Theatre 2023: Pride and Prejudice, Sort Of

I am quite familiar with the plot of Pride and Prejudice after having read the classic Jane Austen novel of manners, as well as watching the 1995 British TV miniseries and the 2005 movie with the young, hot actors Colin Firth and Matthew Macfayden respectively starring as the iconic romantic hero, Mr. Darcy.  Set in the Regency period between 1811-1820, the story revolves around the Bennet family with five unmarried daughters who are not entitled to inherit from their father’s estate based on the laws of the times which dictate that property can only be passed on to a male heir.  The irritatingly pushy mother Mrs. Bennet is desperate to find wealthy spouses for one or more of her daughters so that the family can be supported after Mr. Bennet’s passing.  The five girls include beautiful and kindly eldest daughter Jane, handsome, spunky and witty Elizabeth (Lizzy), bookish and reclusive middle child Mary, and the two youngest daughters Kitty and Lydia who are described as insipid, self indulgent and ignorant.

Most of this ubiquitously well-known story revolves around the romances of Jane and Mr. Bingley, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy and to a lesser extent, Lydia and Mr. Wickham.  The general consensus is that title of the book refers to Mr. Darcy’s pride causing him to look down on the “lower class” and Elizabeth’s prejudice in judging Darcy based on first impressions. There is just as much evidence in the book to argue that Elizabeth’s pride was hurt when she overheard Darcy flippantly denigrate herself and her family when they first met, and that Darcy was prejudiced against the Bennet girls due to their need to marry in order to avoid their unfortunate circumstances.  Regardless, these two “character flaws” are the plot devices used to keep the Lizzy and Darcy apart for the bulk of the book.  In terms of tropes used in romance novels, not much has changed over the centuries.  The story has been adapted so many times and in so many ways.  There is a spoof novel called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, multiple movies and plays with or without a modernized spin and several musicals including the 1959 version called “First Impressions”, which was originally going to be the title for this novel.

Accordingly, when Pride and Prejudice* (*Sort of), the play originally from Glasgow that won the 2022 Olivier award, arrived on the slate of the 2023-24 “Off-Mirvish” subscription series, one had to wonder what new ideas were left to freshen up this old tale.  As it turns out, this rendition of the classic romantic drama is a hilarious jukebox musical comedy featuring five talented actresses who play all the relevant roles from the novel, darting behind a screen or off stage to switch costumes and characters.  As a framing device, the plot of Pride and Prejudice is told from the perspective of the servants of the various households, which the same five actresses also play.  This allows them to provide extra exposition such as explaining the inheritance laws of the time, to introduce or identify new characters as they first appear on stage and to manipulate the sparse props required by the story.  They also stress the important narrative role that servants could play in affecting a plot, such as misdirecting a missive (think about what happened in Romeo and Juliet!).  As we sat in the audience waiting for the play to start, we kept hearing a ringing sound which turned out to represent the buzzers used to summon the servants.  One by one, they appeared from the back of the theatre wearing plain white cotton slip dresses, yellow rubber gloves and using rags and dusters to “clean” the seats along the aisles.

Once on stage, the servants playfully bantered amongst themselves, dusted and cleaned, and explained their purpose within the play.  They then turned on music from a “boom box”,  grabbed microphones and belted out the Elvis Costello song “Every Day I Write the Book”, which is the perfect song to reflect their roles in presenting the stories about their employers.  This injection of karaoke-styled singing of classic pop songs continued throughout the play, sung by both the servants and the characters within the Pride and Prejudice story.  Occasionally instruments were played as part of the musical numbers.  In true jukebox musical fashion (or at least for good jukebox musicals), the songs were cleverly selected to fit right in with the plotline.  Jane crooned “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” by the Shirelles after meeting and becoming instantly smitten with Bingley at a dance.  When Elizabeth showed her distain for Mr. Darcy after feeling insulted by him, she retaliated with Carly Simon’s hit song “You’re so Vain”.  When Mr. Darcy’s wealthy and powerful aunt Lady Catherine de Bourgh made her appearance dressed in flamboyant red dress, naturally Chris de Burgh (pun intended?)’s song “Lady in Red” was performed to usher in her entrance.  When the Bennet family was in despair because Lydia had disgraced them by running off with the rakish Mr. Wickham, the sisters belted out “Holding Out for a Hero” in hopes that someone could find and save her from ruining her reputation.  And most hilariously, Mr. Darcy finally admitted his feelings for Elizabeth by singing David Cassidy’s hit “I Think I Love You” from the Partridge Family TV series.

