Why oh why oh why oh...

Why do we do it? Write musicals. Today I heard that the wonderfully innovative and artfully moving musical by Kander and Ebb and directed by Susan Stroman, The Scottsboro Boys was closing. I saw the show at the Vineyard before it moved to Broadway and was very impressed all around with it. There are some that claim the subject matter is not proper for a musical. These are the same people who claimed Sweeney Todd was also not material to sing about. All this begs the question why write a musical in this day and age when the money producers want shows by established pop or rock writers who haven't a clue what a musical is and probably would laugh if they saw a traditional musical. Be that as it may...why is the question. Why? Because we have to. I have to. What is the lure? Today, after a fruitful and interesting casting meeting with our director, casting director, producers and my collaborator, I went home and got to polish the script and lyrics of The Road to Qatar! Writing a new bridge to Mansour's song, Everything is Bigger in the Middle East to David's music...that's why. That's the fun of it. The work, the joy of knowing that someone will be on stage singing what we wrote. The lyric and music for the old bridge was fine but something nagged at me and I thought, well now's the time, baby. Write something new and better. So I asked David to take the lead and write a short release...he did. I wrote the lyrics, I asked for another syllable, he gave it to me. This is the why. This is the fun.

BUT YOU___ WILL NEVER BE GYPPED
WHEN MA___NSOUR IS IN CHARGE
I'M HONEST, (I'M FROM EGYPT)
WHERE A BOAT'S A BARGE
CAUSE WE'RE LIVING LARGE
YES,
EVERYTHING IS BIGGER IN THE MIDDLE EAST
IF YOU LET MISTER MANSOUR BE YOUR GUIDE etc.

So as I mourn the loss of a wonderful musical on Broadway, of what might be the last new Kander and Ebb show, of the backers who won't ever want to put money into a "serious" musical theatre piece (I can't even think about The Night of the Hunter), I work harder on our five character, one set, musical COMEDY! This is the time for it. And I think I have a great tag line for the promo ads...

Something VERY Funny is going on in the Middle East!

Makes me wanna buy a ticket.

Dog and Camel at Al Hirschfeld's House

So the Dog and Camel show of The Road to Qatar! went very well, at least from the point of view of performance and reaction. The Al Hirschfeld house was filled with some producers, directors, designers, and theatre lovers who might take an interest in our show. David Krane and I sang our little hearts out and despite this cold that wants to come out (I won't let it) I hit all the high notes and was loud as ever (I went to the Ethel Merman School of Dramatic Arts, majoring in LOUD) and I think a good time was had by all. Time will tell if it translates into more from a financial point of view, but that's not my concern for today. Today my concern was to entertain them with our short version of our show and entertain we did. Onward and up now. And please, God...let this cold just go and find some other writer.

Sunday Dog and Camel Dress...Qatar unlimited

Althought I am fighting a cold, David Krane and I did our last rehearsal today for our "dog and camel" show of The Road to Qatar! today for our producer, Paul Burchett. This is the first time (besides seeing us do the title song at Barnes and Noble)that he has seen us do our thing. He seemed duly impressed and appreciative. I am sure that the memories of the real show down in Dallas went through his brain as he heard two guys who lived and wrote the story play all the parts for him. This, of course, is how we began getting the material across to people...us doing it. In fact even at our first reading with a cast, I played what was then the role of David (now Jeffrey) while Brad Oscar played me. Odd I know but very enlightening. Now, though, after having had a full production with a great cast, it's even odder (at least to me) to have to go back and sing and act the roles. Still, it's always fun for me to sing really loud and to try to make people laugh. Tomorrow night we hit the townhouse circuit and hope that there will be some lubicated checkbooks. In any case, we will have fun.

Good Time to Blog...Middle Eastern Melody of 2011

Now that The Road to Qatar! is officially announced and coming to off-Broadway's York Theatre in late January, it might be time to try to chronical this amazing journey from now to whenever. Last year at this time we had just come off of the amazing Lyric Stage (Irving Texas) production of Qatar and were pushing it forward as hard as we could. We had Paul Burchett excited and on board but the where of New York was a big questionmark. When the smoke cleared we realized that going the York (which has produced my musical After the Fair in 1999) was the obvious choice. We had done a reading of the show there (I have done readings at the York of Dodsworth, Grossinger's and other shows over the years) and it seemed the right fit for our 5 character musical COMEDY. And now here we are getting ready to cast the show. On Monday David Krane and I are doing our little (little HA!) "dog and camel show" for 30 people in a fancy townhouse that belonged to Al Hirschfeld and we hope to raise some more dough for this production and also for the future when this production moves to a commercial venue (the York is a not for profit with a limited engagement). Since this show is about our wacky and hiliarous cross cultural experience of writing the first American musical to premiere in the Middle East, it is fitting that David and I sing all the songs and play all the roles for this "backer's" thingie, but sheeh, it's exhausted to do and i wind up in a pool of sweat at the end (My late mother used to say she wasn't coming to see me perform because I sweated too much...I wonder if Louis Armstrong's mother told him that too) and let's face I am not as young as the character I am playing is. I am five years older than we were when we lived the story (but look much younger) and we are casting the roles of "us" 15 years younger than we are at least. The names and ages have been changed to protect the innocent.

I will try to be more bloggy and report how this is all going...meanwhile, get your tickets and visit

http://www.yorktheatre.org/