Seeing new musicals emerge is so exciting, and I love the trend of getting a great cast together producing one-off concert versions to get the mood of a West End crowd. As Lucie Jones turns everything she touches to gold, I couldn’t resist getting tickets to see her lead the world premiere of new musical Austenland.
Based on the book and film, Austenland is about a Jane Austen super-fan, Jane Hayes, who goes on an immersive holiday at Austenland in the hopes of finding a suitor. It’s packed full of classic rom-com tropes as she struggles to separate fact from fiction and work out if everything is really as dreamy as it seems.
The book is written by Timothy Allen McDonald and Jodi Picoult – the latter being an indisputably incredible novelist, so I certainly expected great things. Main character Jane is very likeable and easy to relate to, but love-interest Henry Nobley needs to be a little less arrogant and woman-hating if we’re expected to root for him by the end of the show. I think this would help to establish what approach the show wants to take; whether it parodies romance or whole-heartedly embraces it, as it seems a bit lost between the two at the moment. To work in the West End, its swearing and bawdy humour probably needs turning down a notch, but on the whole it’s full of humorous warmth.
The music was fun and quirky throughout, with a real pop sound, with some songs such as ‘Unmatched’ and ‘Mr Darcy’ reminded me of the Why Am I So Single? score; so it definitely feels relevant and fitting with the freshest musicals of today. ‘Gents’ was a fun and colourful highlight; I could see this becoming a huge dance number in a full-production that audiences would go crazy for.
As is often the case with any musical in its early stages, it could do with some refining – it ran at approx. 110 minutes without an interval, which is a bit long for anyone to sit through. Its material lends itself well to a short 90 min straight through musical (no bad thing, I love a 9pm finish!), which could easily be achieved by cutting some of the more frivolous ensemble numbers. Saying that, some of Jane’s solo moments could do with greater time to shine, especially her reprise of ‘Fully Immersed’ towards the end of the show, to fully land her emotion. Without spoiling it, its ending felt rushed and superficial, like it needed to quickly tie up everything in a ‘perfect happy ending’ bow.
The cast of the concert were as a whole were brilliant, especially Lucie who can convey her character’s emotion through a single facial expression with such quick wit. Though I was disappointed by the lack of depth of Alex Young’s role Elizabeth Charming; she is such an incredible actor who brought me to tears in Standing At The Sky’s Edge at the National, but this character was a bit too unlikeable to do her justice. The script and direction succeeded in establishing her and Jane with a fun friendship, but their shared song about Elizabeth going to the toilet? Get rid immediately!
With my marketing hat on, I can see Austenland becoming a real hit. It’s not based on a huge blockbuster, so won’t find itself flung into the oversaturated movie-musical category, but it has the familiar IP of being based on a book and film. Plus, there’s the connotation of Jane Austen, who everyone knows wrote some of literature’s best and most beloved love stories. It’s perfect for fans of Bridgerton, Gossip Girl and classic rom-com films – and Pride And Prejudice, of course!
Austenland showed real promise as a great new musical, and I really hope it has a future life. We’ll just have to stay tuned and see!
