Jane Austen Meets Marriage Equality in Gay Pride & Prejudice Podcast
film or series every few years or so. With the success of related shows like Bridgerton and the rise of gay romantic comedies, it feels like the right moment for Pride & Prejudice, the grandmother of all rom-coms, to get a fresh update for LGBTQ+ audiences.That’s just what we’re getting with Gay Pride & Prejudice, a new Spotify Original scripted podcast.
Executive produced by Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Justin Mikita, and Gimlet's head of scripted Mimi O’Donnell, the 10-episode series was written and directed by Zackary Grady and features a standout cast including Ferguson, Blake Lee, Rosie O'Donnell, Ronald Peet, Vella Lovell, Javier Muñoz, Sherry Cola and more.The first two episodes are now available on Spotify, and the series will be presented at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival with a panel featuring the cast and creators on June 13.“The idea for the series came the day marriage equality passed,” Grady told The Advocate. “I remember joking on that day, ‘Oh, we can do Pride & Prejudice now because of the marriage backdrop!’”It’s always been easy for him to relate to Austen’s novels, he said. “When you first encounter Austen, you expect it to be dusty and you expect it to be boring.
I think everyone’s so struck by how much fun it is. It’s people going to parties and essentially hooking up with each other, in the Regency era.
It’s a universal feeling.” In this modern retelling, “the Bennet sisters” are a circle of best friends in Boston’s LGBTQ+ community, with Blake Lee’s Bennet in the central “Lizzy” role and Rosie O’Donnell’s lovably neurotic Mrs.
