags her boyfriend, David, along so he can read with her for the audition, but he ends up being so good that he's cast as Mr. Darcy. Jessica is a dedicated actress who longs to make it big. Blake is a young man with some drug problems and a bit of hidden talent wanders into auditions as an excuse to get out of a group meeting. then there's Sam: the always-dependable, hard-working and sincere stage manager who keeps everything together. Every backstage comedy needs some scandalous romance amidst the artistic mishaps: what would it be without the stage manager and the lead actor falling madly in love? The cast is solid. Not surprisingly, I'm sure, Stephanie D'Abruzzo is one of the best things about the show on the whole. Solid as the cast may be across the board, she is leagues above her castmates. I was lucky enough to see her and the rest of the original cast of Avenue Q, and it was a pleasure to see her play another role. I've always found her to be one of those performers who is simply a delight to see on stage, and she perfectly captures the essence of her well-intentioned character.

Austentacious was created by a team of seven writers -- all of whom worked on the book, and two of whom wrote the music and lyrics. For such a large collaborative team, it's surprisingly cohesive. With that many voices, you'd probably expect a high level of discontinuity, but this show easily could have been written by one or two people. The voices of these seven writers all blend together quite well. On the whole, the score is fun, ,and the book is witty and full of laughs, but the last twenty-minutes or so, in which we actually "see" the production as a series of snippets from opening night, are truly briliant. The show is funny throughout, but none of its humor can compare to that which ensues when we actually see all of the follies to which it built up right before us. Lines are forgotten, entrances are missed, miscommunications ensue, and roles become accidentally double-cast -- the antics and mishaps left the audience engulfed in uproarious laughter. The material leading up to this point is fine, but I wish the entire thing could have been as hilarious as those last twenty minutes. It's a show that doesn't necessarily bring much new to the proverbial table, but it is certainly funny and without a doubt a loveable, easily appreciated good time. It's something I could probably see going the way of Gutenberg! The Musical or [title of show], and hopefully being picked up to continue its promising development process.