Winter 2009

Vol. 9, No. 32
Winter, 2009
The Straightest
Possible Line
by David Spencer
It’s not something I started doing
consciously, but somewhere along
the way, the more deeply committed I became to teaching, the more
I found myself looking for principles of craft that hide in plain
sight: building blocks we aspire to
use properly, sometimes even talk
about on a per case basis, but that
are somehow never codified as a
conscious part of the daily tool kit;
by which I mean, stuff we should
think about before we start writing
and during the writing—as we
would perfect rhyme, perfect scan,
song forms, guidelines for narrative structure, etc.—rather than
after, when we’re taking notes off
audience reaction. Or, worst case
scenario, when it’s too late to
make changes.
And recently, I’ve became aware
of one that is both staggeringly
powerful, and yet perhaps the
most un-attended in Workshop
presentations.
I’ll call it The Straight Line Principle. And while I mean it geometrically (to describe the most direct,
linear route from point A to point
B), and don’t mean it as an echo of
comedy terminology (evoking the
straight line that sets up the punch
(Continued on page 25)
Table of Contents
Works
In Production . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
In Festival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
In Development . . . . . . . . . .9
Staged Readings . . . . . . . . .12
In Concert & Cabaret . . . . .13
Shelf Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
And the Winner Is... . . . . . . .18
Non-Writing Gigs . . . . . . . . .18
Personals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
Richard’s Almanac . . . . . . . .37
Richard Engquist
Works
In Production
29LIVES, VOL. 13 (ANONYMOUS LIVES)
a musical revue by Chris Wade,
directed and conceived by Stephen
Brotebeck, was presented at the Lil
Peach Theatre on October 26 and
27. “R U an addict? What’s UR
addiction? sex? drugs? liquor? cigarettes? money? men? women?
both? We’re here to help…Welcome to the meeting. This is
(Anonymous Lives).” http://www.
myspace.com/ chriswade78
Bessie.html
AVENUE Q
played its 2,000th performance
at the John Golden Theatre June 3.
The Jeff Marx-Bobby Lopez musical is now the 25th longest-running production in Broadway history, having surpassed the original
runs of South Pacific (1,925) and
Pippin (1,944).
GLIMPSES OF THE MOON
based on the novel by Edith
Wharton, with music by John
Mercurio and book and lyrics by
Tajlei Levis returned to the Oak
Room of the Algonquin Hotel with
performances every Monday in
November.
“Set in 1922, an age of anything
but innocence, Glimpses of the Moon
follows the jazzy whirl of Manhattan society. With plenty of friends,
but little money, Susy Branch and
her friend Nick Lansing devise a
clever scheme to live beyond their
means. They’ll marry and live off
the wedding gifts, while they help
one another trade up to suitable
millionaires. The plan works perfectly—until they fall in love.”
The show was directed by Marc
Bruni and choreographed by
Denis Jones. It starred Autumn
Hurlbert and Chris Peluso, head-
THE DEVIL’S MUSIC: THE LIFE
AND BLUES OF BESSIE SMITH
book by Angelo Parra (Librettists), using the songs Bessie Smith
made famous, was the closing production of the summer season at
Cape Playhouse in Cape Cod,
Sept. 1 to 13. The show, starring
Miche Braden and directed by Joe
Brancato, followed up with special
presentations at Riverspace in
Nyack, Saturday night, Sept. 20,
and Sunday afternoon, Sept. 21.
www.parrasite.homestead.com/
FAMOUS: A HOLLYWOOD
MUSICAL
with book by Yvonne Adrian
(Librettists), lyrics by Cheryl Stern
and music by Tom Kochan was
presented by the Ensemble Studio
Theatre on November 17 as part of
EST’s Octoberfest 2008. Famous
starred Katie Gassert and Aubrey
Sinn and was directed by Carlos
Armesto.
2
cation of Henry’s penis. Through
Hyde’s audacious guidance,
Henry is finally able to find the
love of his life and to balance his
ideas of morality with the hunger
of his sexuality. In the meantime,
televangelist Swigger is haunted
by his nightmares of God speaking
to him in the form of the AfricanAmerican, cross-dressing Gigi.”
ing a cast of six.
HANGIN’ OUT
Frank Evans (committee), Ben
Schaechter (alumnus), Adele
Ahronheim (participating collaborator) and Dan Kael (alumnus)
have material in Hangin’ Out. The
new revue from the producer and
director of Naked Boys Singing
opens at the Macha Theatre/Film
Center in West Hollywood (CA)
on Jan 9, and will run for six weeks
with a possible extension. The cast
contains three men and three
women in various stages of
undress.
JOAN RIVERS: A WORK IN
PROGRESS BY A LIFE IN
PROGRESS
written by Douglas Bernstein
and Denis Markell (alumnus) and
starring the eponymous Ms.
Rivers, played the Leicester Square
Theatre in London August 29-September 18. The production also
was seen at the Edinburgh Festival, August 7-25. “Set in Joan’s
dressing room backstage at the
Oscars ceremony, Joan is preparing
for one of her legendary annual
TV catwalk commentaries on the
fashion hits and disasters at Hollywood’s biggest night of the year.
But all is not well...”
HENRY & HYDE
Written by J. M. Eisenman
(lyrics, co-book) and Thomas
Adams (music, co-book, additional
lyrics), the musical was produced
by New York Theatre Artists
Unlimited as part of the “Is That A
Gun In Your Pocket?” segment of
the Bad Musicals Festival ‘08 on
July 21, 26, 31 and August 5 at the
Producers Club.
“Henry & Hyde is an outrageous
version of the classic [Jekyll and
Hyde] tale. In this version, Henry
Jekyll is the young accountant for
the infamous televangelist and ‘pit
bull of American morals,’ Jack
Swigger. The show humorously
chronicles Henry’s coming to grips
with the dark side of his longrepressed sexual desires and his
need to break free from the stifling
constraints that he has allowed to
be placed upon his behavior. The
catalyst for his journey is his alter
ego, Hyde, the life-sized personifi-
MY VAUDEVILLE MAN
book by Jeff Hochhauser, music
by Bob Johnston (both alumni)
with lyrics by Johnston and
Hochhauser, was produced by the
York Theatre Company and
Melanie Herman, November 7,
2008–January 4, 2009 at the Theatre
at St. Peter’s. The new musical—
based on tap dancer Jack Donahue’s Letters of a Hoofer to His
Ma—tells “the story of a boy born
to dance and the mother who
fought to keep him home” in and
3
Natascia Diaz played Monica, and
Doug Kreeger was Ian in this coproduction with MetroStage in
Washington, DC, where Rooms
opened in August.
In the show, Monica is a Scottish-Jewish songwriter with
dreams of stardom. Ian is a harddrinking Catholic rocker, content
to just play his music in Glasgow
obscurity.
“They become creatively and
romantically entangled as ambition propels them from Scotland to
London to New York and into the
punk rock explosion,” according
to Geva notes. “A gritty rock musical, Rooms explores the desire for
escape and the redemptive powers
of creativity and love. An energetic
and tuneful new musical that captures the exuberance and drive of
two young musicians in full creative throttle: composing, laughing, arguing and loving.”
around the small-time vaudeville
houses of New England in 1910.
Shonn Wiley and Karen Murphy
co-starred, with direction and
choreography by Lynne TaylorCorbett. The musical originally
premiered at the NY Musical Theatre Festival under the title Mud
Donahue & Son.
OBAMA DRAMA: A POLITICAL THEATRICAL SPECTACULAR!
Creative Destruction commissioned seven playwrights to write
an evening of plays “Inspired by
the Man, the Myth(s) and the
Michelle of Barack Obama.” Matt
Schatz wrote the only musical.
The seven plays were presented
October 23-25 at The Gallery at
Access Theater.
ROOMS
music and lyrics by Paul Scott
Goodman (alumnus), book by
Goodman and his wife, Miriam
Goodman, launched the 2008-2009
Nextstage season at the Geva Theatre Center, Rochester, New York,
September 19-October 26. Scott
Schwartz directed.
SAINT HEAVEN
kicked off the Village Theatre
2008 season in Issaquah, Washington. The musical, featuring a country, gospel and R&B-tinged score,
with music and lyrics by Keith
Gordon (alumnus) and a book by
Martin Casella, was originally
developed through the company’s
Village Originals series, Saint
Heaven is based on Steven Lyons
novel, The Gift of Tongues.