The main story of Pride and Prejudice started with one of the servants quoting the actual first line of the novel—“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife”.   At this point the quick-change artistry began as the actresses jumped from character to character.  One of the actresses portrayed Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Darcy and another played Elizabeth’s best friend Charlotte Lucas, as well as Mr. Bingley and his sister Miss Bingley.  It was quipped that the siblings "looked nothing alike".  A third actress played Jane Bennet, Mr. Wickham and Lady Catherine de Bourgh.  A fourth actress had the most roles, taking on Mary Bennet, Lydia Bennet, Mr. Collins, the tedious priest and cousin of Mr. Bennet who would inherit the Bennet estate, as well as Mrs. Gardiner, the sister-in-law of Mr. Bennet.  The actress playing Elizabeth Bennet was only responsible for this one role within the main story since she was in almost every scene.  Poor Kitty Bennet was only referred to and not shown onstage at all.  Comically, Mr. Bennet was purported to be sitting an armchair facing away from the stage while reading a newspaper.  As scenes changed, “Mr. Bennet” along with his chair was pushed on and off the stage.  At one point, a servant lit a cigar for him, and smoke emanated from the front of the chair.

There were other examples of the play’s clever use of props to portray some of Pride and Prejudice’s plot points but in a humorous fashion.  With rain in the forecast, Mrs. Bennet forced Jane to ride a horse rather than take a carriage to visit Mr. Bingley, in hopes that she would be stranded due to bad weather and asked to stay longer.  Mrs. Bennet’s loud proclamation that “It’s time to mount Willie” (the horse) drew the expected laughs from the audience and then a large plastic horse was brought out which Jane needed a step ladder to climb up onto.  To simulate the rain that she encountered, Jane was sprayed with water from the servants’ water bottles.  Sitting in the fourth row of the theatre, we actually felt a bit of that spray.  In the scene where Elizabeth and her aunt Mrs. Gardiner visited Darcy’s Pemberley estate and viewed a life-sized portrait of him, two servants held up a giant empty picture frame in front of the actress playing Darcy in order to simulate the painting.  To reflect Lizzy’s confused emotions upon seeing Darcy’s image and not being able to take her eyes off it, every time she turned around, the portrait “moved” with her so that she was facing it again.  This happened a few times and on the last iteration, she turned to face Darcy himself as he had unexpectedly arrived a day early.  At this point, there was a sly reference to the 1995 BBC miniseries of Pride and Prejudice where Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy is infamously wearing a soaking wet, see-through shirt after swimming when he unexpectedly meets Elizabeth.  In the play, the servants hilariously asked why Darcy was not wet, which would be totally out of context if you did not understand the reference.

Despite the limited cast and the camp and silliness, Pride and Prejudice* (*Sort of) does an amazing job of hitting all the important plot points of the source material.  It does add a few anachronisms such as the metal step ladder for mounting the horse, the doc marten boots worn by the servants, the karaoke machine and wireless microphones, but they just add to the fun.  There was also some swearing (even by the ladies) thrown in for comic effect as well as a very funny recurring subplot where Lizzy’s friend Charlotte is actually gay and pines for Elizabeth while settling for marrying dull Mr. Collins.  Lizzy is totally oblivious to Charlotte’s feelings and misses all the subtext behind her words.  The servants had the last word and closed the show by singing a rousing rendition of  “Young Hearts Run Free” by Candi Staton.

This was one of the most enjoyable, entertaining and creative plays that we have watched in a long time.  We laughed, we cheered, and we bopped along to the tunes.  I wish that they would film a West End production like they do with so many other plays so that it will show up on a streaming service, since I would love the opportunity to watch it again.

Theatre 2023: 42nd Street

The musical play 42nd Street is an adaptation of the 1933 black and white movie of the same name, which in turn is based off of a similarly titled 1933 novel by Bradford Ropes.  Located in the heart of Manhattan’s entertainment district, 42nd Street has become synonymous with live theatre in New York City, especially at Times Square where it intersects with Broadway Avenue.  The book and the movie probably went a long way in cementing this connotation.

Bradford Rope’s story describes the backstage politics and power dynamics of Broadway in the roaring 20s.  He writes about chorus girls (and boys) subjected to casting couch tactics, the self-proclaimed “male gigolo and man-whore” Pat Denning who accepts money from various wealthy benefactors including the past-her-prime star Dorothy Brock, who herself has an elderly sugar-daddy Abner Dillon financing her latest show, mobsters for hire to separate Pat and Dorothy, the young male lead singer Billy Lawler whose influence over his gay director and lover Julian Marsh results in the firing of any perceived competition, and the fresh-faced but hardly naïve chorus girl Peggy Sawyer who juggles several suitors but ultimately prioritizes career advancement over love and marriage.  Much of the action revolves around the casting, rehearsal and performance of the Broadway show “Pretty Lady” which features tap dancing numbers that were extravaganzas in the vein of The Ziegfeld Follies.  To simulate the sound of the tapping on the page, Ropes would write “Ticka Tack Toe .. Ticka Tack Toe”.  This was not the best written book in terms of literary style or dialog but there were enough gems in the narrative to be mined to produce an Oscar nominated film that was the most profitable movie in 1933 and is now considered a classic.

