ABSTRACT
This essay examines the proliferation of recent stage adaptations of Austen’s fiction. Focusing on three recent musical productions – premieres of Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, and Pride and Prejudice – it considers the challenges faced when shifting from page to stage, as well as achievements and failures of these productions. Much like film and TV adaptations, stage musicals strain to capture the subtlety and distinctive “voice” sought by the fans for whom adaptations seem designed to appeal. The size and scale of stage vocalization and gesture and the reductions of plot and character tend to produce melodramatic characteristics that are distinctly un-Austenian. A rare exception arises in an unconventional adaptation, Austen’s Pride: A New Musical of Pride and Prejudice, which frames the narrative as a tale of the author’s creative process, making Jane Austen the central character of the drama. Drawing on her life, letters, and an imagined recreation of the First Impressions manuscript, this production portrays Austen’s difficult and painful writerly growth while allowing her to interact with and reshape the destinies of her most beloved characters. The result is a surprisingly realistic and often unpredictable adaptation that avoids melodrama and preserves the voice and vision of Austen herself.