“Set in the quaint town of Saint
Heaven, Kentucky in 1957, this
beautiful new musical tells the
soulful story of a young doctor as
he returns home to settle his
Paul Scott Goodman
4
version of the musical was subsequently featured as an offering of
the 2008 NAMT Theatre Festival.
father ’s affairs and confront the
past. Upon his return, he comes
face to face with the friends and
family he left behind, and encounters a young female preacher with
a special spiritual gift. As their
journey unfolds, they come together to learn the power of faith,
courage, and acceptance.”
Saint Heaven played the Francis
J. Gaudette Theatre in Issaquah
September 17-October 26 and
moved to the Everett Performing
Arts Center October 31-November
23.
THE STORY OF MY LIFE
the two-actor Canadian musical
about lifelong friendship played
Goodspeed Musicals’ Norma Terris Theatre in Chester, Connecticut,
October 10- November 2.
Commercial producers were
waiting in the wings to take the
show to Broadway. It will be the
Broadway bow of Canadian-born
writers Neil Bartram (music and
lyrics) and Brian Hill (book).
Richard Maltby Jr. directs Will
Chase and Malcolm Gets as the
pals.
“This new musical tells the story
of two childhood friends and how
that friendship profoundly defined
their lives. Thomas Weaver
[played by Chase] is a best selling,
award-winning author. Alvin
Kelby [played by Gets] was his
SEE ROCK CITY & OTHER DESTINATIONS
with book and lyrics by Adam
Mathias and music by Brad
Alexander was presented by Barrington Stage Company August 723 as part of its Musical Theatre
Lab program—William Finn,
Artistic Producer. The cast included Jill Abramovitz. A condensed
A scene form See Rock City
5
Year’s Eve event on Dec. 31, 1999.
But when the clock struck midnight, Billy and Dixie were transported back to 1900, where the two
would find fame and fortune
when they decided to write, or
rather steal, some of the great
American songs they discovered
had not yet been written.
TWELFTH NIGHT
On September 18, PBS showed a
production of Twelfth Night for
which Ray Bokhour had written
the music. It was preceded by a
behind-the-scenes documentary,
Shakespeare on the Hudson, which
used Bokhour ’s music as underscoring. http://www.thirteen.org/
artsandculture/shakespeare-on-thehudson-twelfth-night-broadcast
Neil Bartram & Brian Hill
best friend for 30 years. But time
can test the bonds of friendship—
and when it does, Thomas calls on
the only resource he has—his stories of Alvin—to learn where
things went wrong. A richly
melodic musical, The Story of My
Life is a soaring tribute to the
power of friendship and the people who change our lives forever.”
The production has announced a
February 19 2009 Broadway opening at the Booth Theatre, with previews beginning February 3.
THE TURN OF THE CENTURY
produced by the Goodman Theater, Chicago, Illinois, in September, boasted bookwriters Marshall
Brickman and Rick Elice, director
Tommy Tune and stars Jeff Daniels
and Rachel York. Tune brought in
Maury Yeston to write additional
songs.
Daniels played Billy, a talented
but not-so-successful cocktail
pianist with a taste for the ladies,
while York played Dixie, an aspiring chanteuse who has some baggage with Billy. The pair found
themselves teamed for a New
Ray Bokhour
TWELFTH NIGHT
Songs by Lucy Coolidge were
featured in a production by The
Illustrious Theatre Company, Warwick, New York, July 1-13,18-20,
and 15-17.
6
by Shakespeare’s Much Ado About
Nothing, which played the New
York Musical Theater Festival
from September 17-24. Jeffrey
Lodin wrote the music, Nick Corley directed and Mary MacLeod
choreographed.
“Set in 1955 amid the sexually
charged hijinks of Whittney College, this rollicking, romantic comedy finds Coach Benedick and
English Literature Professor Beatrice Stanton waging their ‘merry
war of wits.’ Love, laughter and a
little mischief are on a spree in this
high-flying, heartwarming musical
that puts the comedy back in
musical comedy!”
The NYMF Excellence Awards
cited Arthur for Honorable Mention: Lyrics; Corley for Honorable
Mention: Direction; and Barbara
Walsh for Outstanding Individual
Performance as Beatrice.
Puppets from Village of Fools
A VILLAGE OF FOOLS
Ilene Weiss wrote the songs for
this show and also performed in
the ensemble. A Village Of Fools,
presented by The Grand Falloons
at Theatre for the New City, October 16-19 and 23-26, was described
as “family friendly… Bring the
kids for big fun with idiots in the
snow, a yuk-it-up suicidal
schlemiel, and a psychotic baby.”
In Festival
I COME FOR LOVE
This musical by Jeffery Lyle
Segal and Terrence Atkins played
NYMF from September 30 through
ABOUT FACE
David Arthur wrote book and
lyrics for this musical, suggested
David Arthur
7
The concert featured songs from
The Unauthorized Autobiography of
Samantha Brown, most recently
developed by the La Jolla Playhouse;
Tales From The Bad Years, which
recently received a full workshop production at the Paramount Theatre in
Vermont; and The Woman Upstairs,
which was produced as part of the
inaugural NYMF in 2004.
October 5.
“Sparks and saucers fly when
romance lands at Roswell, and a beautiful alien girl falls in love with a clueless reporter. When he learns who she
really is, will he choose the love of his
life or the story of the century?”
MAX AND THE TRUFFLE PIG
Suzanne Bradbeer wrote the libretto for this adaptation of the children’s
book by Judith Gwyn Brown. With
lyrics by Nancy Leeds and music by
Bert Draesel, it was such a hit at
NYMF that an extra performance had
to be added after their scheduled run,
September 15-23.
Read Bradbeer ’s tale of how the
musical
came
about
here:
http://broadwayworld.com/
viewcolumn.cfm?colid=32015
WILD ABOUT HARRY
Daniel S. Acquisto wrote a dance
piece specifically for NYMF based on
the life of Leona Helmsley. Susan
DiLallo wrote the book. Wild About
Harry was directed by Elizabeth
Lucas and choreographed by Joshua
Bergasse, Daryl Gray, Maurice Brandon Curry, Jeff Shade and Shea Sullivan. It played September 19-28 at the
Manhattan Movement & Arts Center.
“This unique, danced-through
musical, created especially for NYMF
‘08 and choreographed by five of
today’s most talented young choreographers, begins where the tabloids left
off.
“A completely fresh look at Leona
Helmsley, one of NYC’s most colorful
characters, and the one man who
loved her, the many others who did
not and her dog… who inherited
twelve million bucks.”
The choreographers received a
NYMF Honorable Mention citation.
PARTY WORTH CRASHING
NYMF and Michael Cassara presented this concert as a Festival Special Event. The cast of the aborted
Broadway-bound revival of Godspell
sang the songs of Kait Kerrigan and
Brian Lowdermilk at the Zipper Factory on September 23.
Kate Kerrigan & Brian Lowdermilk
8
In Development
THE 7-YEAR B*TCH
Under the auspices of the York
Theatre Company’s NEO Spotlight
series, Sammy Buck and Daniel S.
Acquisto presented *an anniversary concert of complaints, plaints
and the ain’ts of two never-was
has-beens” on June 30.
“The 7-Year B*tch, named as an
Outstanding New Musical in the
2007 Talkin’ Broadway’s Summer
Theatre Festival Citations, is a
wickedly funny and bitterly heartfelt concert featuring the songs of
Dan Acquisto and Sammy Buck,
everyone’s favorite second choice
for Broadway, off-Broadway, film
and TV jobs. Sammy and Dan give
you their tell-all and show you
what it’s like to persevere, while
five very talented performers sing
songs about misadventures in love
and work, and never winning a
certain performing arts foundation
grant each year.”
The asterisk in the title stems
from Acquisto’s “Grandma
Rule”—meaning that he won’t
allow a word in his show that
might offend his grandmother.
Sammy Buck
THE BROADWAY CLOSE UP
SERIES
part of the Kaufman Center ’s
2008-2009 season at Merkin Concert Hall, continued December 8
with the ninth annual Bound for
Broadway concert.
