Summer 2009

Vol. 9, No. 33
Tom
Kitt
Summer, 2009
Brian
Yorkey
Bring Home Tonys for
Best Score!
The Do-It-Yourself Songbook Primer
by Jeff Blumenkrantz - Page 3
Next to Normal, with music by
Tom Kitt and book and lyrics by
Brian Yorkey, was nominated for
eleven Tony Awards: Best Musical; Best Book of a Musical; Best
Leading Actor in a Musical; Best
Leading Actress in a Musical;
Best Score; Best Featured Actress
in a Musical; Best Scenic Design
of a Musical; Best Lighting
Design of a Musical; Best Sound
Design of a Musical; Best Direction of a Musical; and Best
Orchestrations.
Tony Awards were won by: Kitt
and Yorkey for Best Score; Kitt and
Michael Starobin for Best Orchestrations; Alice Ripley for Best
Leading Actress.
The cast recording is available
on Ghostlight Records.
Table of Contents
Works
In Production . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
In Staged Readings . . . . . .12
In Concert & Cabaret . . . . .13
Shelf Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
And the Winner Is... . . . . . . .16
Non-Writing Gigs . . . . . . . . .19
Spring Smoker . . . . . . . . . . . .22
Master Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24
Richard’s Almanac . . . . . . . .30
Richard Engquist
Brian Yorkey & Tom Kitt
The Do-It-Yourself
Songbook Primer
by Jeff Blumenkrantz
a year, and they’re currently in
their fifth printing!
Like Marcy and Zina, I had written a song (“I Won’t Mind” – lyrics
by Annie Kessler and Libby
Saines) that was getting some
attention, thanks to Audra McDonald’s recording of it. And like
Marcy and Zina, I had no fulllength musical produced in New
York.
Singers had been asking me for
my music for years, but I was loath
to circulate it for a number of reasons: (1) I was constantly “improving” my songs, a.k.a. futzing with
Making It Real
About six or seven years ago, I ran
into my college buddy and fellow
Workshop alum, lyricist Marcy
Heisler, who generously bestowed
on me a copy of her beautiful, new
songbook. “Thank you so much!” I
exclaimed, while thinking to
myself, Oh, those poor dears… You
see, while Marcy and her collaborator, composer Zina Goldrich, are
terrific songwriters and already
had a cabaret hit with “Taylor, the
Latte Boy,” they had yet to have a
musical produced in New York. I
looked at that 320-page songbook
and thought: Who is ever going to
buy that?
As it turns out, many, many people!
The first printing sold out within
3
Continued on page 25
Works
In Production
4@15
The York Theatre Company presented four new 15-minute musicals Jan. 25. Two involved BMI
Workshop members.
23 KNIVES
The Resonance Ensemble produced Chris Boal’s play for sixteen performances in January-February.
“In 44 B.C., the fate of the
Roman Republic hangs in the balance. The most powerful man in
the world, Julius Caesar, lies dead
in the Theatre of Pompey, as politicians and military men ambitiously move to fill the void of power.
Marcus Antonius summons the
physician Antistius to uncover the
truth about the assassination
through a Greek technique called
‘autopsy.’ But as Antistius discovers more about the crime, the real
truth becomes harder to find.
Inspired by history’s only mention
of Antistius in Seutonius’s The
Twelve Caesars, 23 Knives utilizes
contemporary language to weave
a darkly comic mystery about politics, patriotism, and the nature of
truth.”
High School Sucks: A Cinderella
Story
Book, music and lyrics by Rick
Hip-Flores
“High School Sucks: A Cinderella
Story turns the classic fairy tale
upside-down, as students from
two Upper East Side high schools
gear up for the their annual
Springtime Formal. Eddy, a geek
who writes songs, gets a little help
from his fairy godmothering
drama teacher to get to the ball.
But how will he win the heart of
the most popular girl?”
Sara Wordsworth
The Wake: A Modern GospelCountry-Folk Melodrama-Opera
Book by Russell M. Kaplan and
Sara Wordsworth
Chris Boal
4
Music by Russell M. Kaplan,
lyrics by Sara Wordsworth
“A tragic death. A bitter widow.
A Southern wake. Five mysterious
women in dark glasses. Fifteen
minutes. Hijinks ensue.”
BAIT
a play by David Sisco, will be
performed by the author and Tom
Gualtieri on the Atlantis Events
Baltic Cruise, July 22-August 1.
David and Tom are also coauthors of the award- and grantwinning musical Falling to Earth.
Robert Firpo-Capiello
intersect at the crossroads of the
little town that saw the biggest
battle of the Civil War.”
BEGGARS RAIN
A one-man folk musical, written
and performed by Robert FirpoCappiello at the 13th Street Repertory Company on March 26, April
30, May 28, and June 25.
“In this whiskey-fueled, guitardriven odyssey across Depressionera America, a hobo known only
as Dooley hops trains across the
blasted landscape of the U.S. in the
1930s and finds the hero in himself
when he saves the life of a mysterious runaway.”
BATTLECRY
A new musical with book and
lyrics by Granville Wythe Burgess
(alumnus) and music by Paul
Bogaev will play the Riegel Auditorium in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, from June 26 through July 26.
“In the early morning dawn of
November 19, 1863, six figures
appear at the site of the national
cemetery in Gettysburg for the
day’s dedication ceremony. Only
two were soldiers in the monumental fighting that took place
there four months earlier, but all
bear the scars of battle.
“Amelia Christianson, young,
pretty, and affianced to Frank
Smoker, a Union soldier. Frank is
marching to Gettysburg. Quentin
Johnson, a rebel, tells his friend
Joe that he hopes to get some new
boots for his bare feet. And while
these characters are heading for
town, two freed blacks, Isaac
Hampton and his wife, Sarah, are
fleeing Gettysburg. Four soldiers
and four citizens whose lives will
BUDDY’S TAVERN
The Spirit of Broadway Theater
in Norwich, Connecticut, premiered Buddy’s Tavern, a musical
version of the 2000 independent
film Two Family House, May 13June 14. The Staten Island-set
show about an unusual relationship and outer-borough dreams
has a libretto by the original movie
screenwriter-director Raymond De
Felitta and songs by composer Kim
Oler and lyricist Alison Hubbard.
“I fell in love [with it] when I
5
“All day long Farmer Brown hears
‘click clack moo, clickety clackety
moo...’ The cows are typing and
protesting their working conditions! Recommended for children
ages four and up.”
Alison Hubbard & Kim Oler
first saw the movie,” Oler said in
production notes. “Alison and I
kept talking about wanting to
make this into a musical. Alison
and I were very passionate about
connecting with Raymond and
exploring the future of this movie
as a musical for the stage. The
story is so deeply touching and
moving.”
