Pride and Prejudice (Primary Stages) NYC Reviews and Tickets
About the Show
Primary Stages and Hudson Valley Shakespeare present a new stage incarnation of Jane Austen's classic novel, adapted by and starring Kate Hamill ('Vanity Fair,' 'Sense and Sensibility').
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See it if While keeping much of Austin's delicious comedy of manners, Hamill's adapt too often gets caught up in silly, pop culture mannerisms & bores
Don't see it if Suprisingly, male cast comes off better than females. Hamill is too often one note & too broad but both Tufts & Bedard outrageously funny
See it if you're a fan of the Bennett sisters, enjoy the playwright's past work, want an evening full of honest & genuine laughs
Don't see it if Jane Austen is not your thing, you feel a humorous adaptation dishonors Austen, actors playing multiple roles and lack of scenery disturbs
Critic Reviews (23)
"It hasn’t met a rib it can’t tickle. But the silliness masks a cynicism that blunts some of the fun...If the performances are sometimes too exaggerated, they are always spirited...I don’t mind the anachronisms in language or music and I’ll go to the mat for Ms. Hamill’s un-Georgian mischief. And yet, this 'Pride and Prejudice' misses the heart and real radicalism of its source. Maybe it even misses the point."
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"There is a pleasing simplicity to her adaptation...But in Primary Stages’ frisky production, comedic bits overwhelm character. Dehnert lets the playful antics descend into uncontrolled theatrics...The most effective moments are the ones with the most heart. O’Connell’s awkwardness is endearing, and Thorn delivers touching turns as both the mild Bennet patriarch and Lizzy’s practical friend Charlotte. Like Austen, they recognize the humor that can be found in restraint."
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"Hamill’s 'Pride and Prejudice' has fun and charm to spare, but it ultimately feels like it’s grafting an idea onto Austen’s text...Though this 'Pride and Prejudice' is full of high spirits and genuine mirth, Hamill’s additions to Austen feel, well, like additions. The games and bells become bells and whistles...When it embraces Austen’s inherent genius and humor, the production starts to shine...In its persistent additions to its source, it only intermittently accesses the power of what’s already there."
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“The ever-ingenious Ms. Hamill has given us something completely and delightfully different, a smallish-cast period-dress ‘Pride and Prejudice’ that she’s done over in the revved-up manner of a Hollywood screwball comedy…Such a show demands worthy staging, and Amanda Dehnert…delivers the goods with gusto…In addition to having written the script, Ms. Hamill plays Lizzy Bennet with winning impishness…The kind of show that would flourish in a small Broadway house.”
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"A laugh-out-loud adaptation...Isn't super accurate, as far as the novel is concerned anyway...The play itself features cross-dressing actors and more anachronisms than a Mel Brooks movie...While some of these jokey interludes are hit-and-miss, the antics mostly work because Dehnert and Hamill commit to the anachronistic tomfoolery throughout the show. But it's the actors, with their onstage playfulness who make the production a joy to watch."
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"The case for this sort of fooling around is that a classic is supposedly being given new life, making it accessible to modern audiences...It might help if these bits of business were executed with more precision, but there is far too much mugging, shouting, and running around, all of which proves wearying...Must it be so blatant, so juvenile? Couldn't a little Austen-style sophistication sneak into the proceedings?"
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“While this is not a Bedlam production as was Hamill's hugely successful stage version of Austen's second published novel, ‘Sense and Sensibility,’ director Amanda Dehnert has staged the play in their inimitable style for this co-production of Primary Stages and Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival and has created a clever 19th century entertainment with a decidedly 21st century sensibility. The versatile Hamill has also given herself the plum role of Elizabeth Bennet, here known as Lizzy.”
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"Purists need be forewarned that the gifted and talented Hamill has eloped just a bit recklessly with the irony, wit, and insightfulness of the novel's matrimonial considerations...This version, nevertheless, remains commendably faithful to Austin's plot yet with an almost giddy disposition towards parody...Matchmaking a la Austin in the Georgian manner has rarely been afforded so much giddy fun and funny games."
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“The cast is beyond perfect, the direction inventive, and the text is stripped of all the unnecessary fluff. In other words, this production makes the story that Jane Austen shaped available and immediate...So connected are the actors and elements of this production, one cannot single any one person or element out. This is an ensemble that stands as an example of what the word ‘seamless’ means in the theatre...Treat yourself to this one.”
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"Incites the senses and decries stuffy sensibility...Hamill’s take on the classic novel has the convivial effect of hurling you head-first into the marital machinations of the entire Bennet family...Austen’s eristic tale has an incandescent champion in Kate Hamill who’s a firebrand in the role of Lizzy Bennet...I haven’t stopped laughing at her plight; it’s a perfect distillation of Austen’s valiant heroine. Excellent direction by Amanda Dehnert controls the chaos."
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“Brilliantly brought to life by the immensely talented and seriously smart Hamill...She has returned to the stage, to star in and present Lizzy and the Bennet family shenanigans to us all in an absurdly funny but ridiculously heart-felt manner...Will squeeze your romantic heart in the most touching of manners, as you laugh, love, and truly embrace these characters...A pure theatrical delight, a playful and smart romp through the English countryside of Austin’s world."