Hosted by Tony-nominated
actress Liz Callaway, the evening
spotlighted several up-and-coming
musicals, including Adam Mathias and Brad Alexander ’s See
Rock City; Michael Zam, Jack
Lechner and Andy Monroe’s The
Kid; and Barry Harman and Grant
Sturiale’s Under Fire.
The evening also presented a
second look at Brian Hill and Neil
Bartram’s The Story of My Life,
which has been announced for
Broadway. Authors Hill and Bartram discussed the show’s evolution, and members of the New
York cast performed.
23 KNIVES
Chris Boal had a reading of his
new play at the Manhattan Theatre
Club on June 23, following a workshop. 23 Knives is a comic-drama
about the first criminal forensic
autopsy—on Julius Caesar. It was
commissioned by Resonance
Ensemble.
9
THE COUSINS GRIMM: AN
INSIDE-OUT LOOK AT THE
GRIMM’S TALES
The Eugene O’Neill Theatre
Center, Waterford, Connecticut,
presented a staged reading of this
musical on August 8. Book by Ted
Sod; lyrics by Michael Biello;
music by Dan Martin; directed by
Michael Bush; musical direction by
Steven Watkins.
Biello & Martin
material by Greg Christopher and
Karla Momberger, August 8-10 as
part of their New2NY series. The
cast included Adam Overett. Joe
Calarco directed.
“From below the city streets
springs this brand new musical,
inspired by the rhythms and
sounds of life on the subway.
There’s not an instrument in sight
as a colorful array of young people
find their way in NYC. Mixing reggae, pop, soul, beat box and more,
In Transit is unlike anything
you’ve ever seen—or heard—on
stage before.”
Ted Sod
IN TRANSIT
The York Theatre Company’s presented this new a cappella musical
by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, JamesAllen Ford, Russell M. Kaplan and
Sara Wordsworth with additional
The cast of In Transit
10
MUSICAL MONDAYS ON
TUNEFUL TUESDAYS
This series, produced by Frank
Evans and Bick Goss, presented
readings of these works-inprogress by workshop members at
the Jerry Orbach Theater in the
Snapple Theater Center:
Tuesday, November 25
The Suicide
Raymond Bokhour (currently
playing Amos in the Broadway
company of Chicago) and Simon
Gray (2007 BMI Foundation Harrington Award Winner) have
adapted the 1928 Soviet play by
Nikolai Erdman. Their hero, an
unemployed grouch, believes a
suicide may be his only chance for
greatness.
Matthew Hardy
Tuesday, December 2
The Thing About Joe
This quirky new musical comedy
by Matthew Hardy and multiple
Gold Record and Emmy Award
Winner Randy Klein is no longer a
one-man show. A full cast now
tells the story of Joe Christiansen
from Preston, Idaho, who rebels
against his pill-pushing psychiatrist mother and journeys to New
York to pursue his dream of
becoming a great maitre d’ like his
father who was killed in a freak
flaming Bananas Foster accident.
Randy Klein
11
In Staged
Readings
FALLING TO EARTH
The Syracuse University New
Play Workshop presented a reading of the first act of Falling to
Earth, book & lyrics by Tom
Gualtieri, book & music by David
Sisco on October 27 at Chelsea Studios. The reading featured Harry
Bouvy, Cole Burden, Kristin Maloney and Laura Shoop and was
directed by Laura Josepher.
“Falling To Earth is a serio-comic
retelling of the myth of Pygmalion
& Galatea, set in ancient Cyprus,
but filtered through a skewed, contemporary lens. The artist Pygmalion finds himself unable to finish a statue of Venus in time for the
annual feast day. Frustrated by
interference from both his lusty
friend and a mysterious serving
girl, Pygmalion turns his attention
toward the statue and soon discovers that his creation has a life and
story of her own. The appearance
of a beautiful but neurotic goddess
Tom Gualtieri & David Sisco
further complicates matters when
she brings the statue to life. Soon
all the characters, including the
artist’s creation, are forced to look
deeper into themselves and let go
of their once secure notions of life,
love, and self.”
The Syracuse University New
Play Workshop invites writers to
develop their work away from
commercial pressure, allowing
them to experiment, rewrite, and
see the work on its feet before a
live audience. Using actors from
the Syracuse Drama Department,
the process encourages collaboration between writer, director and
student, culminating in two weekends of “bare bones” performances. The Workshop is committed is to helping the artist create
his/her work and fostering the
growth of theatrical collaboration.
IN THE THEATRE
Beth Fowler starred as Joan Littlewood in the reading of this new
musical, performed as part of the
York Theatre Company’s Developmental Reading Series, on November 24 and 25 at the York’s home at
The Theatre at Saint Peter’s.
In the Theatre featured music by
Steven Fisher and book and lyrics
by Fisher and Joan Ross Sorkin.
David Glenn Armstrong directed.
The musical, according to the
York, is described thusly: “Never
heard of Joan Littlewood? That’s
about to change. One of the most
important women in twentieth
century theatre, Joan was bold,
brash, brilliant—and forgotten.
And she’s not happy about it.
Spend some time with Joan and
12
Norris, Gretchen Goldsworthy,
Catherine Carpenter Cox, Rita
Markova, Susan Lewis, Adam
Halpin, Joan Porter, Bill Bateman,
Doug Shapiro, Amanda Johnson,
Mary Workman and Matthew
Deming
In Cabaret
& Concert
Beth Fowler
her company of actors. You’ll discover what it really means to be ‘in
the theatre’.”
THE ALGONQUIN SALON
With Peter Napolitano, Secretary) has hosted many people with
BMI connections, among them
Craig Baldwin, Frank Evans,
Kathy
Lombardi,
Michael
Mooney, Robert Yarnell, and Sara
Wordsworth.
The Salon, Peter writes, is a
weekly event in which singers,
writers and musicians share their
talent with each other and audience members in the lobby of the
Algonquin Hotel. You do not need
to sign up in advance to perform.
Just show up and see Peter, Mark
Janas or the co-host to fill out a
card. All types of material including spoken word are welcome at
the Salon.
PRIDE & PREJUDICE, THE
MUSICAL
based on the novel by Jane
Austen, with book, music and
lyrics by Lawrence Rush, received
a staged reading at the
McGinn/Cazale Theater on
November 10. The 2008 Richard
Rodgers Award finalist was directed by Mary Catherine Burke, with
Matt Castle as musical director.
The cast included Jessica Rush,
Ron Bohmer. Nora Mae Lyng, Gordon Stanley, Allison Spratt, Billy
Wheelan, Lucy Sorensen, Brian
Michael Biello and Dan Martin
had their songs featured in the
September 28 installment of the
Bright Lights series, produced by
the Dreamlight Theatre Company
at the Triad. Bright Lights is a concert series dedicated to showcasing
the work of emerging composers
and lyricists in musical theatre.
Rita Markove
13
and Jeff Ward.
Mark Janas and Peter Napolitano
had their song, “Come Home”
from Pinocchio of Chelsea, performed by Julie Reyburn (winner
of the MAC, Bistro, Nightlife and
2007 Julie Wilson Award) and her
four-piece combo on the closing
night of The Mabel Mercer Foundation’s 19th Annual Cabaret Convention at The Frederic P. Rose
Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center, on
November 1.
Ms. Reyburn also performed the
song in her cabaret act at The Metropolitan Room on October 25,
November 25, December 6 and
December 13.
Charles Bloom
Charles Bloom
Wrote “Call Me When You’re
Single,” a song that received its
first public performance during
the TRU Faces Cabaret benefit
September 22. It was sung by Julie
Reyburn and the author.
Phoebe Kreutz
has been busy playing all
around town, including a residency at the Sidewalk Cafe (6th and
A) playing every Tuesday in
November. “It’s all just songs I
wrote on guitar and ukulele,” she
says.
Kreutz’s band Urban Barnyard
opened for Jeffrey Lewis at Mercury Lounge on November 14.
“It’s a big fancy rock club and
we’re really stoked…We only play
songs about animals in the city. I
am the singer and occasionally the
drummer.” (See Shelf Life for news
of the Urban Barnyard CD.)
Kreutz also co-wrote some songs
with Gary Adler for “this new
Alex Timbers thing called Dance
Dance Revolution.”
http://www.playbill.com/news/
article/123226.html and
www.phoebekreutz.com
Richard Engquist
seranaded those assembled at
the Bruno Walter Auditorium of
The New York Public Library for
the Performing Arts on November
24 with Saloon Songs. Annie
Lebeaux was at the piano. The
performace was produced, directed and hosted by John Znidarsic.