While the movie version of 42nd Street takes some plot points and main characters from the book, it significantly bowdlerizes the seedier elements of Ropes’ novel, replacing them with traditional wholesome Hollywood tropes of the time.  The famous director Julian Marsh is still mounting the revue show “Pretty Lady”, but he is no longer gay.  Instead, he is ill, and this is likely his last show, making him desperate for it to be a success in order to financially secure his retirement.  The timeframe is moved to the early 1930s in the heart of the Great Depression in order to heighten the desperation of all involved for the show to be a hit.  As in the book, Dorothy Brock is still the star of the production,  which is financed by her rich, older benefactor Abner Dillon while secretly seeing her true love Pat Denning behind Abner’s back.  Marsh sends thugs to rough up Dennings to keep him away from Brock.  But in the movie, Denning is now an honorable man who is in love with Dorothy yet chafes against taking money from her and seeks to make it on his own.  The main narrative follows the old standard storyline where naïve but ultra-talented ingenue Peggy Sawyer is plucked out of the chorus line to become a star and save the show when Dorothy breaks her leg and cannot perform.  Billy Lawler is also no longer gay but now is Peggy’s supporter and love interest.

Although many taboo subjects from the book were eliminated, this movie was “pre-Hayes Code” so there were still some racy scenes that might not have been included a few decades later.  One of the experienced chorus girls named Ann Lowell is nicknamed “Anytime Annie”, about whom the male choreographer Andy Lee quips “She only said no once, and then she didn’t hear the question”.  As a prank on Peggy while she is looking for the casting director at the tryouts for Pretty Lady, Ann and some other showgirls send her into Billy Lawler’s dressing room where he is semi-clad in his underwear (in the requisite “meet-cute” scene).  During the tryouts, the women are called upon to lift their skirts so that the director can inspect their legs.  Director Julian Marsh is physically aggressive with Peggy, grabbing her repeatedly as he tries to whip her into shape to replace Dorothy on short notice.  At one point he even yanks her into a kiss to help her get in “the right mindset” for a love scene.   None of this would be acceptable in today’s “Me-Too” environment!  In another scene at Peggy’s rooming house, a woman in a negligee can be spotted in the background sneaking her lover out of her room.  It is interesting how much sexual inuendo was allowed in movies in the 1930s compared to the puritan decades of the 50s and 60s when you could not even show a married couple sharing a bed or use the word pregnancy.

The movie 42nd Street is deemed a musical, but there are only five songs, and they are only sung as part of rehearsals or performances of Pretty Lady.  There is no bursting into song with lyrics to advance the main plot.  Even the “show within a show” has no real plot but is rather a series of standalone numbers meant to showcase the tunes written by Harry Warren and Al Dubin including “Shuffling off to Buffalo” and the eponymous finale song “42nd Street”.  The main draw of the movie is the series of spectacular dance sequences choreographed by Busby Berkeley including a large cast of dancers creating kaleidoscope-like geometric patterns which he filmed from overhead and from below to create incredible images. Two memorable lines came out of this movie—“By tomorrow, I’ll either have a live leading lady or a dead chorus girl”, and “you’re going out a youngster, but you’ve got to come back a star!”. Up and coming stars Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell starred as Peggy and Billy respectively and would go on to be paired in many more musicals including The Golddiggers of 1933 and Dames.  A young (pre-Fred Astaire pairing) Ginger Rogers plays the experienced chorus girl Ann Lowell who catches Abner’s eye after he dumps Dorothy and is first offered the starring role.  She turns it down saying that she did not have the chops to carry the show but suggests Peggy instead.  In light of the explosion in Rogers’ film and dance career shortly after, this statement seems so ironic.

As part of our 2023/2024 Mirvish subscription series, we watched a touring production of London West End’s latest revival of the live musical 42nd Street.  This show was first staged on Broadway in 1980, winning the Tony awards for Best Musical and best choreography for that year.  To expand the show into a full-fledged musical, in addition to using most of the songs from the 1933 movie, popular tunes from other movies of the time including other Keeler/Powell collaborations were added.  Songs including “We’re in the Money”, “Shadow Waltz”, “Dames” and “With Plenty of Money and You” were used to beef up the performances within Pretty Lady, although this show-within-a-show still has no real plot.  But now, more in the fashion of contemporary "book" musicals, songs are sung by the characters of 42nd Street to advance the main storyline.  When Dorothy feels like she is losing Pat, she sings the torch song “Only Have Eyes For You”, and when the cast goes on the road to Philadelphia for pre-Broadway tryouts, they sing “Getting Out of Town”.  In addition to more songs, changes to some of the characters and plot made the musical flow more cohesively than both the movie and the book.