Buddy’s Tavern was chosen for
the 2004 ASCAP/Disney Workshop in New York. The songwriters previously worked with Spirit
of Broadway artistic director Brett
A. Bernardini on two of their other
works, Little Women and The
Enchanted Cottage. Bernardini
directed Buddy’s Tavern.
THE FROG & THE WITCH
This eco-musical with book and
lyrics by Sammy Buck and music
by Daniel S. Acquisto ran at the
Vital Theatre 14 March-26 April.
Such was the demand that performances had to be added.
“Pyx the singing frog is the
biggest rock star in Wishwell Village until the unthinkable happens: He croaks. Determined to
get his voice back, Pyx follows a
plume of thick black smoke to the
outskirts of town where a powerful witch brews potions that help
make the Wishwellers’ lives ‘easier.’ Pyx might just be able to get
his voice back but only if he can
get the witch—and the addicted
Wishwellers—to clean up their
act.”
CLICK CLACK MOO
Theatreworks USA’s 2009 Free
Summer Theatre production is a
new musical based on the book by
Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin.
Music by Brad Alexander, lyrics
by Kevin Del Aguila and book by
Billy Aronson. Directed by John
Rando. Choreographed by Wendy
Seyb. July 21-August 28 at the
Lucille Lortel Theatre.
6
GREY GARDENS: FROM EAST
HAMPTON TO BROADWAY
This documentary by Albert
Maysles about the making of the
musical by Doug Wright, Scott
Frankel and Michael Korie premiered on WNET Channel 13 on
December 23. For further information, including clips of interviews
with the authors:
http://www.pbs.org/
independentlens/greygardens
Bobby, Katie, & Kristin
rope). Follow a worm’s adventures
as he writes about them all in his
diary. (Adapted by Robert Lopez
& Kristen Anderson-Lopez, based
on the book by Doreen Cronin and
Harry Bliss)
• Fluffy the Classroom Guinea Pig:
When Fluffy enters a Best Pets
Contest, a pesky flea threatens to
derail the entire competition.
(Adapted by Steven Lutvak &
Robert L. Freedman, based on the
book Fluffy’s Silly Summer by Kate
McMullan.)
• Horace & Morris But Mostly
Dolores: Three mice promise to be
best friends forever. But when
Horace and Morris join the MegaMice club (for boys only!), and
Dolores becomes a Cheese Puff
(for girls only!), what will happen
to their friendship? (Adapted by
Benj Pasek (Second Year) & Justin
Paul, based on the book by James
Howe, Illustrated by Amy Walrod.)
• How I Became a Pirate: Young
Jeremy Jacob would love to sail
away and be a pirate no vegetables, no manners, no bedtime, and
no rules at all! But he soon discovers that there’s really no place like
HANGIN’ OUT
Frank Evans (committee), Ben
Schaechter (alumnus), Adele
Ahronheim (participating collaborator) and Dan Kael (alumnus)
had material in this new revue
from the producer and director of
Naked Boys Singing. Hangin’ Out
opened at the Macha Theatre/Film
Center in West Hollywood on Jan
9 for a six week run. The cast contained three men and three women
in various stages of undress.
IF YOU GIVE A PIG A PANCAKE & OTHER STORY
BOOKS
Seven delightful stories come to
life in Theatreworks USA’s musical revue, which had two national
tours in the fall of 2008. On April
21, it played Town Hall. The stories represent various issues,
themes and ideas relevant to a
broad and diverse audience of
children. Books featured in the
show include:
• Diary of a Worm: It’s great to be
a worm, but a wormy life also has
its difficulties (like wiggling across
a playground as human kids jump
7
Devanand Janki. This 60-minute
musical is recommended for ages 4
and up.
home. (Adapted by Laurence O’Keefe
& Nell Benjamin, based on the book
by Melinda Long, illustrations by
David Shannon.)
• If You Give a Pig a Pancake: A bossy
little pig’s demands frazzle a little girl
in this hilarious lesson about causeand-effect. (Adapted by Anthony
King & Scott Brown, based on the
book by Laura Numeroff, illustrations
by Felicia Bond.)
IN FULL: BLOOM
A new song cycle by Charles Bloom
was premiered by the Way Off Broadway Theatre Company of Ottumwa,
Iowa, January 15-25. It is the only professional company in the state.
Charles writes, “Randy West, the
artistic director, and his musical director, Justin Hill, pored over 100 songs
from my catalogue. I wrote some new
things, revised some things and the
three of us have collaborated to create
this new song cycle which involves
both hearing the songs as-written, but
also in a trio of intricate, theme-weaving medleys created by Justin…As
you can imagine, it feels wonderful to
have my work so passionately
embraced.”
Brad Alexander
THE KID
The New Group has announced its
upcoming 2009-2010 Off-Broadway
season, which will conclude with The
Kid, a musical based on Dan Savage’s
book The Kid: What Happened After My
Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Preg-
• Lilly’s Big Day: Lilly’s teacher is
getting married, and she just knows
she’ll be a great flower girl, despite
the fact that Mr. Slinger has already
asked his niece to be the flower girl.
When she suffers a bout of stage
fright, it’s up to Lilly to save the day!
(Adapted by Kevin Del Aguila & Brad
Alexander, based on the book by
Kevin Henkes.)
• The Paper Bag Princess: When a
ferocious dragon smashes Princess
Elizabeth’s castle, burns all her fancy
clothes, and kidnaps her beloved
prince, she dons a paper bag and
comes to the rescue. (Adapted by
David Kirshenbaum, based on the
book by Robert Munsch.)
If You Give a Pig a Pancake & Other
Story Books was directed by Kevin Del
Aguila, with choreography by
Jack Lechner
8
Kennon, lyrics by Ellen Fitzhugh
August/September 2009, Sheila
and Hughes Potiker Theatre
“Set in 1929, this darkly comic
solo play with music centers on
young musical prodigy, George,
who is pushed into the limelight to
earn money for his poor family.
Taken under the wing of Mosely,
an old vaudeville performer,
George soon finds himself possessed by the demented, murderous spirit of Mosely’s late partner,
Lou. As George’s success grows, so
does Lou’s influence over George’s
mind and body, leading to a climactic showdown in Hollywood.”
nant, with book by Michael Zam,
music by Andy Monroe and lyrics
by Jack Lechner. New Group
Artistic Director Scott Elliott
directs this world premiere.
The authors were honored with
the 2009 BMI Foundation Jerry
Bock Award for Best New Musical. This marks The New Group’s
return to musical theatre after producing Avenue Q, another BMIfueled project, which received the
Tony Award for Best New Musical
in 2004.
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE MUSICALS
The La Jolla Playhouse in California has announced programming
for its 2009-10 season. Every one of
the musicals has at least one writer
with BMI connections.
The Big Time
A world premiere musical
Book by Douglas Carter Beane,
music and lyrics by Douglas J.
