Hey everyone! Again,
sorry for my absence – I’ve been crazy busy getting ready to put up the premier
reading of my new musical “Lyra.” I am SO excited about this show! And thrilled
that I’ll finally be able to share it with everyone!
We’re doing a full
reading of the show to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS on Thursday
September 17th at 7pm, and Sunday September 20th at 5pm
at The Triad in NYC. For tickets go here
The official website for
the show is: www.lyrathemusical.com
You can also follow us
on:
I wrote the book and
lyrics for the show (and music to “Happy Ending,”) and my dear friend, the
insanely talented Evan Jay Newman, wrote the music. I’m also in the cast so I haven’t had much downtime. The few hours I have between
waking up and rehearsals starting are usually spent returning e-mails,
reviewing my material, and talking with the creative team about the game plan
for the day. Then I have rehearsal, and then production meetings afterwards which
barely gives me enough time to have some dinner and get things done in
preparation for the next day before I (hopefully) get to go to bed. Evan and I
have been functioning on about 3-4 hours sleep a night.
But I thought I would do
my best to document the process for everyone. I’ll do my best to post updates
as rehearsals commence, but I wanted to start with a history of the show. This
is the project of mine that a lot of people have heard of, but don’t know a lot
about yet.
“Lyra” is an adaptation of
the original Hans Christian Andersen “Little Mermaid” story. (The dark one, not
the Disney one.) It’s my absolute favorite story, and I always knew that one
day I wanted to do a project related to it.
I started working on the
show, well, I guess in a way back in 2011.
As you may know I love circus arts and work with a lot of people
connected to the circus (see my blog post “The Power of Laughter.”) A friend of
mine who has worked extensively both on Broadway and in Cirque and I were in
Times Square chatting about the not always successful use of circus arts in
Broadway musicals. I commented about how circus arts have pretty much always
been used in narrative theater as spectacle only (sometimes not even in
collaboration with actual circus artists,) but never to advance the story.
For example, in the
recent revival of “Pippin” (which I loved,) the show made the Leading Player
the leader of a circus – and the spectacular things Pippin encounters are
interpreted through circus arts. A GREAT concept for the show, however, it
wasn’t NECESSAIRY to the telling of the story. You can take the circus out of
“Pippin” and still be able to tell the story completely successfully (the
original production used elements of Commedia and “miracle plays,” but not
circus.) I have been deeply moved by the circus arts and have seen them work as
a remarkable and unique storytelling vocabulary. I commented to my friend that
I was stunned that no one had ever used circus arts as an equal vocabulary to
singing, dancing and acting – utilized to advance the story, not just as spectacle.
There has never been a Broadway show (at least in recent history – “Barnum,”
which is about one of the founders of Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey
Circus was of course about the founding of a circus,) where if you took the
circus elements out you literally wouldn’t be able to tell the story. (On a
side note – “Barnum” is clearly about an American circus – whose aesthetic is
in and of itself primarily about spectacle. I was talking about a European circus
aesthetic (think Cirque du Soleil) – a specific type of clowning, aerial,
acrobatic work, and even magic that can be, but certainly never has been used to
the narrative advancement of a Broadway show.) He commented that very few people understand
the vocabulary of both circus and the Broadway musical equally well and you
would have to have someone who does to be able to write such a show.
Then he turned to me and
said – “well, if it’s ever going to happen, you’re probably going to have to be
the one to write it.”
I was very flattered by
his comment, and also a bit overwhelmed. It’s true, the circus community and
theatrical community don’t often mix – other then perhaps hiring some circus
performers for a theatrical show. Circus and “legit” theater use different
vocabularies and are created in very different ways. I was in the somewhat
unique position of having friends and collaborators in both worlds. I was
excited by the challenge and decided to see if I could do it.
So, basically this whole
show started out as a bit of an intellectual exercise.
Circus arts deal with
heightened realities – even more so then typical musicals. Musicals deal with
people in heightened situations, but in circus you’re dealing with people who
literally seem to have super human abilities. So I needed to come up with a
concept that justified characters having those abilities. These couldn’t
just be people performing circus arts. If circus was to be an inherent
vocabulary within the story they needed to literally be a part of these
characters essences. Therefore making them otherworldly felt like a necessity. Adapting a myth or fairy tale, however loosely, seemed to be the best way to go. At first I was drawn to the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice – the myth tells the
story of the greatest musician in the world (Orpheus) whose love (Eurydice)
dies on their wedding night and Orpheus travels down to Hades to find her. But
that idea wasn’t exciting me as much as it should and, while it justified the
circus (Hades seems to be good fodder for Circus – everything from Cirque Berzerk
to “The Devil’s Carnival” has utilized a variation of the idea) there wasn’t
much by way of dramatic narrative to really hang on to.