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"A delightfully comedic farce...Dehnert keeps this delightful play moving with a beyond-brisk pace that manages to clearly delineate the novel’s action from beginning to end...The assumed seriousness of the novel is replaced with the unexpected playfulness of Hamill’s script, the precision of Dehnert’s direction, and the brilliant cast assembled for this production...This is a ‘Pride and Prejudice’ for this time and every time.”
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"The tone has been rewired from witty comedy of manners to boisterous farce...A fast-paced, winking entertainment...Hamill also winds up doing justice to Austen in her portrayal of Lizzy...The bickering between her and her love-hate suitor/antagonist Mr. Darcy has its comic moments, but as the play progresses, the attraction between the two feels real...For all the bells and whistling the last quarter of Hamill’s play is as charming and touching as it is in Austen’s novel."
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“While there are flickers of fine comic acting, and the actors are all expert at what they do, subtlety is sacrificed for pedal-to-the-metal hamminess. Hamill's overacted Lizzy is the worst offender…The performance has an anything-for-a-laugh exuberance that often smothers the story in farcical foolery…Act Two, while still prone to excess, tones things down considerably and has some lovely, even serious moments, especially an extended conversation between Lizzy and Mr. Darcy.”
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"While the present work offers many pleasures, it lacks the air of lighthearted effortlessness...A frenetic pastiche of slapstick comedy, anachronisms, and crossdressing that tries much too hard to entertain...Surprisingly Kate Hamill’s Lizzy is disappointing; she comes across mainly as a sourpuss. Some of the anachronisms were jarring for me...The audience appeared to be having a good time. If you are not measuring it against Hamill’s earlier work, you probably will too."
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“Either you go for this riff on the classic or you don’t...An onslaught of buffoonery by a cast that, as talented as it is, overacts to the hilt under the direction of Dehnert. Depending on one’s reaction, blame or praise can be aimed at playwright Hamill...The audience generally whooped it up with laughter...However, I had trouble joining in the revelry, as I am too engaged with the wit and meaning in Austen’s original to see the purpose of such no-holds-barred satire.”
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“Hamill reinterprets with irreverent glee, one foot in the appropriate era, the other is contemporary time, never eschewing pivotal plot...Full musical tilt without swallowing up its story...The company are adroit with high-low humor...I’m afraid that Hamill embodies her character with less insight and more ham than that with which her fellows manifest theirs...The production shows an excellent editorial eye...Pace is brisk, but knows when to pause...A welcome catharsis.”
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“What’s noticeably missing is the story’s historical context. What’s left is a Reader’s Digest reduction of Austen’s saga, with wildly anachronistic language...Hamill’s script stays close to Austen’s dialogue, but her rowdy innovations undercut the source material...What saves the day for this production is faultless casting coupled with Dehnert’s fast-paced direction...The ensemble...is as close to irresistible as any cast currently on a New York stage.”
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"Hamill's latest work is her third consecutive triumphant and wholly original adaptation of a classic novel...It’s a barely controlled kind of mayhem in which anything can happen at any moment adding to the ever-building excitement...'Pride and Prejudice' is a sheer pleasure, an exuberant and exhilarating reimagining of a cherished classic about the rather tricky game of love and holding out for just the right match."
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"The performance, though always skillful, depends entirely on your willingness to enjoy something that hews to Austen’s narrative while consistently violating her manner, her spirit, and her tone...The excess of goofball behavior has not left sufficient room for Austen to cast her spell, and without her spell, what was the point of adapting her novel?...The company’s love for the work, though not entirely absent, has been displaced by other concerns, like making noise and having fun."
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“Hamill…is at it again more riotously, more ingeniously than before. With a rollicking, witty, smart, thoroughly entertaining ‘Pride and Prejudice’…Ms Hamill delights with her best work yet, and serves the best summer theater fare anywhere...Beneath ‘P&P’s’ laughs, there’s a core, more delicate sensibility – a wry, keen awareness that regards, with squinted eye, people warts and all. This 'P&P' is blissful mirth – a special potion of affectionate, bemused cynicism, and realistic optimism.”
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“Hamill has clearly made it her own in way that I think will resonate with all kinds of Austen fans!...Hamill does a lovely job as Austen’s heroine, Elizabeth Bennet…Kudos to Kate Hamill for displaying the courage of Elizabeth Bennet to not only adapt Austen’s most popular story for the stage, but to adapt it in a way that I believe will appeal to Austen fans, old and new, in a way that’s fun, imaginative, and bold.”
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“Not for Hamill such a passive/aggressive angle of attack; she goes for full-blown farce that tears the social conventions of the landed gentry to hysterical shreds. Amazingly, deliciously, it all works; but purists should consider themselves forewarned…While clever, the humor here is very broad indeed…I highly recommend giving HVSF’s 'Pride & Prejudice' a try. It’s loads of fun, put on with both great professionalism and refreshing, zany zest.”
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