Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) review [Melbourne]

An ideal winter warmer, hit UK comedy Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) makes its Australian premiere in sturdy form, with a terrific triple-threat local cast earning a cavalcade of laughs. Penned by Isobel McArthur, after Jane Austen, 2018 comedy Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) played the West End in 2021, winning the 2022 Olivier Award for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play, and has already enjoyed three UK tours. Love for the timeless works of Austen shows no signs of abating, with a new Pride and Prejudice arriving imminently on Netflix and a new film of Sense and Sensibility on the way. Pride and Prejudice spin-off The Other Bennett Sister broke records for the BBC earlier this year, and local podcast Into the Austenverse has quickly built a well-deserved international following. Obviously a keen aficionado of the original work and its many iterations, a key aspect of McArthur’s success with this stage adaptation is her complete respect for the characters and story. Scoring laughs…