At first, I was hesitant to write the musical of Sense and Sensibility. I had just written Emma and for the next several years I was busy with productions across the country. I wasn’t sure I had another Austen musical in me. But when Chicago Shakespeare Theatre offered to commission me to write a musical of Sense and Sensibility, I couldn’t say no, as I knew the theatre’s stellar reputation and I felt Jane Austen and I would be in good hands. 

And I was right.

I suppose this would be a good time to mention that up until this point I had not read Sense and Sensibility, I had only seen the Ang Lee film (one of my all-time favorite films), so reading the novel was quite a revelation. I can’t even remember now how long it took me to complete the first draft of the show, but as soon as I started reading the book, the music came pouring out of me.

(From Sarah: This is the twentieth guest post in “A Summer Party for Sense and Sensibility,” which began on June 20th and will continue through to the end of the summer. You can find all the contributions to the blog series here . I hope you’ll join the conversations about S&S in the comments here and on social media: #senseandsensibilitysummer. Thanks for celebrating Jane Austen’s first published novel with us!)

When I musicalize a novel, the most important decisions are not what to include but what not to include. With Emma, it was immediately apparent to me that I didn’t need Knightley and Emma’s brother and sister, who are a large part of the novel. They would be mentioned, of course, but I didn’t need them to appear, and the musical works quite well without them. When John Caird (Les Misérables) and I were first working on Jane Eyre for Broadway, we made the mistake of trying to “perform the novel on stage.” Then we spent the next ten years trying to fix it, and we just kept removing bits of the story until it could be performed on stage in less than three hours! But in doing so, we learned a great deal about what makes good storytelling on stage.

With Sense and Sensibility these decisions were not as clear. There was far less dialogue in the novel than Emma, and this time around I would have to write many scenes from scratch instead of lifting Jane Austen’s brilliant dialogue. And, I had the movie in my head and I couldn’t conceive of cutting any characters. But as I went deeper into the novel and started leaving the film behind, I realized that I wanted to focus entirely on Elinor and Marianne and their relationship as sisters—and so I made the painful decision to cut Mrs. Dashwood and Margaret. But that turned out to be a great decision for the stage musical.

Once my first draft was complete, we did a series of “table reads” in Chicago with just a few actors and a piano. It gave us a great sense of the shape of the show, as we continued to ask ourselves questions: Is the story clear? Is this the right song? Do we understand this relationship? How do we support the storytelling?

We were getting close to opening night when Megan McGinnis, the brilliant actor who was playing Marianne, had an idea. She felt strongly that Marianne needed a ballad in Act II. I agreed with her immediately because it resonated with me. (I love working with smart actors who understand their characters better than I do at this point in the process.)

Megan felt that a pulsating up-tempo song after Willoughby rejects Marianne for Miss Grey was not quite right and she suggested a ballad that was more reflective of the pain the character feels in the moment. She was right, and so after rehearsal I went back to my hotel room and wrote “The Swing,” which instantly became one of my favorite songs in the show.

Making theatre is such a wonderful collaborative process. So very different from what Jane Austen must have felt when she was writing Sense and Sensibility. But what I love most about this process is that I get to be on both sides of it. I’m quite isolated while I’m writing the book and the score, but as soon as I get in a room with my fellow artists, new ideas spring forth and I get to enjoy the creative vibrancy of a room full of artists.

I’m so grateful, that in my small way, I have been able to share the genius of Jane Austen with theatregoers around the country. As we celebrate her 250th birthday next year, I will continue to dedicate myself to sharing her brilliance through the magic of theatre.

Most of the photos are from the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre production of Sense and Sensibility in 2016 (plus a hydrangea photo taken by Sarah).

Paul Gordon is a Tony Award nominated composer for his musical Jane Eyre. Other works include Sense and Sensibility (winner of the 2015 Jeff Award for Best New Work), Daddy Long Legs (2009 Ovation Award, 2 Drama Desk Award nominations, Off-Broadway Alliance Award nomination and 3 Outer Critic Circle award nominations). He is the co-founder of StreamingMusicals.com, where his musicals Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Estella Scrooge, Being Earnest and No One Called Ahead can currently be streamed. (Sense and Sensibility is also available on YouTube.) Knight’s Tale, written with John Caird, has had multiple productions in Japan. His other shows include: Stellar Atmospheres, Little Dorrit, Schwab’s, Analog and Vinyl, The Front, Juliet and Romeo, Sleepy Hollow, First Night, The Circle, Ribbit, Greetings From Venice Beach and The Sportswriter. In his former life, Paul was a pop songwriter, writing several number one hits. paulgordonmusic.com

You can also find Streaming Musicals on Facebook and Instagram.

If you enjoyed this post, I hope you’ll consider recommending it to a friend. If you aren’t yet a subscriber, please sign up to receive future guest posts in “A Summer Party for Sense and Sensibility.” The next post, “Re-Reading Sense and Sensibility,” is by Sandra Barry.

Here are the links to the last two posts, in case you missed them:

A Song Can Sing So Much, by Lori Mulligan Davis

Of Sandwiches and Obligations, by Shawna Lemay

Read more about my books, including Jane Austen’s Philosophy of the Virtues and Jane Austen and the North Atlantic, here.