LOTS OF REALLY GREAT
STUFF: NEW THEATER AND
CABARET SONGS
The Second-Year Class presented
this evening of their work at The
West Bank Cafe’s Laurie Beechman
Theatre on September 12.
The songwriters included
Jonathan Breit, Phillip Chernyak,
Greg Edwards, Paul Fujimoto,
Gabrielle Gold, Ben Green, Blake
Hackler, Kate Light, Leah Maddrie, Eric March, Dina Pruzhansky, Brian Sherman, Tom Stuart
14
Flores, Sean Hartley, Marcy
Heisler, Kait Kerrigan, Brian
Lowdermilk, Ben Moore and Rob
Rokicki.
Timothy Mathis
appeared at the Metropolitan
Room at Gotham on November 5,
12 and 19 in Miracle Time, an
evening of his songs from Sylvia
So Far, The Conjuring, Our Story
Too, Iowa 08, A Room with a
View, the all-new Gobsmacked and
“lots of other things.”
SONGS FOR THE THEATER:
THE NEXT GENERATION
was the title of a concert given
by Rebecca Luker on November 8
at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC, as
part of Barbara Cook’s Spotlight
series.
Songs with BMI connections
included:
“Billions of Beautiful Boys,”
Music by Joseph Thalken (who
was also Ms. Luker’s accompanist)
and Lyrics by Marshall Barer
“Convalescent,” Poem by
Dorothy Parker and Music by
Thalken
“Lovely Lies,” Music by Jeff
Blumenkrantz and Lyrics by Beth
Blatt
“Love Is Not All,” Poem by
Edna St. Vincent Millay and Music
by Blumenkrantz
“The Last Song,” and “Out of
Love,”Music by Zina Goldrich
and Lyrics by Marcy Heisler.
Tim Mathis
SONGBOOK
In his May 20 farewell to the
Donnell Library Theatre, home to
the Songbook series for the past
seventeen years, producer, director
and host John F. Znidarsic presented the best of the over 300 writers
featured in these concerts.
BMI writers included:
Gerard Alessandrini, David
Arthur, Doug Cohen, Frank
Evans, Zina Goldrich, Sean Hartley, Marcy Heisler, Mark Janas,
Charles Leipart, Ben Moore, Peter
Napolitano, and Robert Lindsey
Nassif.
The October 27 installment
found the series in its new home at
the Lincoln Center Public Library’s
Bruno Walter Auditorium.
That evening featured material
by these present and former members of the Workshop: Rick Hip15
Shelf Life
ANNE OF GREEN GABLES
The Original Off-Broadway Cast
(TheatreWorksUSA production) of
the musical by Gretchen Cryer and
Nancy Ford was released on JAY
Records.
BROADWAY PRESENTS!
Kids’/Teens’ Musical Theatre
Anthology
Lisa DeSpain (alumna composer) is the editor and creator of
Alfred Music Publishing’s new
Broadway anthology series for
Kids and Teen voices. These cutting
edge anthologies include never
before published titles from BMI
writers, including “In the Big Blue
World” from Finding Nemo
(Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez) and “It’s No Problem”
from High Fidelity (Tom Kitt and
Amanda Green). The Teen Female
and Teen Male Anthologies will be
debut in January 15th at the
NAMM show in Los Angeles. The
Kids’ Musical Theatre Anthology was
released in November 2008.
ABIE’S ISLAND ROSE
Original Cast (a.k.a. OC)
Records has released the Original
Off-Broadway Cast of Abie’s Island
Rose, music by Doug Katsaros
(emeritus), lyrics by Richard
Engquist and Frank Evans (both
Committee) and book by Ron
Sproat (Librettists). The Musical
with Heather MacRae (A Catered
Affair), Steve Rosen (Spamalot, The
Farnsworth Invention), Carla Woods
(All Shook Up tour) and Keith Lee
Grant (Marie Christine) was produced by Jewish Rep at Playhouse
91 and the regional premiere with
the New York cast intact, opened
at the Hollywood Playhouse in
Hollywood Fl, where it was
named “Best of the Year” by the
Palm Beach Post. Available at originalcastrecords.com, Amazon.com
and Barnes and Noble (selected
stores and online).
DEAR EDWINA
This earliest collaboration of
award-winning songwriters Marcy
Heisler and Zina Goldrich made
its Off-Broadway debut in December, but a month earlier, PS Classics recorded “the sweet, smart
and tuneful musical with an allstar cast” headed by Kerry Butler
(Xanadu), Rebecca Luker (Mary
Poppins), Andréa Burns (In the
Heights), Terrence Mann (Beauty
and the Beast), Danny Burstein
(South Pacific) and Telly Leung
(Rent).
16
THE GLORIOUS ONES
The Original Off-Broadway Cast
(the Lincoln Center Theater production) of the musical by Lynn
Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty was
released on JAY Records.
HOWARD SINGS ASHMAN
The latest entry in PS Classics’
ongoing Songwriter Series is a
two-CD set, with the second disc
devoted entirely to 15 demos from
Howard Ashman’s 1986 Broadway
collaboration with Marvin Hamlisch, Smile. The first disc—18
tracks—includes Ashman’s collaborations with Alan Menken from
Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin,
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater and
The Little Mermaid, as well as
individual tracks from Diamonds
(with Jonathan Sheffer) and from
Babe, Ashman and Menken’s
unfinished musical on the life of
Babe Ruth.
Phoebe Kreutz
SCREAM LIKE HUMAN
BEINGS
Pheobe Kreutz celebrated the
release of the third album by her
band, Urban Barnyard, at an
August 30 party at Grasslands.
The album features eleven of “the
very finest songs ever written
about animals in the city…”
http://www.urbanbarnyard.com
THAT TIME OF THE YEAR
The Original Off-Broadway Cast
(The York Theatre production) by
Laurence Holzman & Felicia
Needleman (concept and lyrics);
and Sanford Marc Cohen,
Nicholas Levin, Donald Oliver,
Kyle Rosen, Brad Ross, Mark
Wherry and Wendy Leigh Wilf
(music), with musical direction by
Annie Pasqua, was released on
JAY Records.
Howard Ashman & Alan Menken
17
And the
Winner Is...
World, music and lyrics by Beth
Falcone, book by Eric H. Weinberger. Taylor-Corbett also directed the show.
Non-Writing
Gigs
Mary Feinsinger
had three pieces performed at
the Third International Festival of
New Jewish Liturgical Music in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on June 15.
These pieces—two for SATB chorus and one for soprano solo—
were winners in the annual competition sponsored by Shalshalet,
the Foundation for New Jewish
Liturgical Music.
The three pieces were performed
again on December 13 at No Rock
Like You: Songs for the Jewish
Soul, a concert at the Sixth and I
Historic Synagogue, Washington,
DC. On the 14th, Feinsinger conducted a composition workshop at
the synagogue under the auspices
of Shalshelet.
Linda Dowdell
served as music director for
Wood, by Dan Collins and
Julianne Wick Davis. The NYMF
production sold out its initial September 15-28 run and had to add
another performance.
Mary Feinsinger
conducted the annual concert of
the 92nd Street Y’s “Broadway at
the Y” Chorus (with Norma Curley) on June 15. Feinsinger also
arranged many of the selections on
the program.
Angelo Parra
was recently awarded a National
Endowment for the Humanities
grant to participate in a week-long
Landmarks of American History
and Culture workshop, “Revolution to Republic: Philadelphia’s
Place in Early America,” in
Philadelphia in June. Angelo has a
strong interest in the American
Revolutionary period, and for
years has been working on a related theatrical project.
Carey Lovelace
The live performance component of the Bronx Museum’s exhibit, Making It Together: Women’s
Collaborative Art + Community
(an exhibit guest-curated by
Lovelace) was presented on the
Grand Concourse on May 17.
Day Of Collaborative Performance: Contemporary Collectives
Do Outrageous Work! featured
performances by nine groups “and
much, much more!”
Lynne Taylor-Corbett
won the Joe A. Callaway Award
for her choreography of Wanda’s
18
Personals
Mighty Website”), to Reggae
(“Family Business”).
