The Very Best Victorian Romances

Summary

Pride and Prejudice: A 1997 recording of Christina Calvit’s stage adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen’s classic romantic comedy is a sparkling tale of the Bennets, a family blessed with five daughters and a mother desperate to marry them off. The tempestuous pairing of the witty, independent Elizabeth and her arrogant but honorable suitor Mr. Darcy sets the standard for all great couples of stage and screen.

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Kate Burton, Melanie Dix, Elizabeth Laidlaw, Frances Limoncelli, Miriam Margolyes, Bradley Mott, James Sie, Joao de Sousa, Sandy Snyder, Kevin Theis andSteve Totland.

Directed by Meryl Friedman. Recorded before a live audience at the Doubletree Guests Suites in Chicago .
Arms and the Man: It's 1885, and Raina's bourgeois Bulgarian family is caught up in the heady patriotism of the war with Serbia. The beautiful, headstrong Raina eagerly awaits her fiancé's victorious return from battle - but instead meets a soldier who seeks asylum in her bedroom. This is one soldier who definitely prefers romance and chocolate to fear and bullets. War may be raging on the battlefield, but it's the battle of the sexes that heats up this extraordinary comedy and offers very different notions of love and war.

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Al Espinosa, Jeremy Sisto, Teri Garr, Anne Heche, Micahel Winters, Jason Kravits and Sarah Rafferty.

Directed by Brendon Fox. Recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles. The Importance of Being Earnest: This final play from the pen of Oscar Wilde is a stylish send-up of Victorian courtship and manners, complete with assumed names, mistaken lovers, and a lost handbag. Jack and Algernon are best friends, both wooing ladies who think their names are Ernest, “that name which inspires absolute confidence.” Wilde’s effervescent wit, scathing social satire, and high farce make this one of the most cherished plays in the English language.

Includes an interview with director Michael Hackett, Professor of Theater in the School of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA.

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring:
James Marsters as Jack
Charles Busch as Lady Bracknell
Emily Bergl as Cecily
Neil Dickson as Lane and Merriman
Jill Gascoine as Miss Prism
Christopher Neame as Chasuble
Matthew Wolf as Algernon
Sarah Zimmerman as Gwendolen

Directed by Michael Hackett. Recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles.

Jane Austen adapted by Christina Calvit.