KC’s own Prejudice and Pride musical heads to New York

Prejudice and Pride. // Courtesy photo

Kansas City musical Prejudice and Pride premieres as an off-Broadway production this July at 59E59 Theaters. From KC and the UK, respectively, Sam Wright and Nicholas Collett internationally crafted a Western adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice almost entirely online. 

Wright and Collet originally met for their production of Crazy Horse: A Dream of Thunder back in 2016. Since their collaboration, drafting for Prejudice and Pride emerged in 2020 with weekly Zoom meetings over long distances. After casting selection in 2021, Wright relayed Collet’s directions to KC cast members. Prejudice and Pride was named the best show of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2022, and today it’s off to the Big Apple. 

“It was a tremendous feeling to get the offer,” says Collett. “But all of a sudden, you’ve got to think about how you’re going to get your cast of nine and two musicians from KC to New York.”

The collaborators knew they didn’t want a direct adaptation, but Wright and Collett wanted to honor Austen’s work. The cast wears American and country attire, yet the messages can appeal to all audiences. Austen’s novel depicts class struggles and their effects on wealth and poverty. Wright explains how the American dream involves the idea of equal opportunities but questions if this dream is attainable with increasing class divides. Our world may not be far off from Austen’s, according to Collett, and the divides may be even more pronounced today.

“A lot of Brits who came to see the show realized that they were having their world reflected back at them,” says Collett. 

Prejudice and Pride swaps the gender of the main characters. Played by Wright, Bennett Longborn and his brothers are encouraged to marry rich, forcing the men to rely on women for finances. Wright says the alteration makes audience members evaluate from another perspective the ways gender and wealth are socially viewed. 

“It’s so easy to overlook the oppression women have faced throughout history,” says Wright. “I thought if we gender-swapped the characters, we might be able to see some of the situations in a different light than we have before.”

In order to craft an 1800s novel into a musical, Wright wrote the songs before a script was created, focusing on how music could advance the story. He marked the novel with sections of major narrative shifts. Every song is necessary for the musical, but it’s not a jazzy Broadway sound with the show’s country aesthetic. 

“It’s interesting to me that [Broadway] has become sort of its own genre of music at this point,” says Wright. “But we tried to create folk music, which is already a very versatile genre for telling stories.”   

As it gets closer to July, Wright and Collett are still raising funds for the New York production. Both contributors want their actors paid well in a notoriously expensive city. The two are grateful for their small donors, but they are still barely outrunning the costs and resources needed. Community support is always welcomed. 

“For a show this big, you should need a team of people at desks making sure things happen,” says Wright. “But the fundraising has been constant. It’s just a couple of guys who decided to make up a musical.” 

The Arts Asylum hosts Prejudice and Pride Thursday-Sunday until July 2. Wright and Collett agreed on reduced ticket prices for KC to pay tribute to the grassroots that helped the project become a show. Kansas Citians have the chance to experience the musical before it launches on a larger New York stage. 

“I could sort of palpably hear the audience shifting, sniffling, and breathing heavier. You could feel the impact that the music was having on them,” says Wright. “This is the thing we intended to make.”