30 DAYS OF NYMF: DAY 11 Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, A Musical

DAY 11 Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, A Musical

By Lindsay Warren Baker and Amanda Jacobs

Book, Music, and Lyrics
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is one of the most beloved stories in English literature. It is addictive ... and we became such Jane Austen "junkies" that twelve years ago we decided to turn P&P into a musical.

It was (and still is) a joyful process.
When we visited Jane Austen's home, Chawton Cottage, where she finished this masterpiece, we began to ask the questions: "What if Jane Austen had never revisited her rejected manuscript, First Impressions? What if she never revised it and it still lay on a shelf, unopened and un-read, never to become the novel we know as Pride and Prejudice?" And, we imagined: "What were the differences between the original manuscript and the published novel?"

From these questions, our adaptation became more than just the timeless love story of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. It became a window into Jane Austen's life as a writer. As she opens her manuscript and the story comes to life in her imagination, she contemplates the story's worth when she asks herself: Does the world really need another romantic novel by Jane Austen?

Clearly the answer is "YES!" Two hundred years after the publication of Pride and Prejudice, we still laugh, cry and cheer for her marvelous characters and what they teach us. It is a story of second chances where Austen shows us the consequences of our choices, what it means to believe in ourselves, and the worth of trying again.

To learn more or buy tickets to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

To buy tickets or to learn more about Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, A Musical please go to www.nymf.org/janeaustensprideandprejudice or call 212-351-3101.