The project follows JewishAmerican Cheryl and ChineseAmerican Justin, who meet as students at G.I.T. (Garment Institute
of Technology) through their marriage and careers as entrepreneurs
of a high-end millinery company
that revolutionizes the American
hat industry until struck by globalization. Multi-cultural, multi-generational, multi-gender, witty, racy,
heartfelt, serious comedy.
Reach Hana at hrothseavey
@gmail.com or (917) 621-7101.
Member: The Dramatists Guild,
ASCAP.
AFFORDABLE DEMO RECORDING
Need a quality demo of your
songs? Need pre-recorded music
for a theatrical production? Want
to make a “cast album” of your last
musical production? My ProTools
set-up includes MIDI-enabled keyboards, some guitar, some loops
and effects. Ideal for musical theater writers and singer/songwriters (and not so ideal for radioready rock and dance music).
$25/hr for recording and mixing;
score copying and arranging also
available for an extra fee. Contact
Rob at [email protected].
Rob Weinert-Kendt
work (212) 912-9770 x431
home (347) 730-4478
cell (323) 356-1592
COMPOSER WANTED
Under Their Hats, a new musical
comedy, is at composer-ready
capability. Book and lyrics are by
Hana Roth Seavey (Jack! The
Unbeatable Boy, Colombia, S.A.).
Hana is looking for a composer/collaborator ready to take on a
musically eclectic score for this
original musical: songs range from
American/Broadway Songbook
(“The World’s Worst Love Song”)
through Jazz (“That’s the Bitch of
It”), parade background (“The
Halloween Parade”), Mozartian
(“Hats Are Easier Than Men”),
Technomusic (“The Ballad of the
19
Master Class #13:
Austin Pendleton
On Thursday, December 11, The
BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop offered its thirteenth Master Class (the first of
the season) in the third floor
Media Room. Austin Pendleton,
renowned actor, director, teacher
and playwright (Uncle Bob, Booth,
Orson’s Shadow) was the panelist
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 Falling to
Earth, music by David Sisco,
lyrics by Tom Gualtieri, book by
both; and The Thing About Joe,
book and lyrics by Matthew
Hardy, music by Randy Klein.
Matthew Hardy, Randy Klein, Austin Pendleton,
David Sisco, David Spencer, Tom Gualtieri
20
Indiana Students Get
the Workshop Experience
claims to be retired, organized the
trip and accompanied the group to
New York this year too.
The students had a special daylong session of the Workshop on
November 23. Frank Evans (Workshop Special Events coordinator),
moderated the session and Workshop Steering Committee Members
Nancy Golladay, Jane Smulyan,
Frederick Freyer and David
Spencer shared their opinions
about the young writer ’s songs.
The Indiana students presented
songs from four new musicals:
Penelope by! Carly Blane, Julianne
Kowalski and Bryce Shaffer; Per-
Students from Valparaiso (Indiana)
High School paid a visit to the BMI
Workshop as part of their Musical
Theatre Program’s bi-annual theatre visit to New York City. In the
unique program, students study
writing for the musical theatre as
part of their curriculum, which follows the theatre songwriting guidelines established by Lehman Engel.
The course was started by its original teacher, Alice Gambel, and
BMI’s Musical Theatre Workshop
has been part of the group’s visits
since 1990. Lindsay Babcock has
inherited Ms. Gambel’s position at
Valparaiso, but Gambel, who
Matthew Hardy, Randy Klein, Austin Pendleton,
David Sisco, David Spencer, Tom Gualtieri
21
every word that could possibly
apply, then find rhymes for the
words and your song will start
falling into place.” He also cited
Maury Yeston’s (Nine, Grand Hotel)
advice about creating a “when”
song, a device often employed by
Cole Porter (“I Concentrate on
You”) and Lorenz Hart (“Where or
When”).
David Spencer ended the day’s
session with an analysis of opening numbers, including why “Love
is in the Air” was abandoned in
favor of “Comedy Tonight” for
Stephen Sondheim’s A Funny
Thing Happened on the Way to the
Forum, as well the gestation of the
opening for Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick’s Fiddler on the Roof.
Spencer also played from his own
epic musical fable of Aesop, The
Fabulist, and contrasted the
“wrong”
opening
number
(“They’re Only Human”) with the
right one (“You Can Always Find a
Fable”) and the deconstructive
process that leads from one to the
other. (Not incidentally, The Valparaiso group uses Spencer’s book
The Musical Theatre Writer’s Survival Guide as their classroom text.)
During their stay, the student
group saw several New York productions, among them: Spring
Awakening, by BMI writers Steven
Satir and Duncan Shiek (which
was followed by a brief talkback
by with the stage managers at the
show); In The Heights, likewise followed by a talkback with writer
and performer Lyn-Manuel Miranda; and The Fantasticks, after which
fume by! Julia Chappell, Patrick
Bushbaum and Michael McBride;
The Green Mile by Anna Anderson,
Aaren Kracich, Brendan Scannell
and Alex Zapetillo; and Star Girl
by!Erin Williams, Andrew Wolverton and Stephanie Truax.
In addition to offering their
appraisals, the Steering committee
gave the students a crash course in
various aspects of writing for the
musical theatre.
Frederick Freyer demonstrated
how a good melody can be ruined
by the wrong lyric and how a good
lyric can be hurt by the wrong
melody. He contrasted two early,
highly flawed settings of lyricist
John Newton’s hymn “Amazing
Grace” with the iconic, now-standard setting of composers James P.
Car rell and Da vid S. Clay ton.
Next, Freyer played the melody of
“Londonderry Air,” along with
two likewise unsuitable lyrics that
preceded the now-standard
“Danny Boy” that Frederick
Weatherly set to the tune in 1913.
Freyer’s third example presented
three rejected drafts written by
Lorenz Hart for what would
become the Rodgers and Hart
standard, “Blue Moon.”
Frank Evans addressed the topic
of where writers can get their best
ideas, talking about source ideas
for new musicals as well as what a
writer can do when he hits a roadblock in trying to find a melody or
a lyric. He cited one technique
handed down by workshop alumni Ed Kleban (A Chorus Line)—
“make lists about your subject,
22
they had nearly an hour with with
the author, lyricist and director of
the current revival, the legendary
Tom Jones. Valparaiso’s theatregoing also included Gypsy and Billy
Elliott.
Finally, the group presented a
generous donation to the BMI
Foundation at the conclusion of
their workshop day; as well as a
donation to Broadway Cares, Equity Fights AIDS after the talk-back
for The Fantasticks.
23
BMI Workshop Smoker
The BMI Workshop Smoker was held on Thursday, November 20 in the
Third Floor Media Room. It featured work by the following workshop
members: Brad Alexander & Adam Mathias; Ron Barnett & Greg
Edwards; Ray Bokhour & Simon Gray; Christopher Cooley & Benj
Pasek; Richard Engquist; Matthew Hardy & Randy Klein; Alison Hubbard & Kim Oler; Dan Israel & Phoebe Kreutz; Eric March; Mary Liz
McNamara; Matt Shatz; and Jeff Ward. The Smoker was produced for
BMI by Patrick Cook and Frank Evans.
The BMI Smoker
24
“The Straightest Possible Line”
(Continued from page 1)
line), there’s a degree to which
comedy terminology is right on
point.
For the straight line component
of a joke, a routine or a scene is not
merely the line that doesn’t get the
laugh as opposed to the one that
does, nor is it just the set-up for the
laugh line…it’s the path to the
laugh line. If the path takes a
detour, if the path is imprecise, if
the path is cluttered, then the destination—the joke—will, at best,
land weakly, and at worst simply
fail to land at all.
That same principle lends itself
to establishing the context for,
maintaining internal clarity within,
and setting up presentations of,
song.
The Scene That Leads to Song
or: The Trigger
In most musicals, when characters
express themselves in song we tacitly understand that the mode of
expression is a metaphor for an
altered state of being, in which
emotion and/or dramatic event
and/or underlying theme have
become intensified and concentrated. This intensification is what
allows song to be dramatically
credible without a hitch in
verisimilitude, what facilitates the
magical transition out of speech
into music in such a way that disbelief remains, as they say, suspended.
But the character(s) just shouldn’t just break out into song off one
or a few lead-in lines. The lead-in
lines are the direct feed, but the
entirety of the scene has to be canted
toward song, toward the event of
song. (In most cases, the event of
song and the event of the scene [its
primary, structure-relevant dramatic beat] will dovetail and occupy the same space—a semantic
argument can be made for the case
that they’re even the same thing.)
