In Westport, Connecticut, Westport Country Playhouse opens its 2026-27 season on October 20 with the world premiere of Ken Ludwig’s Pride and Prejudice, Part 2: Napoleon at Pemberley, a comedy that picks up Jane Austen’s story after the wedding. Emily Mann directs, and the run is short: three weeks, closing November 7.
Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy are settled into married life at Pemberley when a guest nobody invited turns up: Napoleon Bonaparte, defeated and waiting to be sent into exile. His stay sets off an upheaval among the Darcys and the wider circle of relations and friends around them. The Playhouse is presenting the play as part of the celebrations for Jane Austen’s 250th anniversary year.
Ken Ludwig wrote Lend Me a Tenor, which won two Tony Awards, and Crazy for You, which took Best Musical at both the Tonys and the Oliviers. “In troubled times, it’s especially important to produce plays that encourage us to hope, dream, and strive to be our best selves,” he said. Mann, a Tony-nominated director and playwright, spent 30 years as artistic director and resident playwright at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey, and directed her own Execution of Justice and Having Our Say on Broadway. She said Ludwig has written “what may be his finest play to date.”
Artistic director Mark Shanahan described it as “a tale only he could dream up,” in which Ludwig takes familiar characters “in wonderfully unexpected new directions.”
The company of eight is led by Delphi Borich as Elizabeth Darcy and Tony Roach as Fitzwilliam Darcy, with Reg Rogers as Napoleon Bonaparte. Borich was in Into the Woods and Camelot on Broadway and originated Elizabeth Bennet in Austen’s Pride, a musical version of the novel; Roach’s Broadway credits include The Cottage, Flying Over Sunset, My Fair Lady and Bright Star. Rogers, a Tony nominee for Holiday, won Obie and Lucille Lortel Awards for The Dazzle.
Kristine Nielsen, a two-time Tony nominee for Gary and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, plays Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Carson Elrod, back at Westport after The Drawer Boy, How the Other Half Loves, Bedroom Farce and Don Juan, doubles as Mr. Collins and Major Hudson Lowe. Lucy Austin plays Lydia Wickham, Mathias Goldstein plays Lieutenant Melville and Allison Wick plays Anne de Bourgh.
Choreography is by JoAnn M. Hunter, sets by Beowulf Boritt, costumes by Jennifer von Mayrhauser and lighting by Jeff Croiter and Katy Atwell. Mark Bennett designs the sound and provides additional arrangements. The team also includes Michael Rossmy (fight director and intimacy coordinator), Deborah A. Hecht (voice and dialect coach), Robert Lavagno (props supervisor) and Carissa Thorlakson (wigs and hair), with casting by Stephanie Klapper Casting and Christopher Kee Anaya-Gorman as production stage manager.
Opening night is October 24. Performances are Tuesdays at 7 p.m., Wednesdays at 2 and 7 p.m., Thursdays at 7 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 3 and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m., with no Wednesday or Saturday matinees in the preview week. Around the run are Taste of Tuesdays (October 20), Pride Night (October 22), a Sunday Symposium (October 25), Backstage Pass (October 28), an open-captioned performance (November 1) and a Thursday TalkBack (November 5). The play runs about two hours with an intermission and is recommended for ages 12 and up.
Single tickets start at $50, with discounts for students, seniors, educators, military, first responders, Indigenous peoples, professional playwrights and groups, plus pay-what-you-will options and library passes; details are on the Playhouse’s box office page. The box office is on (203) 227-4177, and the theater is at 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, in Westport.
