That Was the Year That Was 2010 Revisited

As the year draws to a close, critics and journalists compile their top ten lists. Last year at this time The Road to Qatar! made several top ten lists in Dallas. One year later, we are poised to go into rehearsal for the Off Broadway premiere of the show at the York Theatre Company. This is very gratifying to a writer of musicals. After all, so many writers write and their shows either sit on the shelf or suffer through endless readings and workshops, never quite seeing the light of a lighting designer or a set or a costume or heaven forbid an orchestra. So I am feeling pretty lucky. There are years and there are years. This one began with the hope that Qatar would move on to NYC but really found me in Pittsburgh for a lengthy 6 week rehearsal period for the world premiere of Time after Time. Jeffrey Saver and I have actually been working on and off (lots of off) on this show since the mid 90s! So to finally see it realized with a wonderful set and projections and beautifully directed by Gabriel Barre (not to mention orchestrated for 10 by the great Steve Orich) was a kind of minor miracle. The show opened during several blizzards but we still managed to get wonderful reviews. But good reviews don't help when the storm clouds of snowdom keep New Yorkers from coming to Pittsburgh. So the show closed and we have to start all over again to get another production or get it closer to the goal, which for this not so small show would have to be Broadway. The good news is the material and the production were wonderful. The score is especially good and the book (if I do say so myself) is really excellent. During the whole rehearsal period I worked via phone and email on the Drama League's Angela Lansbury Tribute. I have been writing these tributes (with special material songs) for maybe 20 years, but the Angela Tribute turned out to be the best one I had been involved with. Everything went right at the Pierre Hotel. I might have had to trudge through snow to get from Pittsburgh to NYC for the show, but it was worth it. Right after Time after Time things started heating up with the NYC production of Qatar and most my focus was taken up with that. Meanwhile another of my shows, Rock Odyssey came out of retirement. Several years ago Walden Media decided to branch out into the theatre biz and commissioned 2 seasons worth of Family musicals for their Seattle Theatre. I was commissioned to write two of them: Rock Odyssey and Merlin's Apprentice. The former decided to rear it's Greek head this year and like the Cyclops it grew and grew. First was a spring production in Miami at the Adrienne Arscht Center which was unlike any children's show I have ever seen. It was huge with real sets and costumes and effects and a large cast whopping it up for thousands of kids who were brought in bus after bus. The publicity was huge and the center decided to do it again in the Fall...and then they decided to take a ten year license to do it and do it and do it. So if you see Rock Odyssey anywhere in the next ten years, let me know. I took the upfront money and ran! Seldom has such a deal happened with a show that I thought was dead in the water for 8 years. Hallalu! Another older show came back to life this fall: The Night of the Hunter. Hunter had it's world premiere in SF and was beautifully presented in the New York Musical Theatre Festival, but this production had something the other two did not have: a full 24 piece orchestra that made me cry nightly. Claibe Richardson's gorgeous music was so well served by the great cast led by Davis Gaines and Julie Johnson. Claibe is gone and he was notoriously picky, but I think even he would have been happy to hear that orchestra and those voices. So what else? With all this activity, I have also worked on new stuff, songs, shows I have had in my head that aren't quite all there yet. Recorded things. Came up with special material for Marlo Thomas, Chita Rivera, Dick Van Dyke (got to meet him for the first time! wow)...A year...another year. Now 2011 promises to be very exciting right out of the gate with The Road to Qatar! and maybe some of these other projects that seem to want to get born will be born. Maybe Qatar will open all new doors. I have nothing but hope and fingers and toes crossed. And you know what? I want to write another book too! Musicals are fun but so much stress...a book you write, it gets edited it gets published you get paid. nice.

Happy New Year.