Eliza Doolittle-Bennet?

Lyn from dovegreybooks Yahoo Group (not to be confused with Lynne from dovegreyreader blog) sent me another little piece of information today – I hope she won’t mind if I quote her email:

Just got home to find the latest issue of Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine waiting for me. Nice new smaller format, looks very good. I thought I’d give this a try for a year because I got a good deal on the sub through the JA Society here. Flicking through, I see an article on Lost In Austen & on the back cover, an ad for JA’s P&P :the new musical. Was there ever an old one? I feel myself growing faint, it’s coming to Broadway apparently. The tag line on the website is

The world has waited two centuries for this smart, song-filled & compelling investment opportunity (I’m not joking!)

If you click on the site, you’ll hear Darcy singing about Fine Eyes.

Lyn (feeling as though that particle exploder did something to the world after all & I’m in another dimension).

Well. Gosh. Of course, it does seem rather as though one can’t have anything on the stage without a song and dance accompanying nowadays, and it’s a miracle that Austenmania hasn’t led to this before. Bad as the 2005 film was in so many ways, at least it didn’t have Keira doing the can-can singing ‘It is a TRUTH uni-ver-salllllly ackNOWledged!’

But am I too quick to judge? Obviously I would go and see this, even if I expected it to be dire, and I imagine there are enough Pride and Prejudice addicts to make this sell out whatever the quality – but perhaps, just perhaps, it would actually be good? Stranger things have happened. And what if they took a selection of extant songs… how would that go… Lizzie could sing I Don’t Know How To Love Him then Learning To Love Him and finally Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man. Lydia could get I Could Have Danced All Night, and Sixteen Going On Seventeen, while Kitty would have to settle for You Can’t Get A Man With A Gun. And for Mr. Bennet, howsabout If I Were A Rich Man?

More suggestions in a similarly irreverent tone, please!

7 thoughts on “Eliza Doolittle-Bennet?

  • September 12, 2008 at 10:29 pm
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    You know far too many songs from musicals.

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  • September 12, 2008 at 10:46 pm
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    I’m sorry, I’m crying from laughter (I actually am!), I can’t think! ….

    Ok, one does spring to mind – could Jane possibly sing ‘Singing in the Rain’?

    And surely the Bennet girls as a whole would break into a sparkling rendition of ‘Matchmaker, Matchmaker’???

    Ooh! Lydia could sing ‘Bring on the Men’ – from Jekyll and Hyde … yes, there is such a thing, look it up on youtube.

    I’ll stop now!

    Reply
  • September 13, 2008 at 8:07 am
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    Simon – I read this early this morning and nearly upset my cup of tea over my laptop I was laughing to much. What a glorious idea all this is and, as with your post on Re-Reading, this has triggered off such a huge list of possibilities in my mind, that I have to post on this myself.

    I will make sure that everyone knows that the original idea came from you!!

    Reply
  • September 13, 2008 at 9:22 am
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    Glad it’s inspired you, Elaine – can’t wait to see what you come up with! I did have to take recourse to Wikipedia for song titles.

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  • September 13, 2008 at 9:35 am
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    For Lydia the defiant “Don’t Rain on my Parade”?

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  • September 13, 2008 at 11:50 am
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    Simon – have just posted on suggestions. Do take a look and let me know what you think?

    Love the suggestion here about Matchmaker Matchmaker

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  • September 13, 2008 at 11:57 am
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    For Wickham et al;
    Thank Heaven for Little Girls from Gigi
    Thank heaven for little girls
    for little girls get bigger every day!

    Thank heaven for little girls
    they grow up in the most delightful way!

    Those little eyes so helpless and appealing
    one day will flash and send you crashin' thru the ceilin'

    Thank heaven for little girls
    thank heaven for them all,
    no matter where no matter who
    for without them, what would little boys do?

    Thank heaven… thank heaven…
    Thank heaven for little girls!

    For Lizzie & Darcy – from "Beauty and The Beast":

    Tale as old as time
    True as it can be
    Barely even friends
    Then somebody bends
    Unexpectedly
    Just a little change
    Small to say the least
    Both a little scared
    Neither one prepared
    Beauty and the Beast

    Ever just the same
    Ever a surprise
    Ever as before
    Ever just as sure
    As the sun will rise

    Tale as old as time
    Tune as old as song
    Bittersweet and strange
    Finding you can change
    Learning you were wrong
    Certain as the sun
    Rising in the east
    Tale as old as time
    Song as old as rhyme
    Beauty and the Beast

    Tale as old as time
    Song as old as rhyme
    Beauty and the Beast

    Reply

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