Cohen
November/December 2009,
Mandell Weiss Theatre
“Two down-on-their-luck lounge
singers perform on a U.N. cruise
ship that is held hostage by a terrorist intent on destroying the
world.” The show was previously
seen in a bare-bones NYMF staging and in a commercial workshop.
The Hudsucker Proxy,
A Page to Stage Workshop Production
Book and lyrics by Glenn Slater,
music by Stephen A. Weiner
July/August 2009, Mandell
Weiss Theatre
“When the CEO of Hudsucker
Industries makes an abrupt and
fatal exit from the company, the
board of directors hatches a plot to
drive their stock price down in
order to buy up all the shares
themselves. Enter Norville Barnes,
a naive mailroom employee with a
loopy new invention destined to
fail, and a new Hudsucker CEO is
born.” Based on the Coen Brothers’
1994 film.
LOVE, INCORPORATED
After winning “Outstanding
Production of a Musical” at last
year’s Midtown International Theatre Festival, this musical by alumnus Marc Castle was optioned by
Power Productions/Stan Raiff and
presented for a three week run this
past February at the T.C.C. Roper
Center in Norfolk, VA as a tryout
for an off-Broadway run this com-
Herringbone
Book by Tom Cone, music by Skip
9
ing season. Directed by Igor
Goldin and with Musical Direction
by Jeffrey Lodin, it starred Paulo
Montalban (of TV’s Cinderella) and
Heather Parcells (A Chorus Line).
THE MUSICAL OF MUSICALS
(THE MUSICAL!)
Eric Rockwell and Joanne Bogart’s acclaimed Off-Broadway hit,
returns to New York July 8 for a
one-night-only performance to
benefit the York Theatre Company. The 7:30 PM performance will
be presented at The York Theatre
Company in Saint Peter’s Church
and will feature actors who have
performed the show in New York
and around the country: Joanne
Bogart, Matt Castle, Brent Schindele and Kristin Maloney.
Melanie Herman, the show’s New
York producer, has also reunited
the show’s original artistic team:
director Pamela Hunt; set designer
Jim Morgan; costume designer
John Carver Sullivan; and lighting
designer Mary Jo Dondlinger.
Musical of Musicals has music by
Rockwell, lyrics by Bogart and
book by both. The show, according
to press notes, “is a musical
about…musicals! In a comic satire
of musical theatre genres, one
story becomes five musicals, each
in the distinctive style of a different master of the form, from
Rodgers and Hammerstein to
Stephen Sondheim.
Doug Cohen
ety wrote, “The entertaining new
L.A. premiere production at the
Colony Theater capitalizes on the
tuner’s virtues with a strong cast
and smart direction.” Kevin
Symons, Jack Noseworthy,
Heather Lee and Erica Piccininni
starred, with direction by West
Hyler and Shelley Butler.
NOR’MAL: A FAMILY MUSICAL
Librettist Yvonne Adrian participated in a talkback following a
performance of her Jonathan Larson Award-winning musical during its April 3-25 run at Stage 1
Theatre Company in Richmond,
Virginia. (Music by Tom Kochan,
lyrics by Cheryl Stern.) Yvonne
says this is a great theatre for innovative work—edgy and unique,
with great possibilities for BMI
songwriters and librettists. Artistic
Director is the young and talented
Chase Kniffen: www.stage1va.org
PUCELANDIA, WHERE THE
ONLY COLOR IS PUCE
by Fran Handman (music by Sheldon Gartner) was produced as a
holiday show last December for a
NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY
Douglas J. Cohen’s musical
received its Los Angeles premiere
at the Colony Theatre in Burbank,
California, April 18-May 17. Vari10
miere of Vanities (NAMT Fest
2006), which had a limited run this
summer.
Vanities, the musical, “spans the
turbulent ‘60s through the late ‘80s
and explores how important
friends are as one faces life’s defining moments: growing up, getting
older and getting over it,” according to Second Stage.
run of 13 performances by Turtle
Shell Productions. Originally entitled Yucky Puce while it was being
developed in the Librettists Workshop, the musical was a finalist in
the Jackie White National Children’s Playwrighting Competition
under the title, If All the Colors Disappeared. That version received an
Honorable Mention from TRU last
year in their TRU voices Musical
Series competition.
Since March 2008, six of Handman’s short pieces, including a
ten-minute musical, have and are
being produced in the Turtle Shell
Productions’ 5th and 6th 8-Minute
Madness Festivals; Summer Shorties, 2008; and Turtle Tales, 2008,
the latter performed by professional teen actors.
In Development
ALL FALL DOWN
A musical by Selda Sahin (book
and lyrics) and Greg Turner
(music) was accepted into the Next
Link series of the New York Musicals Festival (NYMF).
BETH BLATT…
A TALE OF TWO CITIES
A concert performance of the
musical, seen on Broadway this
past season, will be filmed this
summer at Theater Royal
Brighton, England, for PBS.
WGBH-Boston will be the presenting station for the event, which is
currently scheduled for broadcast
in December 2009. A DVD and studio cast recording of the concert
production will be available in late
2009, and the program will be distributed internationally in 2010.
Book, music and lyrics are by Jill
Santoriello.
Selda Sahin
is currently working on Oneida,
a commission from the Village
Theatre in Issaquah, Washington;
the theatre is a National Alliance
for Musical Theatre member. The
musical is based on the Bible-communist, free-love Utopian community that flourished in upstate
VANITIES
Off-Broadway’s Second Stage
Theatre in association with NAMT
members Junkyard Dog Productions, Bartner/Jenkins Entertainment and Demos Bizar Entertainment produced the New York pre11
New York for forty years in the
mid-1800’s—until they began a
revolutionary evolution experiment.
She’s also working on Hashi
with collaborator Jeff Blumenkrantz (they were recently
artists-in-resident at Goodspeed).
Hashi deals with a New York
woman of a certain age, set in her
ways, stuck and shutdown—until
the nephew she never knew she
had comes to live with her. It’s
about what happens when the antiAuntie Mame is confronted with a
ten-year-old old soul.
In addition to Oneida and Hashi,
Blatt is developing a Latin American pop album around the stories
of people whose lives have been
transformed by microloans and is
exploring a collaboration with
Paris-based Russian composer
Sergei Dreznin.
WINTER OF THE FALL
A workshop performance of this
musical, with music and lyrics by
Lawrence Rush, book by Rush and
Lee Wind, took place at Illinois
Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois, on April 25. The musical, set in Roumania, follows a
young couple through the last days
in which tyrannical Communist
rulers Nicolai and Elena Ceaucescu’s reigned. A talkback with Rush
was held the next day.
In January, the School of Theatre
Arts performed a concert of songs
written by Rush to kick off
rehearsals for Winter of the Fall,
which was a 1997 Richard Rodgers
Award finalist.
