Impro Theatre is back with Jane Austen Unscripted, their first in-person show in two-and-a-half years, and that means “new characters, new love stories, and new escapades” twice on Saturdays and twice on Sundays under sunny Toluca Lake skies in the Garry Marshall Theatre Garden.

Impro’s latest takes the basic rules and premises of an Austen novel and improvises a story which Jane herself might have concocted, but didn’t.

As co-director Sara Mountjoy-Pepka explains in her preshow remarks, the actors have no idea what roles they will be playing. A young male actor might play “a lover fop as is appropriate to his age” or he could be a curmudgeonly old man. An actress of a certain age might play a young ingenue or a curmudgeonly old aunt. Get the picture?

What cast members do know going in is that there are bound to be plucky heroines in search of true love and parents bent on picking appropriate upper-class husbands for their monetarily-challenged daughters, and if this sounds rather a bit like the Netflix smash Bridgerton, it’s perhaps no wonder Impro Theatre picked Jane Austen for their return to live programming.

Each new improvised play begins with an audience suggestion.

At yesterday afternoon’s performance, for example, when asked to name an activity that might happen in Regency England, an audience member proposed “beekeeping,” which not only got things started but kept things rolling for a rollicking seventy-five minutes.

Saturday’s 3:00 performance starred Susan Deming and Mountjoy-Pepka as the Greene sisters: Anne, a sweet homebody, and Catherine, who feels like a caged animal prevented from going “beyond the hedges,” which is likely why she chooses to express herself “through bees.”

The young ladies’ suitors were, respectively, Mr. Edward Russell of the Russells of Devonshire (Nicholas Daly Clark), with whom Anne is smitten (in particular by “the cut of his calf”), and Mr. Honeycutt (Eric Carthen), or more specifically Mr. Honeycutt of Westershire (because “some other Honeycutt simply wouldn’t do.”)

Completing the family unit were Mr. Greene (co-director Paul Rogan), who has kept the family’s bees cruelly locked up (that is until Anne sets them free to “alight on the philodendron”), and Mr. Greene’s much older wife (Kari Coleman), cursed with a foolish husband and at least one foolish daughter.

Providing romantic complications were brother/sister Londoners Robert and Emilia (Dan O’Connor and Leanna Dindal), the former of whom takes one glance at the Greene estate and remarks, “It’s only four-hundred rooms. But it will do for the summer,” a summer during which he “must needs find a wife,” to which purpose the siblings have decided to throw a ball, the better to meet “society, as it is called in Hartforshire.”

Let the romantic “escapades” begin.

As in any Impro Theatre presentation, much of the fun is in hearing what delicious bits of nonsense will emerge from characters’ lips. Here are a few of yesterday’s gems:

“You cannot tell, for the sun is obscuring my most violent approbation.”
“Please continue to eat your vegetables and watch your back.”
“The country is dreadful by nature, for it is … nature.”
“Well, I suppose we must do this till we … die.”

Performed by a razor-sharp rotating ensemble who’ve clearly done their Jane Austen homework, Impro Theatre’s latest features expert musical accompaniment by music director Ryan Whyman on piano, Mikala Schmitz on cello, and Madeleine Eaton on violin.

Adding to the Regency England magic are choreographer Michele Spears (since every ball must by needs feature a gavotte), costume designer Jessica Champagne-Hansen, and hair and wig designer Laura Caponera, with voices and music amped by sound designer Robert A. Ramirez.

Not appearing at the performance reviewed were cast members Ted Cannon, Kirsten Farrell, Stephen Kearin, Jully Lee, Kelly Lohman, Rebeca Lowman, Michael Manuel, Nick Massouh, and Mike Rock, undoubtedly every bit as improv-gifted as those previously mentioned.

Producing for Garry Marshall Theatre is Joseph Leo Bwarie and producing for Impro Theatre are O’Connor and Mountjoy-Pepka. Giselle N. Vega is stage manager. Davidson & Choi Publicity are publicists.

I’ve seen a grand total of eight Unscripted genres since my first Jane Austen Unscripted back in 2008 and never has Impro Theatre failed to captivate and charm. Their latest adlibbed confection is a particularly welcome treat.

Garry Marshall Theatre, 4252 Riverside Drive, Burbank. Through May 8. Saturdays and Sundays at 11:00 am and 3:00 pm. (GMTea Experience Tickets include Garden Party table seating closest to the stage and served English tea and delectable treats. Standard Garden Seating Tickets are rowed seating behind party table seating (minus tea and treats.)
www.GarryMarshallTheatre.org

–Steven Stanley
April 16, 2022

Tags: Garry Marshall Theatre, Impro Theatre, Jane Austen, Los Angeles Theater Review