Instead of two male producers for the show as in the book and movie, the musical has male and female producers, Bert and Maggie, who are also the songwriters and who act as comic relief both in 42nd Street and in Pretty Lady.  Peggy is portrayed as being much more naïve and forms relationships with Maggie and chorus girls Ann, Lorraine and Phyllis, who take her under their wings.  In the number “Go Into Your Dance”, Peggy impresses the others and proves her remarkable talent at tap dancing, which clarifies the later scene where Ann recommends Peggy for the lead to replace Dorothy.  In the movie, this came out of the blue and made no sense at all.   Another major plot change involves how and why Dorothy falls and breaks her leg.  In the movie, Dorothy trips in a drunken stupor and jealous rage as she assumes that her beloved Pat is two-timing her with Peggy.  In the musical, Peggy bumps into Dorothy during a number in Pretty Lady and causes her to fall.  This results in Dorothy demanding and Julian immediately firing Peggy.  To set up this scenario, Peggy is portrayed as being klutzy and always bumping  into people, which didn’t make sense to me since she is supposed to be such a gifted dancer.  The plot device is weak, but the firing sets up the big production number “Lullaby of Broadway” when Julian and the cast realize that they need Peggy to save the show and rush to the train station to convince her to return.

In the performance that we watched, two staircases that sat innocuously on either side of the stage during the rehearsal scenes are pushed together and with the help of some video magic, the Philadelphia Broad St. Station appears right before our eyes.  In general, the set design for this show was gorgeous with its Art Deco backdrops and the costumes worn during the Pretty Lady numbers were equally spectacular.  Add to that the stellar dance performances and what you get is a light-hearted, fun period musical whose sole purpose is to entertain, which was just what we needed to kick off the holiday season.

One small point of note is that being a touring road show, the cast of this production was significantly smaller than the West End revival that played in the Royal Drury Lane Theatre from 2017-2019 and which was filmed for streaming access in 2018.  While the Toronto version of the show only had 5 extra chorus girls and 8 chorus boys in the ensemble, the West End production had over 20 girls and 12 boys.  Their ensemble alone outnumbered the entire Toronto cast.  Thus by necessity, the dance numbers that we watched were on a much smaller scale than those of the original.  But the great choreography and talented performers in our show made their presence seem so large that we did not feel lacking.

It is interesting to compare Pretty Lady’s grand finale number 42^nd Street in the movie versus the musical.  In each case, it is a big production piece featuring Peggy and Billy singing the jazzy tune although in the movie, it is sung with a peppy cadence while in the musical, it is sung with more of a slow, sultry jazz rhythm (which I liked better!).  The song is meant to convey the atmosphere of the iconic street where you can “Hear the beat of dancing feet”, but also “where the underworld can meet the elite”.  Both the lyrics and the dance number show that it is not just all good times and song and dance on the street, but that there is a seedy, dangerous side as well.  In the movie version, in the middle of a dance sequence that features all types of people on the street, a woman is physically assaulted and murdered.  In the musical version, the shock factor of the scenario is toned down a bit as a purse snatcher is shot dead by the police.  The final words of the song sum it all up – “Naughty, bawdy, gaudy, sporty Forty-Second Street”.  Once again for this number, there are noticeably fewer people in the musical than the movie, and even fewer people in the touring production than the revival version.

The final scenes in both the movie and the musical focus on director Julian Marsh as opposed to the book which ends on the perspective of the newly minted star Peggy Sawyer. In the movie, Marsh stands alone outside the theatre and morosely listens as patrons walk by praising Peggy while diminishing Julian’s role in the show’s success. In the musical, after Peggy gently rebuffs Julian’s mild romantic overtures and leaves to attend a celebration party with the rest of the cast, he sings the final reprise of 42nd Street.  It feels like an eleven o’clock number and leads one to question who is intended to be the main protagonist of this musical—is it Peggy or Julian?  The question is further complicated in the final bows.  In the Toronto production that we watched, Peggy is clearly the star and gets the final bow while in the filmed West End version, it goes to the actors playing Julian and Dorothy who come out together.  Maybe this is just attributed to who were the bigger named actors in each version of the show, but it is still a bit perplexing what was the actual intention of the show creators.

Nonetheless, this was an enjoyable and visually stunning musical that left us happily humming and tapping our feet as we went home.  I always thought that it would be fun to learn to tap dance, and this just fueled my fantasy.