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Having
grown up around the theater (my mother and father were both
in show business) it��s not surprising I wound up there
although there was a time I turned my back on it. In 1976 I
was approached by Velma Sun of
the Orange County Lyric Opera Association to insert a
couple of ballads into a production of ��Dark
of the Moon�� as a
contribution to their bicenntenial
celebration. I read the play and suggested it might
make quite a full-blown musical. Velma readily agreed and we
were off to the races.When we returned I started work on ��Dark
of the Moon.�� (just kidding) It was eventually performed
that summer of 76 at the Irvine Bowl in Laguna Beach
California.
At
the Berkeley Repertory Theater I worked as a musician/actor
in another bicentennial offering, this one by the
extraordinary team of Douglas Johnson and John
Aschennbrenner, ��Yankee Doodle��, about a British
terrorist named King George who hijacks a telethon (hosted
by a amicable Lorne Green-type, played by Joe Spano, named
Lyle Suedehammer) in an attempt to take back the colonies.
I
also contributed a scabrous lyric to their production of
Brecht��s ��Mann ist Mann�� to which their wonderful tech
director Jeff Whitman responded, ��I don��t know if those
lyrics are Brechtian or just plain Weill!��
The
Laguna Moulton Playhouse came into my life in 1979, when I
brought their artistic director Douglas Rowe a half-finished
musical I had written about a true incident in 1870��s
Dodge City, ��Tales of Fannie Keenan Better Known as Dora
Hand��. After hearing me
shuck,duck,yodel,cajole,scratch,sniff and bully my way
through what I had written of it (the first act) his
response could not have been more welcome �C ��Yeah.
Finish it and we��ll do it��. Which I and we did.
The
next big writing project was a life of Edouard Manet which
went up in 1989. Originally titled ��Call the Cops �C the
Art of Edouard Manet�� it was shortened to ��Manet!�� in
deference to the marquee. When someone asked disparagingly
why
the
exclamation point, I answered, ��Because ��Oklahoma!��
had an exclamation point.�� That effectively ended the
conversation. ��Manet!�� is what I called ��an intimate
pageant.�� It was virtually a life and times, including
all of the (well, all those I felt were pertinent to the
story, and there were a lot) marvelous characters in Manet��s
incredibly creative and controversial life. The production
used a staple of Laguna Beach history, The Living
Picture,(an ingenious technique of ��tableaux vivant��
that has been an attraction here in Laguna since the early
1930��s) to bring the Manet paintings literally to life.
The musical was very successful, breaking all box office
records up to that time at this, the oldest constantly
running playhouse west of the Rockies.
In
the meantime I was musical director for quite a few
productions (��Getting My Act Together and Taking it on the
Road��; ��1776��; ����The Music Man��; How to Succeed
in Business Without Really Trying��; ��A Wonderful
Life��; ��Big River��; ��Kean��; ��Lion in Winter��),
the culmination of which was The Laguna Moulton��s
production of ��Quilters��, which won the AACT Fest and
went on to represent the U.S in Dundalk, Ireland. A splendid
time was had by all.
As
an actor �C Applegate (the devil) in ��Damn Yankees;
Nathan Detroit in ��Guys and Dolls��; Harold Hill in
��The Music Man��; and a dual role, Jigger Craigen and The
Starkeeper (an interesting twist) in ��Carousel��.
Other
scores written for The Laguna Playhouse �C
By
The Great Horn Spoon! (1999)
Charlotte��s
Web (2000)
The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer (2003)
Tall
Tales and American Legends
An
unproduced musical awaits �C ��Tex��, a dual biography of
a country singer and his friend, a jazz violinist, based on
a true story and utilizing both musical traditions in its
score.
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