World-premiere musical “Regency Girls” picks up right where “Pride and Prejudice” ends.

En el delightful feminist romp playing at The Old Globe, the two eldest, tragically middle class, Benton sisters are engaged to handsome, titled, wealthy men, saving Elinor Benton (Isabelle McCalla), the main character Elizabeth stand in, from spinsterhood. It is the beginning of Elinor and self-absorbed Jane’s (played by Kate Rockwell) happy ending, or at least it should be.

Unfortunately, a brief happy ending with Elinor’s fiancee Stanton (Nik Walker) before he leaves on a year-long trip to India quickly veers the sisters off track. Elinor faces ruin as an unmarried, pregnant woman. Shenanigans ensue as this calls for a girls trip to London to visit Madame Restell (Janine LaManna), a doctor of female troubles. Married and bored Petunia (Ryann Redmond) joins alongside maid Dabney (Krystina Alabado), who faces more than just being shunned by polite society if her condition is discovered. The switch from seeing Dabney as an ignored servant to trusted friend is a key development for Elinor. Dabney exists as more than a foil for Elinor though, revealing herself to be smart, strong, kind and resourceful.

Book writers Jennifer Crittenden y Gabrielle Allan (“Seinfeld,” “Veep,” “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) likened the structure to “Wizard of Oz” with each member of the road trip seeking something. Elinor and Dabney want abortions and ways to “Schedule Parenthood” as a later joke says. Jane may not know what she is looking for until she finds it in gentleman thief Galloping Dick (Gabe Gibbs). Meanwhile, Petunia wants a way to perform her wifely duties without adding to her motherly duties. The ridiculousness of road trip tropes being applied to a carriage trip adds its own humor, with Petunia excitedly shouting she can still see her house after nine hours of hard riding.

The need to be chaperoned by a man also leads to hilarious cross-dressing hijinx as Petunia and Elinor disguise themselves as men then realize they may not want to go back. They revel in having their opinions listened to and being solicited by “sweet treats” in a pub where they were supposed to be getting dinner for the other women.

Instead, they sing “Man Things” and get into a slow-motion brawl while a hungry Dabney and Jane sing “Patiently Waiting” in their inn room atop an upper layer of the stage. The careful choreography, creativity and pacing of this scene show the prowess of director and choreographer Josh Rhodes (Broadway’s “Spamalot” and Old Globe’s “Cabaret”).

At first, the musical could be satirizing the comedy of manners Jane Austen is so famous for with antagonist Lady Catherine (also LaManna) trying to break apart the impending nuptials through bribery and snarky comments from the help so often overlooked by Austen despite her focus on class.

As the women start to shed the strictures of Regency rules, the musical becomes increasingly outlandish— and more relevant to today’s political climate. With co-writers Crittenden y Allan, who have collaborated across film, TV and theater, the comedy is too uproarious to fall hard into soap box territory, even as its message about reproductive healthcare is clear.

Its most tender moments are in song with music by three-time Emmy-nominated composer Curtis Moore (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), and lyrics by two-time Tony and Grammy nominee Amanda Green.

At the beginning of the musical, the smart, opinionated and entrepreneurial Elinor fears she is monstrous for wanting to be “Useful” beyond gender rules around motherhood. A ballad in the second half, “How Long (In 1810)” about how women should have bodily autonomy and access to sexual health knowledge since it is after all 1810, a thoroughly modern time. The pièce de résistance was belted by the supremely talented LaManna, then playing the embattled doctor, who was visibly moved by the song as meaningful in 1810 as it es in 2025. The musical concludes with the entire company singing the timeless “We Are Never Going Back There Again.”

By act two, the humorous songs took a turn for the raunchy as Jane becomes even more, ahem, self-focused in “Jane Finds Her Tingle” and the group sneaks into a ball by dressing in fetish wear to perform“Brains and Booty.”

Much of the music is intentionally anachronistic, an absurd turn amid the period costumes and Georgian-era settings. The crude turn after the audience has already fallen in love with the characters lets the writers openly discuss serious topics like abortion and gender roles in a funny, approachable manner. Even transgender people are addressed as servant Scutter (Sav Souza) is revealed as canonically trans by the end, with a nod to the way rights to reproductive care and bodily autonomy do not only affect cisgender women.

Much of the cast left Broadway for this production, which will surely be picked up elsewhere (fingers crossed). Walker is one of the few who has performed at The Old Globe previously, in “Crime and Punishment, A Comedy” and “The Last Goodbye.” Benjamin Howes, who plays the Earl of Lenwich, Mr. Benton and a few other characters, has also been at The Old Globe before for “Dancing in the Dark” and a few of the ensemble cast like Jacob Caltrider, David Engel, and Ariella Kvashny have been on the stage previously. The cast of 20 had no weak points.

The ability of LaManna and Gibbs to master very different characters was impressive, with LaManna being both antagonist and hero to the girls while Gibbs even got in to a fist fight with himself as both of Jane’s love interests: fiancee Dingley and debonair Dick. Lady Catherine’s daughters Gertrude (Kyla Stone) and Gretchen (Marissa Rosen) had some of the funniest moments of the musical as they gave off Cinderella’s stepsisters a la Rodgers and Hammerstein vibes.

“Regency Girls” runs through May 4 at the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center.

Regular tickets start at $55. Purchase them at TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23GLOBE (234-5623), and in person at the Globe’s box office in Balboa Park.