And then I thought of
“The Little Mermaid.”
Like I said, it’s my
favorite story ever. I love the Disney version, but the original is AMAZING.
And I’ve never seen a version of the story that really stays thematically true
to the original. In the original story the Little Mermaid (like Ariel) is fascinated
with the human world long before the Prince shows up. However unlike the Disney
version the reason is because Merpeople don’t have immortal souls. The mermaids
in Andersen’s story were inspired by the mythological Sirens – beautiful
creatures who had the most glorious voices on earth, who would sit on rocks and
lure sailors to their deaths. In Andersen’s story, Merpeople live for three
hundred years, after which they turn to sea foam and cease to exist. The Little
Mermaid’s sisters ultimately start taking up the “family business” luring
sailors to their deaths (it’s a subtle moment but it’s in there.) But the
Little Mermaid – who has the most beautiful voice of all, longs for an immortal
soul, and (in not so many words) to go to heaven when she dies. Though she does
fall in love with the Prince she makes the choices she does primarily out of a
desire for a soul – which she will get should a human fall in love with her and
marry her.
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| My favorite painter John Waterhouse's illustration of "the Little Mermaid." |
The Sea Witch in the
original is also, I think, one of the most fascinating characters in the entire
fairy tale cannon. Unlike the Disney film, the Sea Witch in Andersen’s story is
not the villain. And unlike every other fairy tale antagonist she does not go after
the Little Mermaid, nor does she desire to hurt her. She is absolutely honest
about who she is, makes it clear that she doesn’t control the rules of magic,
and that she thinks it’s a REALLY bad idea for the Little Mermaid to make a
deal with her. She even tries to offer her a way out at the end of the story. And yet, she is still one
of the most terrifying characters in literature and what she does to the Little
Mermaid – well lets just say it’s MUCH worse then what Ursula does to Ariel.
The story also offered
the wonderful opportunity to have the show not take place entirely in a mythic
world. By nature of the story a large part (essentially the entire second act) would
need to take place in the “real world.” If I wanted to make circus arts a truly
necessary vocabulary, the entire show couldn’t be magical. That would basically
just be doing a circus show with music. I needed to make the vocabulary relevant when the
story transitioned to a non-magical world.
I knew I didn’t want to
make the story about a literal Mermaid. It felt too easy, and in a way
limiting. The show would literally be about girls on silks and wires. That was
falling into the trap of circus as spectacle. I needed to do something more
unusual and vital to really incorporate circus as a necessary storytelling
device. And I was really interested in doing something more elaborate with the
role of the Sea Witch then just making the character, well, a sea witch. I wanted to adapt the story - not transcribe it.
And that’s where I got
stuck. Every time I thought of an idea, a million problems arose. And every time I came up with an idea for how to fix something with my concept it created a million new storytelling problems. “Ok, so what if instead of
Mermaids they’re some sort of spirits, or fairies? What if it’s about the
meeting of the seen and unseen world?” Well then, what are the rules of this
world? Who are these people? I would be trading one mythology for another. It
just wasn’t working.
So then “Forever
Deadward” happened and “Lyra” moved to the backburner. But then one day, a year
or so later, I was at the Winter Garden Theater on Broadway (I honestly think
it’s one of the most beautiful theaters I’ve ever been in. It literally looks
like a crystal garden.) And I looked at the stage and I just saw the opening of
the show. Instantly the thought popped in my head: “set it in a magical circus
where the illusionist is like a Mephistopheles - using the whole thing to collect souls (like the Sea Witch collecting things from the deals she makes, or the Sirens luring people to their deaths,) and the singer, who was born into the circus
just wants to join real life.” The idea of setting it in an actual circus seems
like the most obvious thing ever – but it was actually the very last piece of
the puzzle for me. Suddenly all the dramaturgical problems I’d been having just
fell into place. I knew exactly who these characters were, and I knew exactly
how to make the circus arts holistically fit (even when in the second act the action
primarily takes place in the “real world.”) The idea of a Mephistophelian
figure immediately allowed me to bring the soul element from the original story
in, and it allowed me to go to town with the Sea Witch character (I always
wanted to make the character a slightly androgynous man. I think it’s
interesting how there’s an oddly masculine energy to the Sea Witch (even the
Disney character was based on the drag queen Divine) and something VERY sexual
about the character in both the original story and the Disney version. Making
the Sea Witch a guy instantly created a giant toy box to play with when writing
the show.)