A character needs to be motivated,
or at least given dramatic permission, to enter that altered state.
Think in terms of a trigger that has
to be palpably pulled or released.
Yet too often, songs are presented in class, and in developmental
readings, where untriggered song
is precisely what occurs.
Perhaps the most common manifestation of the mistake is what I’ll
call (since we’re talking geometrically) the sudden right angle. I’ll
give you an example. And for now,
let’s assume that all the raw material for a better solution exists within the scene on trial, but isn’t being
properly or fully exploited. (I say
“for now,” because, in some cases,
the cause for the sudden right angle
hearkens to a larger structural
problem at work, that must
involve deconstruction and reconsideration of more than just a single scene to cure—but that’s part
of musical theatre’s endless complexity, and fodder for a whole
other essay.)
All right, here’s the “bad” version: Two strait-laced supporting
characters, co-workers, are having
a mild conversation about office
politics and how cautious you
have to be around the new boss. A
25
by using available details and
dynamics which point toward the
crux’s arrival. (This sometimes
includes adding details that would
be relevant, extrapolating and
articulating details that were previously only implicit, or re-ordering
details to follow a more linear
path.) Here’s my version of a reconception that will serve without
changing the basic configuration:
The two co-workers, charged
with office management, have just
received a major league dressing
down by the new boss—a spitand-polish martinet replacing a
lax, now retired supervisor everyone had loved—and they realize
their hold on employment is tenuous unless they can maintain analretentive equilibrium of the office
environment. Things will have to
be quiet and orderly, the company
dress code will have to be
enforced, every office supply item
scrupulously accounted for and
every bit of behavior conducted
rigidly by the book. They have to
get a memo out, they have to corral their colleagues…they look at
each other in horror…they have to
put a rein on their crazy-ass but
genius IT guy. Maybe it’s fortunate
that he’s late (again), cuz maybe
they can warn him; one of the coworkers starts to call Cat Guy’s
cell—and we hear it ringing just outside the office door—
—and Cat Guy comes bounding
into the office, a newly rescued kitten in each hand, and he gives one
to each of his buddies, so he can
get at his cell phone, looking
around for something he can use
as a temporary cat cage…not even
third, more eccentric co-worker,
the office IT specialist, bounds on,
seemingly oblivious to all that.
They ask him what he’s so worked
up about, and he suddenly launches into his “I Want” song, about
how it’s his mission to make life
better for city animals, because
how we treat animals is how we
treat people, and he’s organizing a
visit from the ASPCA spay and
neuter trucks, and hoping to
recruit volunteers to trap feral cats.
Let’s look at the problems:
First of all, assuming Cat Guy
(as we’ll call him) is our lead,
that’s a very weak entrance for
him, because there’s been no
preparation Secondly, the conversation preceding his entrance has
nothing (directly or indirectly) to
do with Cat Guy and/or his objective, it doesn’t set him up, plus the
appearance of song feels almost
like a violation because we were
following a whole different thread,
that of office politics and new policy. The scene’s intensification is
unearned. Its sudden shift of subject to force open a place for song is
the “right angle” transgression,
and defines the juncture where the
scene fails to follow a straight line
leading inevitably into song.
How does one correct this? Well,
we’re dealing with art, not science,
and this is a speculative exercise,
not a real-world problem, so there
are probably several logical and
entertaining solutions to the riddle—but overall, you’d have to
build into and thus demonstrate
the reason why Cat Guy’s entrance
and his subsequent song are the
crux of the scene. This is achieved
26
“Cat Guy” could be
Michael Madsen...
waiting to be asked before launching into song about his mission.
Note the re-focusing: By starting
the scene with the new “fascist”
regime already a threat pervading
the office, the revised scenario sets
up the tension between playing-bythe-rules and iconoclasm/inappropriateness (thus subliminally the audience already expects a rule-breaker
to appear). By having the co-workers fearing the consequences of
failing at their mission, and realizing that Cat Guy can get them in
trouble, we point toward our star’s
entrance. And therefore when the
star does appear in all his eccentric
glory, even if it’s written in a way
meant to surprise the audience, he
and his song are still the realization of an implicit promise. The
audience is fully prepared to
absorb and comprehend it (on several levels) by dint of context.
Thus the scene follows a straight
line toward the song!
Sometimes the trick is to work
backwards. Let the first finished
draft of a song “tell” you how to
best shape the elements leading
into it.
And it’s very important here not
to confuse objective (the path of
the straight line) with subtext (an
unspoken truth the song may be
designed to convey). We are constantly reminded, and reminding
ourselves, to find ways in which
characters can reveal themselves
through action, philosophy and
even self-deception, rather than
simple, naked confession. The
straight line principle doesn’t violate that.
Examine the example above
again: Cat Guy’s song can still be
rich with subtext. He could be a
Wally Cox-like milquetoast who
doesn’t relate to people well, or a
gleefully disruptive Michael Madsen-style “dark knight” character
who likes to screw with authority
figures. And the song could still
imply either profile without articulating it specifically. Creating a
straight line toward Cat Guy’s dramatic function does not negate his
dramatic expression. The message
may come in through the side
door, but the message needs to
… or Wally Cox;
the straight line still holds
27
make the wild scheme (making
more money with a flop than a hit)
work. We know the point of the
song is to overcome Leo’s pathological fears. But look at the dialogue before music kicks in, how it
builds and builds and builds to the
musical explosion.
In fact, study the song lead-ins
to any strong book musical in the
canon, especially those by Arthur
Laurents, Hugh Wheeler, Abe Burrows, Peter Stone, George Abbott,
Michael Stewart, James Lapine.
They not only make the coming
song seem inevitable—they make
it seem necessary.
In a musical, ideally, characters
shouldn’t just show up to have a
chat, or just sing because the conversation has become a little more
interesting. Entrance is meaningful. Conversation has a purpose.
The purpose is what fuels the
event. The event is the trigger that
gives the switch into song its
validity. And vitality.
The author as “Cat Guy”
appear in a spot prepared for it at
the front entrance.
A subtler example of the
straight line not being trod is what
I’ll call the “Oh, it just came up in
conversation” approach, in which
characters are just talking to each
other about something; and casually slide into song about its ramifications to their circumstance,
without any sense of urgency or
build into song energy.
There should always be something at stake in a conversation
that will lead into song, and in
almost all cases, what’s at stake
involves something being withheld.
Look at the dialogue leading up
to the cautious game of cat-andmouse played by the young
lovers-to-be, ever on the precipice
of admitting their feelings, but
never quite crossing the line, of
Oklahoma! before they sing “People
Will Say We’re in Love.”
For a very different scenario,
check out the scene leading into
“We Can Do It” from The Producers: We know the plot: Max Biallystock needs Leo Bloom aboard to
The Straight Line
Within the Song
or: Avoiding Unintentional
Point-of-View Shifts
There’s a tenet of popular fiction,
rarely broken (certainly rarely broken to good effect) which says that
within a scene, you must always
keep to a single character’s point
of view. Otherwise you risk not
only disorienting the reader, but
losing the touchpoint for empathy,
breaking the flow and the visceral
impact of the scene.
For example, you wouldn’t
28
write:
the pistol!s in my hand…
Garth had surprised the assassin, and now they faced each other
across the room. Garth knew the
standoff wouldn!t last long, and he
could feel the killer starting to
close. He had to reach the gun on
the wall-mount first.
The assassin regarded his prey
coolly through his black mask,
playing at the illusion of shifting his
weight, but using that as a feint to
painstakingly close the distance.
Clearly this Garth had sharper
instincts than he!d expected, and
now he wondered how fast Garth
was too. Can Garth get to the pistol before I can get to my Ninja
Shuriken? he thought.
Now certainly you could write a
scene from the assassin’s POV. If
you needed to; if it were somehow
important, you could even continue the action at this beat from his
POV—but then you’d use a doublespace: give a visual cue to the
reader that something is shifting.
And in a literary sense, your popping into the killer’s head would
constitute a new scene.
Lyrics work pretty much the
same way, albeit more compactly.
Story songs, for example, can
bewilder their audiences, even if
all the facts are orderly and clearly
articulated, simply because the
author has shifted perspective.
