Interview: Chris Arnone Talks PREJUDICE & PRIDE, a Gender Bent Musical Adaptation of Jane Austen's Novel

Sam Wright and Nicholas Collett's Prejudice & Pride, a gender bent folk musical adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel, is currently running at 59E59 Theaters through August 20.

Prejudice & Pride flips the script on that famous line, "It’s a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." The musical follows the Longborn brothers as they search for a wealthy wife after losing every employment opportunity in East Tennessee.

Prejudice & Pride was the winner of the 2022 Artist Residency at Music Theater Heritage in Kansas City & Sinners, and also played at the Edinburgh Fringe 2022. The musical features a score of 15 original songs. 

Listen to the album below! 
 
The cast of Prejudice & Pride includes Tim Ahlenius, Chris Arnone, Bridget Casad, PT Mahoney, Chris Owen, Margaret Shelby, Stefanie Stevens, Franci Talamantez-Witte and Sam Wright.

Chris Arnone has been with the production since the show's conception, playing a multitude of characters: Luke Charlton, Big Chaps Clerk, and a State Trooper. BroadwayWorld spoke with Arnone about the show's exploration of gender, what fans of the Jane Austen novel can expect to see, and much more. 

Can you tell me how and when you first became in involved in this production?

Nick and Sam wrote this show over Covid, and they put together a staged reading a long time ago with just a bunch of actor friends they invited. But then, when they decided to fully stage it last year, they held auditions for a few parts. Funny enough, I wasn’t really on Sam’s radar, but I was at a little birthday thing for a mutual friend, who actually was the only reason Sam and I knew each other, we were in one of his KC Fringe Festival shows. We got to talking, he was like, “You can sing," and he invited me to come and audition. I checked with my work to make sure I could go to Scotland for a month, and they said, “Yeah, we can make it work,” and I auditioned and honestly had the best audition of my life and got the part.

Can you tell me about the characters that you play in this show?

I play a store clerk, I play a state trooper who also doubles as the bailiff during the courtroom scene, and primarily I play Luke Charlton who is the pastiche here for Charlotte Lucas from the books. And so, he’s Bennett’s best friend like Charlotte is Lizzy's best friend, and sort of meant to represent the everyman of this situation, like Charlotte represents the everywoman who just marries as high and quickly as possible.

This is a gender bent production of Jane Austen’s novel. Can you share how gender is being explored in Prejudice & Pride? 

In the original Jane Austen novel, you’re dealing with a time period in which women really don’t have options beyond getting married. It’s such a famous opening line, “It’s a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” And we flip that literally in the opening song. Sam composed all of the songs on banjo, believe it or not, and he flips this line around to, “A young single woman posessed of a fortune is universally acknowledged to be in want of a husband.”

And so, it changes the dynamic, because it takes a hard look specifically at rural America, and how a lot of people there feel like they don’t have a lot of options. They don’t have big career options, so many family farms are going away between corporate farming and foreign interest in farmland, and that’s what this is looking at. The Longborn family is on the brink of losing their farm, they have no prospects, no money, they share one truck that barely runs, and so, they are desperate.

And it also looks into how a lot of people in that situation, specifically men, see the push toward equity as a threat against their masculinity. They’re incorrectly perceiving this, right? A threat against their privilege, their masculinity, they don’t acknowledge their privilege. Papa Longborn, that’s the stance he takes, it’s that brainwashed, right-wing view of the world. And it starts with the first song, Pretty Little Goldmine, which is talking about Bennett and his other two boys, how they need to go and marry a Rich Woman. So, it flips the script around a little bit.

On that note, what can people expect to hear musically with this show?

It is American Folk music. Sam Wright, who plays Bennett Longborn, is playing banjo throughout the show while he also acts and does a little bit of the dancing. We also have Mark Hamblin on the upright base, and the wildly talented Chris Hudson playing classical guitar. And then we have a few other cast members who play rhythm guitar on different songs. Bridget Casad who plays Darcy plays guitar, PT Mahoney who plays Jake plays guitar, Tim Ahlenius, who plays Papa Longborn and Senator DeBerg also plays guitar.

What would you like to say to fans of Pride & Prejudice who will be coming to see Prejudice & Pride?

I would say there are so many Easter eggs for the Pride & Prejudice fans. Of course it follows the same plot points, while still introducing some changes, but there are specifically some line call-outs from the book, moments when the language elevates because it’s pulling from Austen’s novel. I know when we went to Edinburgh, there were so many Jane Austen fans. Because you’re in the UK you could really tell when the Austen fans were in the crowd because you’d hear them get those lines.

And we have fun with it. I particularly have a good time playing Luke Charlton because in the books, Charlotte, she gives this whole speech after she marries Reverend Cole about how she’s ‘content’, she has accepted her marriage, and where she is. Is she happy? Is she in love? Probably not, and my song Through The Glass kind of captures that. And then we take it a step further in the song ‘Eastward Facing Road’ where there are so many beautiful arcs in that song, but for Luke, it’s him deciding to chase happiness. To not just be content with the woman he’s married to, but to really find happiness in that relationship. And it makes it kind of sweet, and it’s fun to play.

Do you have any final thoughts you’d like to share?

I just want people to come see it! I think we have such a wonderfully talented cast that gets along really, really well. This is the fourth time now we’re performing it, between two runs in KC, and our Edinburgh run, and now all of us are making our Off-Broadway debuts with this show. We’re just really thrilled to be here and to share this with people, and hope that people can come out and see it.

Photo credit: Brian Paulette