The Old Globe is currently presenting the pre-Broadway engagement of the world premiere of Regency Girls. This raucous and daring new musical comedy features a book by Emmy-winning writers Jennifer Crittenden and Gabrielle Allan, music by three-time Emmy-nominated composer Curtis Moore, and lyrics by two-time Tony and Grammy nominee Amanda Green. Josh Rhodes directs and choreographs this riotous adventure of love, rebellion, autonomy, and self-discovery.
In Regency Girls, Elinor Benton is in a predicament: she’s pregnant, unmarried, and living in 19th-century England. What’s a young woman to do? Facing certain ruin, she gathers up her best friends and sets off on the ultimate road trip to find the one woman who might offer a chance to change her fate. This epic journey, equal parts hilarious and profound, transforms each of them as they make choices about their own futures.
Let’s see what the critics are saying about the new musical…
ErinMarie Reiter, BroadwayWorld: Most musicals may consider romantic love the end goal, but Regency Girls, the hilariously clever and entertaining musical at The Old Globe, proves nothing tops what a group of girlfriends on an adventure can do to improve their lives. While it might be set in 1810, this is a thoroughly modern musical with sharp wit, fun music, engaging performances, and a clear point of view.
Pam Kragen, San Diego Union Tribune: Its first act could use some tightening, and not every song is a home run. But the two-hour, 40-minute script by Jennifer Crittenden and Gabrielle Allan is smart, biting, playful and swift-paced. The song lyrics by Amanda Green are so funny it’s sometimes hard to hear them over the audience’s laughter; and Curtis Moore’s toe-tapping, up-tempo score is a lively mix of ballads, pop songs and musical theater styles.
Drew Sitton, SD News: At first, the musical could be satirizing the comedy of manners Jane Austen is so famous for with antagonist Lady Catherine (also LaManna) trying to break apart the impending nuptials through bribery and snarky comments from the help so often overlooked by Austen despite her focus on class. As the women start to shed the strictures of Regency rules, the musical becomes increasingly outlandish— and more relevant to today’s political climate. With co-writers Crittenden and Allan, who have collaborated across film, TV and theater, the comedy is too uproarious to fall hard into soap box territory, even as its message about reproductive healthcare is clear.
David L. Codden, Stage West: Director and choreographer Josh Rhodes does wonderwork with all that’s going on, practically from the outset. “Regency Girls” is perpetually in motion and that serves it well, especially given its length. His “Regency Girls” sure looks and sounds like it’s ready for Broadway. Costume Designer David I. Reynoso nails the romanticized period, transporting us back in time – to the English countryside in 1810 — with a flourish, and music director Patrick Sulken leads a marvelous orchestra. “Regency Girls” is funny but it’s quite serious about the better world for women to which it aspires. “Let us speak our truth, let us lift our pen,” goes the closing number, “let us roll the tide with the strength of ten / for the just must win ev’ry now and then.”
Michael M. Landman-Karny, Stage and Cinema: The show’s triumph lies not just in its irreverence, but in the anger that smolders beneath its petticoats. Crittenden and Allan’s script toys gleefully with historical conventions. There are enough euphemisms for “female troubles” to fill a Victorian etiquette guide, but it never loses sight of the stakes. The right to survive one’s own life hangs heavy in the air, smuggled in under the show’s giddy comic surface.
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