First Impressions

First Impressions (1959) is a Broadway musical with music and lyrics by George Weiss, Bo Goldman, and Glenn Paxton, and book by Abe Burrows, based on the stage adaptation by Helen Jerome of Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice. The Broadway production premiered at the Alvin Theater, New York City, on March 19, 1959, and played 84 performances. The stars of the original cast were Hermione Gingold (as Mrs. Bennet), Polly Bergen (as Eliza... more

First Impressions (1959) is a Broadway musical with music and lyrics by George Weiss, Bo Goldman, and Glenn Paxton, and book by Abe Burrows, based on the stage adaptation by Helen Jerome of Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice. The Broadway production premiered at the Alvin Theater, New York City, on March 19, 1959, and played 84 performances. The stars of the original cast were Hermione Gingold (as Mrs. Bennet), Polly Bergen (as Elizabeth Bennet), and Farley Granger (as Mr. Darcy), supported by Phyllis Newman (Jane Bennet), Ellen Hanley (Charlotte Lucas), Christopher Hewett (Mr. Collins) , Donald Madden (Charles Bingley), and James Mitchell (Capt. Wickham). Hewett replaced Tony Award-winner Hiram Sherman after the show's out-of-town tryout, while Hanley replaced Bergen shortly into the run. Like the novel, the musical is concerned primarily with the rocky courtship between Elizabeth Bennet, a poor gentlemen's daughter with four sisters, and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, a wealthy... less