For those who have followed the fortunes over the past several years of Pride and Prejudice: A Musical, by Lindsay Warren Baker and Amanda Jacobs, the following will be very welcome news! If not, a bit of background is in order. Rochester residents "Bake and Jake," as they call themselves, have been working on this project for the past dozen years. It received a staged reading in Rochester in October 2008, and two songs from the show were performed after Sunday brunch at that year's JASNA AGM in Chicago. Your Regional Coordinator was present at the latter performance, and all she can say is that it was a good thing most of us had already checked out of the hotel, or room cards would have been thrown en masse at Colin Donnell after his rendition of Mr. Darcy's big ballad, "Fine Eyes"! And the presence of JA as a character in the musical, debating her choices as she turns First Impressions into P&P, sets this production apart from (and, in your RC's partial opinion, well above) other theatrical adaptations.
The big news now is that P&P: A Musical has been chosen as a selection of the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), to be presented on Broadway for six performances in late September and early October. (Go here for the details.) A fundraiser called "An Evening with the Writers" will be held on Monday, August 22, at WXXI (280 State St., Rochester), from 7:00 to 9:00 pm. The authors will discuss their journey to the NYMF, and local musicians will perform selections from the work. A dessert reception will follow the performance, and raffle prizes (including an autographed script and tickets to the NYMF production) will be awarded! Full details about the evening are available here.
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