You might be excited to know that this adaptation of the Jane Austen novel comes complete with a soundtrack of pop songs. A show with close-harmony renditions of Beyoncé’s Halo, Olivia Rodrigo’s Vampire and Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Murder on the Dancefloor, not to mention wine-bar versions of Poker Face and Good Vibrations, sounds like it could be the next Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of), which combined sassy modernity with emotional truth.
Sorry to disabuse you, but no such luck – and not only because musical arranger Adam Morris gives the songs such maudlin settings. That could have added a lovelorn note to Austen’s tale of thwarted romance. No bad thing in itself, except it is not reflected in any other aspect of Adam Nichols’s shapeless staging, a co-production with Ovo in St Albans.