Lawrence writes, “It was an
amazing experience and, with the
collaboration of the director Scott
Susong, the students and myself,
the show has gotten to level I never
thought possible. I had kept it in a
box the last ten years, believing the
show to be too problem-ridden to
be fixed, but with the help of these
wonderful, talented people, many
of the problems have been fixed,
and I’m excited to continue working on it. Below is a link to an online interview the school did with
me about the show and the
process. Some misquotes and mistakes aside, it is a nice interview, I
believe.”
http://www.iwu.edu/
CurrentNews/newsreleases09/
spk_LawrenceRush_00409.shtml
Rush has also set up a website
for another of his shows, Pride &
Prejudice: The Musical, at:
http://www.prideandprejudicethemusical.com
In Staged
Readings
DREAMLAND
The new musical by Eric Rockwell (music), Joanne Bogart
(lyrics) and William J. Brooke
(book) received a reading on April
21 at the York Theatre Company’s
Developmental Reading Series.
Based on Irwin Shaw’s play The
Gentle People, the musical is
described thus: “It’s Brooklyn in
the summer of 1939. Amiable
Jonah Goodman is confronted by a
12
days and do whatever is asked of
us. I will presumably not be asked
again to man a power saw, which I
managed last year to break
irreparably.
“So, it’s an afternoon benefit at
Don’t Tell Mama. I’ll be doing my
expanding songbook and, even
though I am doing some new
things, there will still be Kafka and
Waterloo and Twenty in my Pocket. I
promise. I will be joined this time
by Matt Drago, Jeremy Neal,
Johary Ramos-Seguinot, Abigail
Taylor and Tanesha Warren.”
smooth-talking crook, and the situation goes from bad to worse when
the gangster starts dating his
daughter. Jonah is forced to come
to an extreme decision with life-ordeath stakes. How far do we go to
protect ourselves and those we
love?”
SENSE & SENSIBILITY
The Berkshire Musical Theater
Workshop presented two staged
readings of this new musical on
May 9 at Shakespeare & Company’s Elayne P. Bernstein Theater in
Lenox, MA. Based on the classic
Jane Austen novel, Sense & Sensibility features music by Neal Hampton and book and lyrics by Jeffrey
Haddow.
THE DEVIL’S MUSIC
At Manhattan Theatre Club’s
Annual Spring Gala on May 18 at
Cipriani 42nd Street, featured
among the numbers from the hit
Broadway musicals Billy Elliot, 9 to
5: The Musical, Shrek The Musical,
Hair, and West Side Story was the
“St. Louis Blues” number from
Librettist Angelo Parra‘s The
Devil’s Music: The Life and Blues
of Bessie Smith. The scene was
performed by Miche Braden, the
critically acclaimed show’s longtime Bessie, and directed by Joe
Brancato, Artistic Director of Penguin Repertory Theatre Company.
“We were the only non-Broadway
show included,” says Angelo. “It
was pretty exalted company to be
in, and Miche knocked ‘em dead as
she always does.” The Devil’s Music
has appeared at such prestigious
regionals as The Hartford Stage,
Florida Stage, Cape (Cod) Playhouse, and Theatre Memphis.
Plans are in the works to tour the
show nationally in 2010.
In Cabaret
& Concert
ANOTHER MIRACLE TIME:
TIMOTHY MATHIS’ GULF
COAST BENEFIT CONCERT
Timothy writes, “My Spring concert [May 16] is a benefit for the
West End Collegiate Church’s Gulf
Coast Relief Fund. 100% of the
cover charge will go to the fund
that sends the church’s kids to
New Orleans and Mississippi to
help rebuild. I was shocked last
summer at the vast and daunting
amount of work still to be done in
this devastated region. In August
approximately twenty youths and
adults will travel to the gulf for ten
13
RUTH CARLIN
debuted her new cabaret show
at the Duplex on March 13, with
further shows on the 19th and
38th—director, Scott Barnes, musical director, Paul Greenwood.
DOUG COHEN AND JANE
SMULYAN
provided some of the lyrics for
the February 23 edition of the
Songbook series dedicated to the
music of David Evans. The concert
also featured the vocal talents of
Jill Abramovitz.
Now in its 18th season, the
Songbook series is held at the New
York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ Bruno Walter Auditorium.
Adam Overett
MONDAY NIGHTS, NEW VOICES
Adam Overett was the featured
composer-lyricist in the April 27
edition of this series at the Duplex.
Adam wrote, “I’ve been on tour
with Dirty Dancing for several
months, but we have a break this
month, and I’m excited to be back
in NYC presenting my work in a
concert series that’s become wellknown for introducing great new
talent to New York City. Five performers will sing five of my songs,
and I’ll be performing a sixth one
myself.”
GOING THROUGH A STAGE:
THE SONGS OF CHARLES
BLOOM
Jenn Colella, Cody Green, Aaron
Lazar and Ashley Fox Linton performed the songs of Charles
Bloom in “a musical journey
exploring the quirks, longings and
joys we face while going through
the stages of our lives” at the Triad
Theatre May 18 and 25. Donald
Brenner directed.
PFLAG-OLYMPIA MOTHER’S
DAY CONCERT
This Washington State event featured Steve Schalchlin in an
evening of songs by him and Amy
Lynn Shapiro, some of which will
be included in a cabaret that will
hit New York sometime next fall.
RANDY KLEIN
appeared in an evening of solo
jazz piano improvisation at the
Dave Frank School of Jazz on January 28. His improvisational abilities may also be heard on his most
recent Jazzheads CD, The Flowing.
THE PRIMORDIAL JAZZ
FUNKTET
Dan Furman’s group celebrated
the release of its first CD, We Are
Here, with a performance at
Cachaça on January 15.
Primordial Jazz Funktet began in
14
revue in numerous venues, most
recently the Laurie Beechman Theatre during February.
Shelf Life
ABIE’S ISLAND ROSE
The original Off-Broadway cast
recording of the musical comedy,
created by Ron Sproat (book),
Richard Engquist and Frank
Evans (co-lyricists) and Doug Katsaros (music), and produced by
Jewish Repertory in 2000, was
released Dec. 16 on the Original
Cast Recordings label.
Dan Furman
Atlanta, GA and brought its blend
of jazz, R&B and hiphop beats to
New York in 2003. PJF plays funky
soulful tunes that tell stories. The
sextet features originals by Furman as well as new takes on modern classics from Gershwin to Stevie Wonder, and more. “It’s
expressive music with intense
solos,” says Furman. “It’s jazz, but
we’ve broken out of ‘swing’ and
‘bebop’ grooves and are going for
a different sound.” The CD is
available from iTunes.com.
THE BLACK MONK
which was seen Off-Broadway in
late 2008, recorded the Wendy
Kesselman score on May 25. Musical director for the recording was
Chris Berg. The album will be produced/engineered by Grammy
Award winner John Kilgore. The
recording will be released online in
the fall on iTunes; a record deal is
pending.
