Musical theatre / Pride and Prejudice* *(sort of), by Isobel McArthur after Jane Austen, directed by Simon Harvey. At Canberra Theatre until  September 27. Reviewed by ALANNA MACLEAN.

This sardonic class-conscious Pride and Prejudice ought to pack them in during its short visit.

The set may be a grand staircase and an even grander bookcase but the story of the Bennet sisters is being told by the female lower classes who scrub the floors and clean the loos.

Amy Lehpamer, Zoe Ioannou, Kaori Maeda-Judge, Ruby Shannon and Teo Vergara make quite a team as they take on Jane Austen’s multiple characters in a two and a half hour romp through a world where women’s choices are severely restricted.

Will Mrs Bennet ever get her daughters married off?

Will poor old Charlotte survive her marriage to the dreadful Mr Collins (while in this version nursing a secret awkward passion for Elizabeth Bennet)?

Will Bingley marry Jane? Will the deeply daffy Lydia avoid shame and marry the awful Wickham? What will become of bookish Mary? And will Elizabeth finally get it together with the awfully repressed Mr Darcy?

If you’ve read the book you know all the answers, but this version, with its vigorous use of karaoke-style pop songs and its awareness of things like the famous wet-shirt sequence in the 1995 BBC serial, stays happily at a knowing distance from the original novel. You’re So Vain might have been written for Mr Darcy.

It’s all inventive and busy and funny. Lady Catherine de Bourgh is prone to heart-stopping appearances in a huge purple dress and Mr Bennet is only ever seen from behind, as a silent presence in a chair. And for a short while there is a grand black horse for Jane to ride.

Opening night’s audience had clearly done their homework, knew the territory and gave this wryly funny tribute to Jane Austen the reception it deserves.

News all day, every day at CityNewsQBN.com.au.