| Titles | Artists | Composers | Broadway | Opera | Home |
Pride and Prejudice
Concept Cast
Starring Peter Karrie, Claire Moore, Janet Mooney, and James Staddon
Music and lyrics by Bernard J. Taylor
23 Tracks
Read an off-site Synopsis of the show at "The Musicals of Bernard J. Taylor."
I must admit, when I first heard this recording I wasn't exactly captivated on the spot. I thought the music pleasant enough, but rather bland and disjointed. However, I am very pleased to reveal that this album has grown on me fully as much as Mr. Darcy grows on Elizabeth by the end of the story. :) It is now one of my favorite CDs.
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice has been one of my favorite novels for a long time, but I was quite intrigued by the idea of making it into a musical. I would have thought it to be impossible. Usually a musical needs a plot. Much as I love the novel, I'm the first to admit it almost doesn't have one. Where in the story, I wondered, would the composer find all of the immediacy and suspense that needs to drive a theatrical production? Moreover, where would he find the emotion to be expressed by songs? Austen's novels are noteable for the author's sarcasm, wit, and elegant style of writing, but you have to do a lot of inferring and reading into what's actually written to find any examples of passion.
I needn't have worried. The music exactly suits the original story. What I mistook at first for blandness is actually something quite different: a musical representation of Austen's humorously dry and detached style of writing. The lyrics have moments where their cleverness is quite amusing.
Taylor continually pushes the limits of songwriting. The melodies at first seem to wander and lose their way, which was what conveyed the sense of disjointedness to me. However, it becomes evident upon repeated listening that the melodies wander just to the edge of chaos and then are snatched back into order by a phrase that ties the song into an established form. Not many composers could pull this off as well as it is done here.
Much as I like it, I'm not completely uncritical. There are a few problems with this show. First, I would like to see Elizabeth and Darcy have more songs, as they are technically the leads. There are too many almost irrelevant numbers - Mr. Collins gets a whole song to himself and half of another; so does Lady Catherine. I question whether they merit this importance. However, to be fair, I like the fact that Jane and Bingley are featured prominently, with several songs in which to develop a relationship.
The structure of the songs differs greatly from the established form for a musical. Neither Elizabeth nor Darcy gets to sing what I've heard called an "I Want Song" - in short, a song that comes very early in the show and sets up their character nicely. I suppose you might argue that "A Man Who's Proud and Vain" and "Isn't it Strange" do this to a point, but they don't quite fit the bill IMHO. I would like to see Elizabeth, at the beginning, sing something rather akin to Jane's "No Designs on Love" in which she could establish her intelligence, independence, etc. I also think it might be interesting if Darcy had a song before "Isn't it Strange" - maybe not a solo, but it might prove worthwhile to have him sing a dialogue with somebody in which his attitude toward life was at least partially established.
The lead performers on this recording are nothing less than fantastic. Peter Karrie amazes me; his range is incredible. The emotion he puts into his songs is perfect; it embodies the Darcy of the novel. Claire Moore's voice is unusually beautiful. (That is high praise from me, as I am normally inclined to pay attention only to the male vocalists!) She clearly has a firm grasp on the complex character of Elizabeth Bennet. I am eager to hear more from both of these artists. Equally wonderful are Janet Mooney (Jane Bennet) and James Staddon (Bingley), whose lovely voices refuse to allow their secondary love story to be shoved unceremoniously into the background. Indeed, Bingley's song "Through the Eyes of a Child" was the one number in the show that I did like the first time I listened to it. The supporting cast all have good voices and perform extremely well, particularly Gay Soper as Mrs. Bennet. Only one exception: I felt that Christopher Biggins (Mr. Collins) was a little out of his depth. It seemed as if his sense of rhythm wasn't quite good enough to allow him to keep up with the rapid-fire lyrics assigned to his character - they seem rushed, and the words fall over each other as he struggles to keep up, rather than snapping into place as they should. To do the actor credit, I think he would have a nice voice in a slow song, but in order to deliver all of his lyrics here he was forced to only half-sing, in a way that reminds me of Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady. Still, his voice is pleasant, so he does that tolerably well.
To sum up: I found this album to be an unexpected treasure! I highly reccomend it to all fans of the Austen novel, and to all fans of Peter Karrie, Claire Moore, Janet Mooney, and James Staddon. In fact I reccomend it to anyone who likes good music with witty lyrics. You won't find any crashing, overly emotional numbers here, but you will find some lively airs with witty lyrics and also some beautiful soaring melodies with a surprising amount of emotion concealed in them. Pick this up if you can; it's worth it.
