Theatre Scene Review

From the title it is obvious Austentatious is not your mother’s Jane Austen. This co-production of the New York Musical Theater Festival and From the Top Productions is instead a delightful satire of community theatre as the Central Riverdale Amateur Players attempt to put on a new adaptation of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. With clashing egos, ambitious ideas, vivid personalities, rank amateurs, conscientious semi-professionals, and tight deadlines, this is a comic story of theater the way it is not supposed to be, resulting in a happy ending, of course. With a cheerful and energetic cast led by Stephanie D’Abruzzo, best known for her Tony nominated performance in Avenue Q, Austentatious is a bright, bouncy new musical that introduces a talented band of debuting writers. The story behind the writing of Austentatious could probably make an original musical all by itself. Its five creators, Matt Board, Jane Caplow, Kate Galvin, Luisa Hinchliff and Joe Slabe, met while taking musical theater courses at Goldsmiths, University of London. They developed AmDram the Musical which premiered at London’s Landor Theatre in August 2005. Retitled Austentatious, the American premiere was sold-out when it appeared at the 2006 Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Now incorporated as From the Top Productions, these collaborators hope to influence the world of musical theater. With a witty, melodic score by Board and Slabe, and a book by all five collaborators, Austentatious is a very sophisticated first effort. Austentatious begins at the auditions for Emily Cross’ adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. The first problem is that long time director John Farringdon has left the Central Riverdale Amateur Players and, secondly, the auditions have not gotten enough men for all the roles. Emily secretly wants to turn the show into a dance musical as she has visions of being the next Bob Fosse. The talent that shows up all have their own agendas: David has turned up only to support his girl friend Lauren but gets roped into playing Mr. Darcy. Jessica has visions of being a star some day even if she gets small roles now. Blake, a druggie, has put in an appearance only because this will get him out of “ group.” As the new director, Dominic makes it obvious he doesn’t know what he is doing. Through all this, steady, unflappable Sam (played by D’ Abruzzo), in her seventh year as stage manager at Central, goes about doing her unappreciated job. Can they put on a show in time - with everyone pulling in opposite directions and three romances being kindled back stage? Jane Austen would be probably scandalized but Austentatious becomes more hilarious as it proceeds to its opening night. The role of Mr. Wickham never gets cast, Emily changes Lydia Bennet’s elopement to Amsterdam so that she can get in a clog dance, flirtatious Lauren develops an extreme jealousy of Sam who she thinks is after David, Blake can’t seem to learn his lines and Jessica plans to rewrite hers. What with a scene with a bear and egos running high, this is a Pride and Prejudice no one will ever forget. Credit must go to the trenchant stage direction by Mary Catherine Burke, the hilarious Riverdance parody by choreographer Rhonda Miller, and the assured musical direction of Matt Castle. Stacey Sargeant and George Merrick (photo credit: Bobby Octaviano) The witty score by Board and Slabe is indebted to Stephen Sondheim. Like the lyrics to Company, many of the clever songs reveal the characters’ inner thoughts as a shortcut for advancing the plot in the full company numbers “ Audition,” “Read Through,” “The Story So Far,” and “Panic.” Several of the characters have solos which establish their characters: Sam’s “I Manage,” a statement of how the stage manager does her job, Jessica’s “Next Best Thing” in which she explains why she continues with community theater, and “I Can See It Now,” a hilarious number in which director and writer express their mutually exclusive views of the show. Lauren’s “Acting Differently” ingeniously works in the titles of many famous plays. The extremely strong cast establishes its characterizations as soon as they make their first appearances on stage. Stacey Sargeant’s Emily has an overweening ambition to succeed in the theater whether it is as a dancer, choreographer, playwright or actress. Amy Goldberger makes Lauren an oversexed woman who will not allow anything to stand in the way of her desires. David as played by George Merrick is a weak man who is putty in any woman’s hands, while Paul Wyatt’s Blake is basically a hedonist looking for easy thrills. Stephen Bel Davies is amusing as a director who has managed to hide the fact that he is totally incompetent. Lisa Asher makes Jessica the second banana whose plan is to carve out her own territory. And D’Abruzzo makes the stage manager the only sane character in the bunch, one who has seen (almost) all of it before. Austentatious has a wonderful time satirizing amateur theatricals as well as various attempts to dramatize Jane Austen. Under the direction of Mary Catherine Burke, a top-notch cast has great fun with original material created by a team of talented new musical theater collaborators. Austentatious (performed in repertory through September 29)