Austentatious, No Pride and Extreme Prejudice

Austentatious exceeded my expectations. But that's not surprising, I was hardly there under the best of circumstances - out at 10:50 with a group of friends after the opening performance of The Last Starfighter, I get a call from a friend. "Where are you?" he says. Which reminds me that I'm supposed to be at the 11 o'clock Austentatious. Which is 10 blocks away. I make my excuses ("I heard it wasn't great," one says, "You don't have to go") before running up to the theater - where they held house and weren't even letting people in at 11. And to add insult to injury, they weren't even selling concessions before the show! Sure, I ate more than most on tech day, but some M&Ms would have been much appreciated.

As for the show, my expectations were dampened by the fact I'd seen Stephanie D'Abruzzo just a month ago in what appeared to be the exact same show - Kiss and Make Up at the Fringe. Behind the scenes of a ridiculous community theater production. Where have I heard that before? The aforementioned Fringe show had a dull first act, but picked up in the second when the farce of actually performing the play began with David Sabella-Mills playing both the male and female lead. Could Austentatious bring anything new to the table?

The surprising answer is yes. The first act is especially enjoyable - and though none of the tunes stuck in my head, the songs were great, more like sung scenes than numbers that brought the show to a halt. The introduction of the budding relationship between Sam and David in the second act was forced, if not unexpected, but attempted to make what had hitherto been the zany antics of a theater company into something a little more human. I felt it really slowed the show, especially when the second act started well after midnight. Unlike Kiss and Make Up, their show within a show is a straight play, and they perform it in what one can only presume is its 15-minute entirety near the end of the show. I perhaps would have enjoyed that more if it weren't 1am. Who's idea was 11pm shows anyway? Whoever it is, I'm surprised a venue director hasn't shot you by now.

The cast is uniformly excellent, though those with zanier roles (Paul Wyatt as the cheeto-loving stoner and Amy Goldberger as scene-hungry Lauren) are allowed to shine more than the straight characters (Stephanie D'Abruzzo's harried stage manager Sam and George Merrick's David who helped girlfriend Lauren audition only to find himself cast as Darcy). Defying this rule is the glistening Lisa Asher, whose professional and sadly sweet Jessica glows with a base humanity that is never forced.

Clearly it's nothing groundbreaking, but Austentatious has a lot of things going for it. The overexposure of the basic premise is such that it may not go on to see many future productions, but the energetic cast makes this one worth seeing.