The New York Musical Theater Festival is currently in full swing and running through October 16th at various Manhattan locations. The purpose of this festival is “to test-drive works in progress with an audience and assess their viability.” Essentially, it is test screening that is meant to work out the kinks of possible upcoming musicals and reveal which of these have the most promise; however, according to this article in today’s edition of the New York Times things are not looking up so far. During week one of the festival, several musicals that had potential were showcased, but due to decisions made by the respective creative teams, failed to be up to par. Among these were “Ghostlight,” “The Kid Who Would Be Pope,” and “This One Girl’s Story.” In comparison to these, David Rooney suggests the campy “Madame X” showed more promise.
According to the author, however, the adaptation that shows the most potential—despite the problems it must still work out—is “Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, a Musical.” The adaptation is apparently “remarkably true to its source material” (if not vaguely reminiscent of the un-produced Gatsby) and shows a tremendous grasp “of character and narrative drive” that is missing in many of the other entries. It features the English novelist herself, acting as both a “puppet mistress and a captivated onlooker” as the story progresses. In the musical, she revisits “the manuscript she wrote 10 years earlier” and examines “the choices she made as a young woman writing about love without ever having experienced it.” Her mantra, and the lesson that she imparts upon the theatergoers and those individuals with aspiring new musicals being shown at the festival, becomes “Review. Examine. Consider.”
This three-step process is, in the eyes of the author, essentially the festival’s mission—as mentioned, to test-drive the works in progress—and proves the musical to be the epitome of what the festival is about. As someone who is not necessarily a die-hard austenite but who occasionally reads and enjoys Jane Austen’s books, I would definitely find an opportunity to see this musical adaptation if it did manage to work out its kinks and survive beyond the test-drive phase. I’m very curious to see how this musical, and the musicals that are yet to be showcased, will hold up.
Be careful about quoting from the source article. There are several distinct turns of phrase that you seem to represent as your own, though they are lifted from the article without attribution. In a formal paper, I’m pretty sure this would count as plagiarism. I’m sure you didn’t mean to, but you must be careful.