THROW IT TO THE WIND: THE
SONGS OF MALTBY & SHIRE
Andrew Gerle (Participating
Collaborator) as arranger/accompanist, Christa Justus as vocalist,
along with their Uncommonly
Good Band have played this new
THE GIG
This 1996 musical by Douglas J.
Cohen (based on the motion picture by Frank D. Gilroy) was
recorded by Jay Records in a version based on the York Theatre’s
concert of 2006, but restoring
Michael Gibson’s full jazz orchestration.
Andrew Gerle & Christa Justus
15
And the
Winner Is...
THE DOGS OF PRIPYAT
The Weston (Vermont) Playhouse Theatre Company celebrated its third annual New Musical
Award with a free concert of selections from its 2009 award winner
on February 21. The Dogs of Pripyat,
a modern fable about the triumph
of the spirit, with music by Aron
Accurso and lyrics by Jill
Abramovitz, was introduced by its
creators and performed by a fiveperson cast as the latest offering in
the WPTC’s expanding programs
to develop new plays and musicals
in Vermont. After the Weston concert, the cast and musicians recorded a demo CD in New York under
the supervision of Kurt Deutsch of
Sh-K-Boom and Ghostlight
Records. For more information
about the non-profit Weston Playhouse Theatre Company and its
New Works programs, visit
http://www.westonplayhouse.org
Hill & Bartram
THE STORY OF MY LIFE
the cast album CD, recently
released on the PS Classics label,
had a “launch” event: a performance and CD signing, Tuesday,
June 2 at the Lincoln Triangle
Barnes & Noble. The event featured performances by the Broasdway production’s two-person cast,
Will Chase and Malcolm Gets with
special guests Neil Bartram (music
and lyrics) and Brian Hill (book).
A TALE OF TWO CITIES
Upcoming PBS broadast and
CD. See this listing under “Works:
In Production.”
WE ARE HERE
A new CD. See the listing for The
Primordial Jazz Funket under
“Works: In Cabaret and Concert”,
above.
DRAMA DESK AWARDS
Nominees for the 54 th annual
Drama Desk Awards, presented on
May 17, included:
• The Story of My Life
Outstanding Musical, Outstanding
Music (Neil Bartram), Outstanding Lyrics (Neil Bartram)
• Dear Edwina
Outstanding
16
Music
(Zina
Goldrich), Outstanding Lyrics
(Marcy Heisler)
in a Resident Musical (Natascia
Diaz).
• My Vaudeville Man!
Book by Jeff Hochhauser, music
by Bob Johnston with lyrics by
Johnston and Hochhauser
Outstanding Actress in a Musical (Karen Murphy), Outstanding
Choreography (Shonn Wiley)
FRAN HANDMAN
for her Adding Machine: The
Musical (music by Sheldon Gartner) won the Musical Theatre
award at the 2008 Moondance
International Film Festival and
was a finalist for the 2008 Jerry
Kaufman award.
Next to Normal was considered
last season in its Off-Broadway
premiere.
JEFF HUGHES & SCOTT
ETHIER
won the Richard Rodgers
Award for Musical Theater for
their biographical musical Rosa
Parks. The award provides financial support for the further development of the work. Rosa Parks,
featuring book and lyrics by
Hughes and music by Ethier, “tells
the tale of one of the Civil Rights
Movement’s most storied heroines
in the months leading up to her
fateful bus ride in Montgomery,
Alabama. Uncovering forgotten
heroes and rediscovering celebrated ones, Rosa Parks depicts how a
seemingly ordinary woman
became renowned for one extraordinary act of bravery.” The Richard
Rodgers Awards were endowed by
the famed composer and are
administered by the American
Academy of Arts and Letters.
TOM GUALTIERI & DAVID
SISCO
received a 2009 Anna Sosenko
Assist Trust grant in support of a
forthcoming reading of their show,
Falling To Earth.
HELEN HAYES AWARDS
Next to Normal, with music by
Tom Kitt and book and lyrics by
Brian Yorkey, made a big impression on the voters in the Washington, DC, area, winning three of the
four awards for which it was nominated, including Outstanding
Non-Resident Production; Outstanding Lead Actress, Non-Resident Production (Alice Ripley);
and Outstanding Supporting Performer, Non-Resident Production
(Aaron Tveit).
ANDY KARL
was chosen as one of The 37
Hottest Guys in Theater in a January 27 feature on the website
afterelton.com
Rooms: A Rock Romance, with
music and lyrics by Paul Scott
Goodman (alumnus) and book by
Goodman and his wife, Miriam
Goodman, was nominated for five
Hayes awards, winning in the category of Outstanding Lead Actress
17
Kate Kerrigan
Beth Falcone
MAC AWARDS
Carol Hall, Mark Janas and
Peter Napolitano were among the
winners of the 23rd annual MAC
Awards (Manhattan Association of
Cabarets & Clubs), presented May
18 at BB King Blues Club. Hall
won the MAC for Special Material
for “This Is My Birthday.” She
was also nominated in the Song
category for “Change in Me” and
in the Recording category for
“Hallways: The Songs of Carol
Hall.”
Janas and Napolitano received
the Song MAC for “Come Home.”
Their Algonquin Salon was also
nominated for Open Mic.
Nicholas Levin received a nomination for his Special Material,
“The Olives of Regret.”
KLEBAN AWARDS
Beth Falcone and Kait Kerrigan
have picked up the 19th annual
Kleban Awards, handed out every
year to up-and-coming musical
theatre lyricists and librettists.
Each award comes with a $100,000
cash prize, to be paid out over two
years. Falcone, composer/lyricist
of Wanda’s World, nabbed the laurel for most promising lyricist,
while Kerrigan (Henry and Mudge)
picked up the honor for librettist.
The Kleban Foundation, which
hands out the awards, was established under the will of the
late Edward Kleban, the
lyricist of A Chorus Line.
(http://www.variety.com/
profiles/people/main/590154/
Edward%20Kleban.html?dataSet
=1)
18
16 and 17, she also appeared as an
ensemble member in the industry
reading of the new musical version
of the classic holiday film, A
Christmas Story.
OUTER CRITICS CIRCLE
AWARDS
“Rooms” A Rock Romance, with
music and lyrics by Paul Scott
Goodman (alumnus) and book by
Goodman and his wife, Miriam
Goodman, was nominated for
three Outer Critics Circle Awards:
Outstanding New Off-Broadway
Musical, Outstanding New Score
and Outstanding Actress in a
Musical (Leslie Kritzer).
Next to Normal was considered
last year and won the OCC Award
for Outstanding Score.
Non-Writing
Gigs
Carla & Thomas
BARBARA ANSELMI
musical directed the York Theatre Company developmental
reading of Sweet William, with
book by Bill Solly and Donald
Ward and music and lyrics by Bill
Solly, which concerns “the young
Will Shakespeare [who] goes on
the road with the Stratford Players
and meets a girl called William.
