It is a truth universally acknowledged that a comic playwright in possession of a new script must be in want of a cast.
Top row: Carson Elrod, Ken Ludwig, Mathias Goldstein, Tony Roach, Emily Mann, Reg Rogers
Bottom row: Allison Wick, Lucy Austin, Delphi Borich
I’m not sure I’ve ever had a cast come together so perfectly for a world premiere. Tony Roach and Delphi Borich are surprising and enchanting as Darcy and Elizabeth. The trio of Lucy Austin, Mathias Goldstein, and Allison Wick bring youthful zest to Lydia Wickham, Lieutenant Melville, and Anne de Bourgh. And then, there is Reg Rogers.
Reg is always at top of my list when we cast a new play. He offers a perfect balance between gripping leading-man intensity and pitch-perfect comic instincts. I’ve literally tried to cast him in every play I’ve written for the last decade. In each case, scheduling conflicts, theatre locations, or mismatches between actor and material have prevented us working together. But with the role of Napoleon Bonaparte in Pride & Prejudice, Part 2: Napoleon at Pemberley, the casting gods finally smiled on me. I get to put one of my juiciest roles into the hands of one of my favorite talents in American theatre.
Reg Rogers and Lucy Austin rehearse a waltz.
But my luck—and the luck of audiences heading to Westport Country Playhouse for our world premiere—doesn’t end there. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen invented some of the greatest comic characters in English literature. Two of her finest, the imperious Lady Catherine de Bourgh and the simpering Mr. Collins, tempted more incredible comic talent to our stage.
Carson Elrod as Collins and Kristine Neilsen as Lady Catherine make a hilarious double act.
Broadway veteran Kristine Neilsen is bringing her incredible comic chops to the role of Lady Catherine. I’m not one to waste either a prime comic character or a prime comic actor, so I’ve expanded the role from Austen’s novel. That way audiences can enjoy more of Kristine’s magic.
After only a single day of auditions, director Emily Mann and I had nearly a half-dozen actors whom we’d have been delighted to cast as Mr. Collins. Each brought different tones to the part, but none made us howl with laughter like Carson Elrod. He brings a vaudevillian quality to Collins—comedy in every vowel and every gesture.
Much as Elizabeth found her ideal in Darcy, I found my ideal cast, and I can’t wait for audiences to see them bring Napoleon at Pemberley to life.