Leaving the omniscient view for
the character-eye view, or leaving
one character view for another—
especially in real-time song
speed—is enough to make listeners lose their way, because the shift
in perspective tends to bring with
it a shift in attitude or philosophy.
It’s even more confusing when it
happens within a stanza. Everything could be written in simple,
logically ordered, declarative sentences—yet that abrupt chain-yank
is enough to have listeners unsure
of something as seemingly self-evident as which pronoun is referring
to whom.
Furthermore, lyrics can be even
trickier than prose, because the
organization of song form and the
contour of music imply yet another kind of perspective, quite apart
from character perspective. And
that’s the perspective of function.
This can even affect seemingly
The trick is to keep the scene
locked into Garth’s perspective,
while conveying all the same information. Thus, you might write it
this way:
Garth had surprised the assassin, and now they faced each other
across the room. Garth knew the
standoff wouldn!t last long; the
assassin was tensing, a concealed, edged weapon would certainly be his next gambit, and in
deceptively slow increments, under
the guise of shifting his weight, he
was starting to close the gap
between them. Garth knew his one
hope was to reach the gun on the
wall-mount first. He saw the killer
narrow his gaze at him from
behind the black mask. He knows
I!m not an easy target now, Garth
thought. He!s wondering how fast I
am, and if he can end me before
29
than something here, burning from
within.
Now if it’s vital for Cat Guy to
become philosophical—that’s what
your B section is for. The shifts in
elements like melody, scan, key,
rhythm, etc. combine to create a
collective metaphor for psychological shift, and the audience hears it
as such. Thus your character can
now express the equivalent of
because or as opposed to or therefore,
or something else developmental
that the expectations of the A sections won’t support.
But bear in mind, the AABA
song structure implies that you’ll
return to your original POV when
you return to familiar music.
For more complex examples,
look to Billy Bigelow’s “Soliloquy”
in Carousel and “God, That’s
Good!” in Sweeney Todd. Note how
in the first, each new psychological
state is attached to a new musical
statement; and note how in the
second, which is all about shifting
perspective, each character
(including the chorus of patrons as
one big character) has his or her
own module of music, and none
foursquare songs sung entirely in
the first person.
Let’s go back to Cat Guy for a
moment, and that “I Want” number described above. Let’s say the
song has an AABA structure. As
before, here’s the bad version:
In the first A he sings that he
wants to find good homes for stray
cats, so the poor things don’t have
to wander the streets, which only
makes everybody sad, people and
animals. He wants to make a happier world. (So far, so good.)
But in the second A, to pretty
much the same music, he starts to
expound upon the purpose of
being a good Samaritan, which he
learned as a child on his mother’s
knee. (That’s where we jump the
rails. The audience is already getting lost.)
And why? Because the music of
the first A, in tandem with its lyric,
has defined A-section territory as
the place where Cat Guy talks about
the active pursuit of his goal.
They’re not prepared for the second A to become philosophical,
nor for him to discuss things as an
observer, however emotionally
invested he may be. The change of
stance implies a change of thought
process, and changes the speed of
thought from that of impulse to that
of consideration, essentially an
opposite—and also brings with it a
change in diction, a lessening of
self-referential pronouns and
adjectives like I, me, and my, and a
decrease in active verbs, maybe
also of descriptive nouns. It has
the character talking about something there, apart from him, rather
Bigelow / Goulet / Soliloquy
30
ever “bleeds” into another, even in
the final counterpoint—every distinct point of view, every shift
from one to another, is cleanly
delineated with the musical equivalent of a prose doublespace.
Which brings up a postscript.
One more common manifestation of the crooked-line problem is
the one in which a character ’s
point of transition from one psychological position to another is
inadequately defined. How many
times have we heard a song in
class where character X is trying to
convince character Y of something;
and suddenly character Y is on
board without us ever having
caught the dramatic beat where he
turns?
Such beats need to be set off
from the main structure, musically
and lyrically. It could be something
as extravagant as a whole new
song section where the character
considers in verse…or as simple as
a bass pulse while the character
considers silently—and then
exclaims his conversion (“No kiddin’? Is there really a Brotherhood
of Man?”).
Carol Swarbrick
Carol Swarbrick at the Edison theatre, it was written for an adaptation of Maxwell Anderson’s quaint
but charming time travel fable, The
Star Wagon, which takes place in
the 1930s. The song is sung by an
older woman, Martha, to her likewise elderly husband, a gentle,
brilliant scientist, Stephen Minch,
who is obsessive about his work
yet oblivious to domestic issues.
For decades, Stephen has let his
company take advantage of him,
never requesting so much as a
raise, while his best friend and
assistant Hanus works alongside
him for no money, yet still lives at
their house as a permanent board-
The Single Song Presentation
Set-Up
Tell you about the first song I had
publicly presented via BMI, in the
1978 Showcase, during the last
half-decade in which Lehman
Engel was still the one-man-band
overseeing all aspects of the Workshop:
Performed by the excellent
Lehman Engel
31
ty, Lehman introduced it this way:
“The Star-Wagon is about a scientist who creates a time travel
machine. This song is sung by his
wife.” No reference to elderly, to
the company, to friend Hanus. Just
“this song is sung by his wife.”
Period.
I thought “But…but…but…”
And the song stopped the show.
And by stopped, I mean rock-concert screaming; I’m not exaggerat-
Maxwell Anderson
er. And on this one fine morning,
she loses it and laces into
Stephen—that “Tirade” (which
was also the number’s title) being
her song. I gave Lehman Engel
(who traditionally emceed) a long
intro to read—longer even than
what I’ve written in this paragraph
(a quarter of a century later, and
the info is still a bitch to cut
down)—because I wanted to be
sure every reference in the song
would be clearly understood.
At the performance, in front of
the New York theatrical communi-
Stephen (Orson Bean) and
Hanus (Dustin Hoffman)
back in time as younger men
ing, and I still have the cassette to
prove it. And I was utterly flabbergasted to realize how much set-up
work, how much backstory context, the song had provided for me.
The irony is—the song had not
performed nearly so well in class,
where it had been met with mild
respect and at best tepid enthusiasm; and it wasn’t because the
class didn’t get it; and I had to
wonder if my original set-up had
compromised it. The experience
has informed my set-ups ever
since.
So the first general philosophy
Joan Lorring, Dustin Hoffman
and Orson Beanas the older
Martha, Hanus and Stephen in
The Star-Wagon (PBS-TV, 1966)
32
of song set ups is this: The audience
doesn’t need to know what they need
to know until they need to know it.
And then they only need as much
as they need. Don’t frontload them.
At best you’ll distract them, at
worst you’ll intimidate them into
thinking they have to memorize all
that stuff to understand the song,
and those who aren’t game enough
to make the effort (and that’s most
of them) will shut down. And then
you’re lost. Trust them to be intuitive. And trust your song to do
most of the work for you, and
imply the context for most passing
details. If it’s a good song, it will.
That said—you usually have to
tell them something…
Let’s assume the best. Your song
is finally well-drafted and all the
straight lines of the lead-in scene,
and within the song itself, are optimally realized. Now you aim to
present it in class, concert or
cabaret, with only a few words of
intro to set up dramatic context.
Your narrated song set-up needs
to follow a straight line as well. It
has to avoid being discursive,
avoid wandering into subplots,
character background and story
details that aren’t immediately relevant, that don’t inform the dramatic moment or point at hand.
Remember, a single song is perforce but an excerpt. You have to
balance your desire to communicate the show’s tone and texture
with what best suits the song as an
isolated entity. This requires assiduous selectivity and sometimes a
little compromise.
Now of course, the advice is
given all the time that you should
“keep your setups to the basics”
but that’s lots easier said than
done, especially if you’re so close
to the work, or it’s so freshly written, that you still don’t have perspective on what the basics are.
And in my musings for this article,
I realized that song set-ups jump
the rails in exactly the way songs
do, when they move off the
straight line.
They key, again, is character
point of view.
A song is sung by a specific
character, or characters, who want
something, or are considering
something that has just happened—thinking forward, if not yet
acting forward. For now, to avoid
grammatical hair-splitting, let’s
say we’re discussing a single character. The relevant details, of
course, have to do with where the
character is (both physically and
philosophically), perhaps briefly
referencing what got him there,
and what he desires. If you’re setting up the song for an audience
who know nothing about your
project, add needing to introduce
the show.