Along the way he also has to cope
with a vicious boy-player, several
theatrical crises, unexpected
romance and a bear.”
CARLA ROSE ARNONE
married Thomas J. Fisher Jr. on
Sunday, June 14, in a small ceremony in Erie, PA. Carla wrote in an
email to the editor: “So much has
changed since I moved out to
Westchester! Thomas proposed
while we were in Hawaii for his
brother’s wedding. We were snorkeling and he proposed right there
in the ocean, ring and all!” She
continues to work as a freelance
editor. (“Know people who really
couldn’t have said it better themselves? Tell them to check out my
writing and editing services at
www.saidandsung.com.”)
JILL ABRAMOVITZ
starred as Fanny Brice in the
Westchester Broadway Theatre
production of Funny Girl, March
26 through June 14. On December
NANCY GOLLADAY
was a member of the panel
focusing on The Art of the Synopsis, a workshop on the packaging
and promotion of new work spon19
BRIAN YORKEY
Next to Normal’s Tony-winning
co-author will direct two productions as part of the 2009-2010 season at the Village Theatre in
Washington State. Yorkey will
stage one of six new works included in the 9th Annual Festival of
New Musicals as well as the Neil
Simon comedy Lost in Yonkers,
which runs Jan. 21-Feb. 28, 2010, in
Issaquah, WA, prior to arriving in
Everett, WA, March 5-28, 2010.
“Next to Normal started at Village
Theatre (as Feeling Electric) and I
started at Village Theatre, and this
just seems like a great night to celebrate Village’s commitment to
new musicals,” Yorkey said in a
statement regarding the 2009 Tony
Awards. “I was so glad to have
[Village Theatre executive producer Robb Hunt] there to cheer us on,
and celebrate, and I’m proud to
say that Village Theatre is a big
part of the Next to Normal story.”
sored by the Dramatists Guild on
April 28. Video of the panel is
available at: http://www.dramatistsguild.com/members/ml_medi
a_video.aspx
ANNIE LEBEAUX
is currently musical director for
Danny and Sylvia: The Danny
Kaye Musical, book and lyrics by
Robert McElwaine, music by Bob
Bain, directed by Pamela Hall,
starring Brian Childers as Kaye
and Kimberly Faye Greenberg as
Sylvia Fine. The production is
playing at St. Luke’s Theatre, 308
West 46th Street, where it alternates with the one actor bio-drama
Lansky, starring Mike Burstyn.
BOBBY LOPEZ
participated in the Readings on
the 4th Floor series at PS 107 on
February 25. This panel discussion,
Broadway Unbound, featured
Lopez. the co-creator of Avenue Q;
the show’s director, Jeff Whitty;
and Vineyard Theater artistic
director Doug Aibel in a discussion moderated by Framji Minwalla, visiting professor of drama at
Fordham University. Avenue Q
played the Vineyard prior to its
Broadway run.
TED SOD
directed Blood Type: Ragu, a
one-man show, written and performed by Frank Ingrasciotta,
which opened March 5 at the
Actors’ Playhouse. The piece is
about a family that emigrates back
and forth from Sicily to America.
20
BMI-Lehman Engel
Musical Theatre Workshop
320 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019
212-830-2508
[email protected]
Jean Banks – Senior Director
Steering Committee
Patrick Cook
Richard Engquist
Frank Evans
Frederick Freyer
Nancy Golladay
Jane Smulyan
David Spencer
Maury Yeston
21
Spring Smoker 2009
The BMI-Lehman Engel Musical
Theatre Workshop held its Spring
Smoker, a semi-annual showcase
for new songs from Workshop writers in the Media Room of BMI’s
New York office at 320 West 57th
Street on Thursday, April 30,
5:30PM; as usual, the event was
open to members of the entertainment industry as well as Workshop
members.
The Smokers, celebrating their
eleventh season, were modeled
after informal social gatherings at
Cambridge University where the
Workshop’s two time Tony-Award
winning writer and ex-officio
Advanced Moderator Maury
Yeston performed his songs during
his undergraduate days.
Twelve new musicals and twenty-two BMI Workshop writers were
included in the 70 minute presentation.
Raymond Bokhour & Simon
Gray are adapting the 1928 Soviet
play The Suicide by Nikokai Erdman. Their hero, an unemployed
grouch, believes a suicide may be
his only chance for greatness.
The Thing About Joe, music by
Randy Klein, book and lyrics by
Matthew Hardy, tells the story of
22
Joe Christiansen from Preston,
Idaho, who rebels against his pill
pushing psychiatrist mother and
journeys to New York City to pursue his dream of becoming a great
Maitre d’.
“My Van” represented The Dirty
Hippie Jam Band Project, an original musical about a gaggle of modern-day neo-hippies who follow
a Phish-style band around the
country. The composer is Dan
Israel, lyricist is Phoebe Kreutz
and bookwriting is shared by
Adam Mathias (See Rock City) and
Ms. Kruetz.
In “With Enemies Like You,” a
duet from The Masked Zinfandel
by Peter Yarin (music) and Justin
Warner (book and lyrics) two villains who have the countryside
both terrified and bamboozled celebrate their symbiotic partnership.
“This Should Be Easy”, a duet
between opposing trial attorneys,
was the entry from Greenbrier
Ghost with music and lyrics by
Clay Zambo and book by Susan
Murray. Greenbrier Ghost is based
on the true story of an 1897 murder
case, the only time in history when
testimony from a ghost was admitted at trial.
Composer Craig Baldwin and
lyricist Kathy Lombardi, adapting
Strindberg’s The Stronger, were
represented by “I Have a Secret”,
performed by Workshop member
Tracy Sallows (a Broadway veteran
whose credirs include Angels in
America).
Phillip Chernyak was represented by two songs, both from projects based on horror films: “What
a Great Day” for which he wrote
music and lyrics, from The Driller
Killer which centers around a
struggling artist who caves under
the pressures of everyday life and
embarks on a drill-happy killing
spree; and, as composer in collaboration with librettist-lyricist Blake
Hackler, “Tiny Sting”, with from
The Wasp Woman, based on the
60’s
23
cult film which tells the story of
Janice Young, aging CEO and
spokesmodel for YoungThing cosmetics and her dangerous and
destructive search for the fountain
of youth.
Other songs included “I Can See
Things”, from the songwriting duo
of David Gaines and Kellen Blair;
“When They Take You Away”,
from Prophet$ by Ken McCarthy;
and “When It’s Right”, from the
team of Ilene Weiss and Michael
Kooman.
The event, as usual, was co-produced by Patrick Cook, Artistic
Coordinator of the Workshop
and Frank Evans, Special Events
Coordinator.
Master Class #14:
Tom Jones
invited to comment on the work of
two selected Advance class writing
units. As usual, committee member David Spencer served as producer and moderator of the event.
