THREE SHOW DAY

When you are prolific and have lots of shows and are lucky (luck?!) enough to have productions of those shows you have to learn to juggle. Today I juggled three. Tomorrow rehearsals begin for Rock Odyssey in Miami for the second time this year. What an amazing turn of events. This show was commissioned 7 years ago for the brand new Walden Family Playhouse in Denver, run by Walden Media. The company treated the commission like a film script. I did several treatments, drafts, collaborated with a wonderful composer/lyricist (I only did the book but "guided" the songs) via phone, email and smoke signals and ultimately it was the first of two seasons of original family musicals they presented (I was commissioned to do another called Merlin's Apprentice) and for that one I did only lyrics! So now after the rights reverted to the authors, suddenly Rock Odyssey is a big hit with all the Dade Country 5th Graders! Now they want a ten year deal to do it all over. Ten years! Well, we shall see...Anyway, it's nice to be wanted...now if I can only get them to do Saturday Night at Grossinger's for the Jewish fifth graders...after all, it's Miami!

Patti Patti Oh Patti

So in the midst of doing all these shows, I am asked again to write the Drama League Tribute...this year it's Patti Lupone. I have never met Patti, but my partner Peter is her travel consultant and his brother Phil is her press agent. It's practically like family! It could be a very exciting evening and I am going to insist she sing at the end. What could be better? Angela went up in the Mame number. Patti needs to sing Don't Cry for Me Argentina! The only problem doing this show is that it will happen literally around my projected Road to Qatar opening and it will be a stephencolejuggling act. Well, last year I was in Pittsburgh birthing Time after Time when I wrote the Angela Lansbury Tribute with one of the best special material lyrics I have ever done. So I should be able to do it!

Stay tuned.

NIGHT OF THE HUNTER IN DALLAS

Today I booked my flight to Dallas to be at rehearsals for The Night of the Hunter. This is the third fully staged production and the first to used a 24 piece orchestra based on the orchestrations created for the concept CD which starred Ron Raines, Sally Mayes and Dorothy Loudon. It's also the third time I am overseeing a production since the composer, Claibe Richardson passed away. He never got to see it, except when we did a staged workshop at the Vineyard in NYC. He didn't even live to see the first big NYC reading. It's always hard to do a show without him. Not that he was easy, but he was there and it's his gorgeous music I must protect. Doing any show without your collaborator is hard. Re-writing becomes a balancing act. How do I change it and still keep the music the same and adjust words to fit a new vision but not music. It's not the way it should be. But this is a gorgeously dark and rich musical that demands to be seen and so I shall buck up and go to Dallas and make it the best show with a gloriously big (the biggest I have had live...Aspire was recorded with 70 pieces!)orchestra making a joyful noise in a state that Claibe hated. This is for you, Mr. Richardson.

The Years Go By

I have not written in this blog in years now. So much has happened. 2009 was the world premiere of The Road to Qatar!, 2010 saw the world premiere of Time after Time and a very lucrative production of Rock Odyssey and in October Dallas will see The Night of the Hunter with a full orchestra. Coming soon:The Road to Qatar is to have its NYC Off Bway premiere in Jan. 2011. The writing continues...working on two new shows at once, both originals and both coming along well, but where they will end, who knows: Merman's Apprentice and The Black and White Ball. Also writing a treatment and special material for a great pair of stars...on spec! More on that later when we know what the outcome will be. No books since Charles Strouse. Wish I could get another book deal, but the shows are happening now and maybe, just maybe this week will bring good financial news.

THE WEEK THAT WAS OR WAS IT?

The last time I was here was the first day of RIPFest. Now we are approaching the film being shot. So let's flashback: When I got hom on Saturday night exhausted and full of information about the cast, the location, the director, the producers, the barebones outline, etc. I started to formulate some lyric ideas in my mind and the words "The wheel goes round and round" began to come to me. This, of course refers to the potter's wheel in the primary location, a pottery studio. So that let me to a short chorus that I envisioned as feeling both contemporary and folk like so that it felt like it had been around forever:
THE WHEEL GOES ROUND AND ROUND
THE POTTER'S WHEEL IS GROUNDED IN THE GROUND
AND YOU THROW THE POT
FROM A BALL OF CLAY
AND THE WHEELHEAD TURNS
AND YOU SIT ALL DAY
AND LISTEN TO THE HUMMING SOUND
OF THE WHEEL GOING ROUND AND ROUND

I changed and refined until I came up with this and that night I slept little and started to find some modular lyrics for the leading character who I named Peter, after my parter.

The next day I started putting it all together, taking the modular lyrics sections and moving them around to make an arc and a solid musical story. Off they went to David Krane, composer extraordinaire, and the set everything brilliantly. I got to hear it on Monday morning, do some work with him and we were thrust into a cold reading situation on Monday night, which, for us, was scary and crazy, but ultimately safe. Tuesday the rehearsing and rewriting began. An actor would learn one piece only to have me come back and rewrite 90 percent of the lyric (including new intentions) the next day. We finally settled on the final form of the 4 minute musical sequence on Wed (it cut some small cuts on Thurs) and I worked more on the script elements. The two short scenes at the beginning and the end. All this of course with directorial input. A movie is different than a stage piece and I need to be short and terse and get my points across fast. After all it's all 6 minutes! Last night (thurs) we did our pre-recording with a valiant and brave cast, most of whom hadn't sung much or recorded at all (exception was our brilliant leading man) but they all did their best and really put it out there and we will make a great soundtrack and they will sound the best they ever have. I trust. I do. These kids are willing themselves to be great and I am proud of them. So here it is the day before the first of two days of shooting. Just okayed some little script changes for the last scene and there we are. What a week!

RIPFEST!!!!

Today began RipFest. I am one of six writers (3 musical writers and 3 non) chosen to be part of the 10th of these. We are put together with Directors, producers, actors, locations etc. and given 2 days to write a 5-7 minute musical film which gets shot next Sat and Sun. and shown on the 26th! Oy! It's like being shot out of a canon but I am writing lyrics as fast as I can and hoping inspiration will come to me in the AM after a good night's sleep. What a first day!