In most cases, songs that occur
right near the top of the show
require less effort to set up,
because the songs themselves are
setting up the storytelling universe
and style. However, if the song is a
fair ways into the show, it’s typical
to get caught up in the backstory
preceding it; and as typical to get
caught up in the through-line of
associated characters—for example, if it’s a song for the villain, you
33
may feel the need to talk about
what the hero wants that the villain is attempting to thwart. And
this means you’re asking the audience to follow at least two threads:
“This show is about character X
who is after objective A. This song,
though, is sung by character B,
who wants the opposite.” Already,
you risk fragmenting the audience’s focus, because your second
sentence uproots the foundation of
the first.
Here’s the setup I wrote for my
most recent number performed via
BMI, in a Smoker (for the record,
I’m composer-lyricist, Jerry James
is librettist, and the song being set
up is “Because I Can”).
Safecracker
Keegan responds.
It’s short enough, clear enough,
and it seemed to work well
enough, but it still bugged me; it
didn’t sound foolproof, or balanced or right, and I felt as if the
audience understanding it was
due to the lucky break of performing to an extremely bright and
friendly crowd. I couldn’t have
told you why I flagged this intro as
problematic a few months
ago…but in writing this article, I
saw the answer reveal itself. (As I
said in the opening, principles can
hide in plain sight.) Here’s the
rewrite.
In The Last Hard Score, set in
1970s New York City, the hero is a
thief, a safe-cracker known as
Teaser, because he can tease a
combination out of anything with
moving parts. His last job has
been a favor for a friend, to pay
back the loan-shark and notoriously deadly head of the Irish mob,
Johnny Keegan. But the money
has been lost in a freak accident—
and Teaser is on the spot.
But Keegan offers a solution to
relieve the debt. He wants Teaser
to steal something for him. Not
money from a safe, but an artifact
from a museum. Teaser tries to
reason—this kind of theft isn!t
remotely his specialty. But the
alternative is winding up
dead. Teaser knows that life in
crime isn!t fair, but gently suggests
that even so, a Crime Lord of all
people might be more pragmatic.
In The Last Hard Score, a caper
musical set in 1970s New York
City, the villain is the notoriously
deadly head of the Irish mob,
Johnny Keegan. And our hero, a
safe-cracking thief known as Teaser (because he can tease a combination out of anything with moving
parts), owes Johnny money. But
the money has been lost in a freak
accident—and Keegan is not
happy.
But Keegan offers a solution to
relieve the debt. He wants Teaser
34
to steal something for him. Not
money from a safe, but an artifact
from a museum. Johnny bemusedly tolerates Teaser!s attempts to
reason his way toward an alternative solution—museum theft isn!t
remotely his specialty, and a Crime
Lord of all people might understand that as a real limitation. But
Johnny has his own reasons for
insisting…
Note what’s happened. After a
clause defining the nature of the
show, the first character put front
and center is the one who will be
singing. And everything that follows—even backstory, even the
hero’s problem—is filtered
through the villain’s perspective.
Now there’s a straight line!
Based on what’s above, I can
offer a formula (would you believe
it? not a principle, an actual formula) for song set-ups. If the letter of it
can’t always be applied, I think the
spirit of it can, with only minor
variations for expedience. Try it
and see. Experiment with applying
it to classic songs and see if it
holds. I have, and so far it seems
to. Depending upon what’s needed
for context and energy, the formula
can lead right into the song, or into
the few lines that precede the song,
but it eliminates excess explanation, it
keeps you from rambling off-topic and
it automatically reduces the word
count to something manageably comprehensible. Here it is:
(1) Open with a brief sentence or
clause defining the show’s time,
place and type. Best if it is a clause,
because you can use that as a
direct feed to your focus character.
(i.e. “In West Side Story, an inner
city retelling of Romeo and Juliet,
TONY is a young man with a
dream…”)
(2) In a sentence, define your
focus character by archetype and
desire: (“Max Bialystock is a
down-on-his luck producer desperate for a return to the glory
days.”)
(3) Tell us where we’re at in the
story—but only from the focus character ’s perspective. Explicitly or
implicitly, this sentence begins
with “At this point…” and it’s the
equivalent of cutting efficiently
into the story already in progress.
What’s crucial about maintaining
perspective is that you are limited
to the focus character ’s concerns
and knowledge; the audience only
needs to know what the singer
needs to care about. (“Tobias has
found Sweeney’s behavior to be
unsettling, and not trusting him, is
feeling increasingly protective
toward Mrs. Lovett, to whom he is
grateful for taking him in; unaware
that she herself is complicit with
Sweeney.”)
(4) Without tipping the key contents of the song, state or imply
(whichever ’s appropriate) what
the character hopes to achieve by
singing. (“After this crippling and
unnecessary setback, at the hands
of their meddling mother, Louise
and June fantasize about the one
thing that might save Mama
Rose…and save them from her…”)
Here’s a full set up, for
“Molasses to Rum to Slaves”:
35
In 1776, a musical about the
founding fathers and the Declaration of Independence, Edward Rutledge, though a fiery South Carolinian, is among the more conservative congressman, and a key,
powerful representative of the
southern contingent. He has chosen not to oppose the passing of
the bill, but also not to support it
without a majority of congress in
its favor. He has watched our hero,
congressman John Adams, rally
almost all the colonies to the
cause of American independence,
and now the vote is being called,
and it must be unanimous. But the
anti-slavery clause remains in the
Declaration, and Rutledge, who
will not vote yea until it is deleted,
has some things to say about the
moral outrage of his Northern colleagues.
The straight line isn’t always
easy to find—but when you do,
it’ll never fail you: It’ll make needed rewrites easier to identify,
things that work do so at their
best, and brand you with the mark
of a pro. Walk it and see…
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
36
by Richard Engquist
Things To Do during a
Depression
(based on recollections
of the big one)
1. Visit the public library a lot.
There are many books! Also, now,
CDs, DVDs, computers, recorded
books, classes, and various free
programs—at least in Brooklyn.
2. Listen to the radio. Not only
music, news, and talk shows, but
watch for a return of such good
stuff as Amos ‘n’ Andy, The Lux
Radio Theatre, Inner Sanctum, The
Lone Ranger and Major Bowes’s
Original Amateur Hour.
Major Bowes
3. Go to the movies (adults a
quarter, kids a dime) on Wednesday when they give away dishes.
By the time the next economic
upturn comes, those dishes will be
collectibles—perhaps antiques!—
worth a lot of moola on eBay.
4. Arrange with some neighbors
to share the Sunday newspaper. If
it’s not your turn to get it until
Thursday, good. It will be less
upsetting.
5. Join a club such as 4-H and
develop a “project” like gardening, raising a calf, or sewing. Recycle worn-out clothing as hooked or
braided area rugs.
The Lone Ranger
38
6. Enlist in a choir or neighborhood theatre company. Better yet,
organize one of each and write
new material in the vein of Waiting
for Lefty, The Grapes of Wrath, and
The Cradle Will Rock.
12. Instead of dining at a restaurant, get together with pals for a
pot-luck picnic or weenie roast,
and top off the evening with a singalong. Be sure to include “We’re
in the Money” and “Happy Days
Are Here Again.”
7. Learn how to bake bread. Not
only does it taste and smell good,
but you might win a red ribbon
and a dollar at the County Fair.
8. Create artistic things out of
found objects such as leaves, pebbles, seashells and milkweed pods;
give them away as birthday presents. A visit to the dump or scrap
heap is recommended for more
exotic treasures.
9. If you’re not a handyman
(plumber, electrician, etc.), make
friends with someone who is and
do a swap. Maybe you can mow
lawns, baby-sit or chop firewood.
10. Volunteer at your local soup
kitchen. You’ll get fed, too!
11. Walk or ride a bike for all
errands within two miles. Losing
some weight is a plus, and you
may postpone the onset of arthritis.
39
13. Finally, don’t hold your
breath expecting things to get better soon. It took a lot of years of
horrible government and outrageous business to bring us to this
pass. Happy New Year!
Newsletter Staff
Editor:
David Spencer
Listings Editor:
Design and
Layout:
Jerry James
Patrick Cook
Contributing Editors:
Richard Engquist
Frank Evans