The two shows represented by
25 minute excerpts were The
Masked Zinfandel, music by Peter
Yarin, book and lyrics by Justin
Warner; and Greenbriar Ghost,
music and lyrics by Clay Zambo,
music by Susan Murray.
On Thursday, May 28, The BMILehman Engel Musical Theatre
Workshop offered its fourteenth
Master Class (the second and last
of the season) in the third floor
Media Room. Tom Jones,
renowned lyricist and lyricistlibrettist (The Fantasticks, 110 in the
Shade, I Do! I Do!, Celebration, Collette Collage, Road Show, Grover’s
Corners, Philemon, Mirette and
Harold & Maude) was the panelist
Peter Yarin, Susan Murray, David Spencer, Tom Jones, Clay Zambo, Justin Warner
24
“The Do-It-Yourself Songbook
Primer”
(Continued from page 1)
them. If I started putting my music
out there and then wanted to do a
rewrite, there‘d be multiple versions floating around. How would
people know which was the definitive version? (2) If a singer asked
me for the music for one of my
songs, was I supposed to just give
it to them? Or sell it to them? If so,
how much should I charge? (3) I
wanted to control who had access
to what.
Publishing my own songbook
solved all three of these issues. (1)
Once the songs are published, they
are officially done. No more
rewriting. This is scary at first, but
ultimately, it’s a big relief. (2) No
more pussyfooting around the
“give or sell” issue. You want my
music? Here’s where you can buy
it. (3) My music would be completely accessible to anyone who
could pay for it. Hey, control is just
an illusion, anyway.
So off I went into the world of
music self-publishing. I took
Marcy to lunch to pick her brain
about the self-publishing experience. I checked out loads of songbooks from the library to compare
styles. (There are so many choices
to make! Everything from picking
fonts to setting margins to deciding whether or not to include a bio,
a title page, photos, chords, quotes,
acknowledgments,
etc.)
I
researched such publishing issues
as registering for an International
Standard Book Number (ISBN),
copyrighting, paying contributing
writers’ royalties, etc. (FYI, for
every question that arose, the
answer was always a quick Google
search away.) I got estimates from
print houses and graphic designers. (The designer I ultimately
picked had done a friend’s CD
liner and came highly recommended; the print house had printed the
sheet music for “I Won’t Mind”
several years earlier, and I was
very satisfied with their work.
Both of their quotes fell squarely in
the middle of the range of estimates I’d fielded.) Most importantly, I began preparing my songs for
publication.
Because I’m facile with Finale
(music publishing software), I was
able to keep my expenses very low
by editing the music for the book
myself. Since all the music pages
were generated as PDFs of Finale
files, there was no need for technical assistance. And while it took
countless hours to polish the look
of the pages (and rewrite the songs
a few more times) and to make
each file consistent with the rest,
this part of the process ended up
being essentially cost-free. In the
end, the only things I paid for were
the ISBN number/bar code, the
services of a music proofer and a
graphic designer, and the printing
and delivery of the books themselves.
The people at the printing house
were very patient with my lack of
experience and walked me
through the process. Some of the
random things that I learned along
the way:
25
• Books are printed in multiples
of eight (or is it sixteen?) pages,
hence it’s ideal for your total page
number to be divisible by eight (or
sixteen). If you want a different
total number of pages, say 126,
your book will still be printed on
128 pages, and you will have to
pay more to have those two extra
pages removed. (Better to leave
them in, blank, or find a use for
them.)
• There’s a mysterious phrase
included in the price quote issued
by the print house. It reads “Max.
Billable Overs 10%.” Translated,
this means that should you order
1,000 books, they are going to print
more than that, to insure that
they’re covered in case some of the
books are damaged or unusable. If
all the books printed are in perfect
condition, you are responsible for
buying 10% of the overage, i.e.,
you ordered 1,000 books, but
you’re probably going to have to
purchase 1,100.
• The print house is in central
Pennsylvania, and instead of visiting, I opted to choose the finish for
the cover by phone without seeing
a sample, which was a mistake.
What I chose was “flood gloss varnish,” and what I should have chosen was “film lamination.” While
the former looks entirely professional and is less expensive, it
lacks the glossy, protective covering of the latter and therefore
doesn’t stand up as well to use and
abuse.
• Shipping 70 cases of books is
expensive! And they will ask you
for details about your drop-off
location with shipping lingo that I
still don’t understand: blah blah
blah loading dock blah blah blah
palette….
It was somewhat terrifying to
sign off on the final proofs, but
after all the time I spent laboring
over those files, it was a relief to
think that I wouldn’t ever have to
sift through them again.
Amazingly, scarcely a week after
returning the proofs, there it was!
My book! An actual, 9x12, perfectbound, professional-looking songbook! Filled with my music!
Getting it Out There
You might think the story’s over,
but here’s where the real heavy
work began. For a self-publisher,
promoting the book takes at least
as much effort as getting the book
printed.
26
I had to figure out a way to get
recordings of my songs out there,
because other than “I Won’t
Mind,” my music was completely
unknown. And I didn’t want to
spend the kind money it would
take to produce (and promote!) a
studio CD. I wanted to find a way
to distribute recordings of my
songs without any expense for
myself or my prospective listeners.
Podcasting turned out to be the
perfect solution. It’s a casual format, so I could record the songs in
my home studio without worrying
about achieving perfect sound
quality. Again, with Google as my
guide, I learned the ins and outs of
setting up a website, of creating a
blog and a feed, I found places
online where I could store my
large audio files for free and registries where I could list my podcast. I called in favors from my
wonderful singer friends, who
generously sang my songs for no
pay. I assumed the roles of host,
performer, writer, musical director,
accompanist, engineer, editor,
stage manager, and talent booker.
Thanks to iTunes, Blogger, Feedburner, and archive.org, I was able
to make the recordings available
27
for free on the internet. With each
successive episode, that viral phenomenon kicked in, and before
long, I had a fairly large subscriber
base. And while I invested many
hours in this pursuit, it cost me
zero dollars. (Well, that’s only
slightly true. To maintain my website, I pay a monthly webhosting
fee. But I think you might be able
to find even that for free now.)
The podcast has turned out to be
a truly effective (and affordable!)
marketing tool, and with the additional help of concerts and the odd
interview, article, or message
board posting, my book continues
to sell nicely, especially considering I have never spent any money
on advertising.
Today, my songbook is available
at my online “music store”
(www.jeffblumenkrantz.com/musi
cstore.html), as well as Colony
Music (here in NYC), Dress Circle
(in London), and Amazon.com. In
three and a half years, I’ve sold
about half of the books I originally
printed, having recouped my
expenses somewhere in the middle
of year two. Also, I’m now selling
there is definitely a flipside. I’m
doing order fulfillment myself,
which involves constant shipping,
book-keeping, and purchasing of
office supplies. And then there’s
the issue of storage: Where does
one keep 70 cases of books? Luckily for me, mine live in a warehouse
in NJ, which my brother maintains
for his medical supply business.
(Hopefully, I’ll have sold all my
books before he retires!)
Having produced my own songbook and podcast, it’s occurred to
me that there must be other ways
to take advantage of that experience.
I thought about setting up a
shingle and publishing other people’s music. (e.g. Why are there no
vocal selections for the wonderful
musical Violet?) But that would get
overly complicated with contracts
and writers’ royalties and warehousing and shipping and order
fulfillment, etc.
I thought about publishing
another songbook of my music.
But that would mean another zillion hours of music editing and
more promoting and podcasting
and 70 more cases of books. What
if my brother evicts me and my
towers of books from his warehouse?
In the end, I decided the best
application of my experience
would
be
to
bring
the
songbook/podcast format to The
BMI Workshop and to make some
of the wonderful songs written by
Workshop members and alumni
available to singers, who are so
desperate for fresh material.
Hence, The BMI Workshop Songbook
sheet music for additional songs,
some because they were released
on CDs by Victoria Clark and Sutton Foster, and others because they
were featured on special episodes
of my podcast.
Admittedly, the income from
selling my music is marginal, and
that’s to be expected. It would be
foolish to think that a musical theatre songbook, especially one by a
virtually unknown composer,
would make anyone rich. The
point was to make my music available to performers, and that’s
exactly what’s happening. The fact
that I’ve been able to make it happen without LOSING money is a
victory to me. Everything else is
gravy.
And Where to Go From Here…?
Overall, the process has been very
gratifying and empowering, but
28
and Podcast, newly available at
www.bmiworkshopsongbook.com.
I recently spoke to Marcy, and
she believes that the success of her
songbook hinged on the popularity of “Taylor the Latte Boy,” and
that by subtracting that factor, selfpublishing might not make sense.
However, I’m not convinced. With
all the newfangled ways of developing an audience, like YouTube
and Facebook and who knows
whatever else is around the corner,
I say the sky’s the limit.
(Note: Some writers, including
Marcy and Zina, use Hal Leonard
as a distributor, which gives them
access to markets not open to
someone like me. There are music
stores out there that have contracts
with Hal Leonard to sell only
books from their catalogue. The
upside of partnering with Hal
Leonard is more copies sold, and
none of the bother of order fulfillment, bookkeeping, etc. The downside is a greatly reduced profit per
sale.)
So in conclusion: If you have a
stack of songs that you’re clear are
ready to be performed, and you’re
resourceful enough to get them
printed and to promote the hell
out of them, then self-publishing
might be for you.
Newsletter Staff
Editor:
David Spencer
Listings Editor:
Design and
Layout:
Jerry James
Patrick Cook
Contributing Editors:
Richard Engquist
Frank Evans
29
by Richard Engquist
The term liberal education has a particular resonance for me because
my college years (1950-54) were
spent at a midwestern oasis
of open-mindedness in a vast
desert or reaction, conformity and
fear. The dignified general in the
White House was no idelogue, but
it was a time of cold war, blacklists, and deep anxiety about anything alien—and he did not inspire
daring or adventure, as Jack
Kennedy did a few years later.
I came to Hamline University,
then quite a small school, as a freshman in the fall of 1950, having
already spent two years there,
one day a week, studying violin and
chamber music and playing in the
school orchestra. Our young conductor, Tom Nee, favored contemporary music—as he continued to
do in a sixty-year career in various
venues—and I was often confounded by atonal stuff I’d no idea how to
hear. My musical background was
conventional, 18th and 19th century,
tonal, melodic. Not till Bartók
became popular in the 1940’s did I
hear anything that would not have
sounded okay in a Victorian salon.
Bartók was indeed a breath of fresh
air, and accessible; many people
referred to him as the fourth B,
30
along with Bach, Beethoven and
Brahms. But Tom Nee took us students way beyond Bartók.
The marvelous college choir was
heard mostly in a medieval
and 20th century repertoire; a
pure, ethereal, genderless sound.
The head of the music department
composed weird little miniature
exercises for spinet and the like,
that bore no relation to tunes. But,
hey, it was different!
In the art department you’d be
hard
pressed
to
find
anything remotely representational. The reigning idol of the literary
set was Dylan Thomas—but he
was at least, thank goodness, comprehensible. There was modern
dance, and that was it for anything
Terpsichorean.
Hamline was a church school,
preparing young men for
the Methodist seminaries, but the
professors and staff leaned heavily
toward that branch of the denomination sometimes called pink
Methodism—socially conscious,
often pacifistic, international in
outlook and humane in temperament. The Bible was taken seriously but not literally. Among our
political heroes: William O. Douglas and Hubert Humphrey, and
Gahagen Douglas (Nixon’s victim)
made a swing through the midwest to warn of the right wing, it
was our little theatre she spoke in
Though Jim Carlson never did
anything conventional or boring,
he nevertheless unstintingly supported those students whose writing was strictly traditional—like me
with my musical comedies! And
some of the songs I wrote during
those years I later recycled, with
new lyrics, in such productions
as—but you don’t want to know!
So when you see me now, square
and
stodgy,
relentlessly
(and tediously) playing the elder
statesman, know that I in fact had
a heady, eclectic, adventurous and
often off-the-wall education. If I
happen to be sitting in the moderator’s chair and you’re in the mood
to present something absolutely
new, fresh, wacky and bizarre, do
it. Please. Take me back to the
glory days of Hamline U. and my
Jim Carlson
the occasional moderate Republican like Earl Warren. Nowhere was the liberal in liberal arts more obvious than in
the theatre. Our theatre director
Jim Carlson introduced us to a
mindbending menu or dramatic
works: Shakespeare, Shaw, Ibsen
and Wilder, to be sure, then off the
beaten path to Garcia Lorca,
Tagore, Gorki, Yeats; and strange
works from Russia, Japan, Sweden
and France by writers we’d
never heard of—even a Soviet propaganda piece (ludicrous), and lots
and lots of Brecht. Jim produced
and directed the American premiere of The Good Woman of Setzuan, as well as The Caucasian Chalk
Circle, He Who Says Yes/No, The Private Life of the Master Race, and on
and on—yes, in the heyday of Senator Joe McCarthy!
US playwrights? Of course; not
only the expected, but wild
cards like Barrie Stavis (world premiere of The Man Who Never Died,
labor martyr Joe Hill), Eric Bentley
and Francis Fergusson. Quite a
theatrical feast. If Jim produced a
film festival, it was sure to include
the avant garde (Cocteau, Maya
Deren) and a splendid piece of
propaganda—The Oxbow Incident,
The Grapes of Wrath. When Helen
Carlson & Engquist
introduction to the wide, wide
world.
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