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| A spectacular view of the Winter Garden Theater on Broadway |
I was so excited – I
wanted to start writing immediately. The problem was, I didn’t have a composer.
I compose, but not well enough to write a full musical score. I think you can
only consider yourself a master at an artistic craft when you can not only do
it when you’re inspired, but when you HAVE to. For example, I can write lyrics
both when I’m inspired, and when we decide we need a new song and it has to be
finished before the cast gets back from their dinner break in ten minutes. Its
not always fun, but I can do it. When it comes to music, I can write when I’m
inspired, or when I have a LONG time to mess with something, but I’m not a
great composer in a pinch. Plus I don’t physically have the composition or
piano playing skills to write anything like what a full, complex musical score
would need.
I really wasn’t sure who
to collaborate with on this project. I
knew it was going to need a sound unlike anything I’d heard in a Broadway score
before. This wasn’t straight musical theater – it needed to infuse a European
circus aesthetic into the score (the sound of the circus within the show,) and it needed to be able to seamlessly blend
that with both a “musical theater” sound (the sound of the world outside the circus) and a contemporary music sound (the sound of the illusionist,) and
make it all feel like a unified score.
But time was going by and
I didn’t want to loose my inspiration waiting around for the perfect composer
so, once again almost as an intellectual exercise, I decided to go ahead and
write the libretto. The libretto means all the words that are spoken or sung in
the show, so all the text, and all the lyrics. It was daunting to say the least.
It took me a few weeks to do (which is a LONG time for me.) I spent a good
amount of time structuring which included figuring out where all the songs
would go, and what their titles were (once I have a title, I can write a lyric
pretty fast.) I would set myself little goals – I started with the lyrics
(since for me writing dialogue around songs is the easiest part of writing a
musical,) and would do a full lyric or so a day (which is really helpful in that you
get a sense of accomplishment, and finishing something even though you’re no
where near actually being finished with the show.) We did a table read of that
draft sometime in 2013 that included a wonderful intersection of both Broadway
and Circus performers.
But I still didn’t have a
composer. So, taking inspiration from how Ahrens and Flaherty got their job
writing the score for “Ragtime,” I asked several composers if they would be
willing to write music for a couple of the songs for the show “on spec” (sort
of a musical audition.) A lot of awesome people ended up being interested, and
it was really fun for me getting to hear vastly different interpretations of
these songs, some of which were really phenomenal.
And then I happened to
have a conversation with my good friend Evan Jay Newman.
I first knew Evan as a
performer. He and I did a concert together back in 2010 (we played opposite
each other in a parody number for the fictitious “Dungeons and Dragons” musical
in which he played a cross between Howard and Leonard from “The Big Bang
Theory” and I played the (only) female gamer (a less intellectual Amy Farrah
Fowler type.)) He’s a wonderful performer (who’s been on Broadway multiple
times) and we quickly hit it off. I then found out that Evan is also a
fantastic writer. I went to a reading of a musical he wrote – and it was by far
the best reading of a new work I’d been to in a long time. He became our second
keyboardist on “Forever Deadward” (some hilarious moments in the show came from
his very creative choice of key pads in certain numbers – this is why I love
working with people who are creators, even if they’re not a creator on a
particular project.) Soon thereafter he became the Musical Director for the
“American Idiot” national tour, and I got to see what a wonderful musical
director he was.
While he was on tour Evan
heard that I was working on “Lyra,” and asked if he could read the script. I
sent it to him, he read it, and asked if he could throw his hat in the ring to
be the composer. We talked a bit about the musical world of the show – to be
honest neither of us was totally sure this piece was the right fit for him.
From my end the only music I’d heard of his, while fantastic, was very
contemporary musical theater, and this show needed something a bit different. But
he said he had just come up with something that he thought would really be
right for the piece, and wanted to see what it yielded, and I of course was
more then happy to hear anything he wrote.
A few weeks went by, and
Evan sent me his music. Where as most of the other composers had written music
for the “pillar” songs of the show (the “I Want” song, the opening number,
etc.) Evan sent me music for what I think were the three most difficult, random
songs he could have possibly chosen. Evan sent me the Overture, the French song
Lyra sings during a circus performance, and the very tricky opening to act 2.
I got four notes into the
overture and felt like I had met my long lost composing twin. Evan got it. I
had never heard music like this in a show before, and I felt like I had finally
found the person I wanted to be my writing partner – not just on this show, but
in general. I was a little iffy on one of the songs, and talked to him a bit
about it (I’m always very aware that talent is only half the battle when
finding a writing partner – you need someone you collaborate well with.) Evan
was a dream to work with, and I was so happy to ask him to come on board the
project.
So then Evan had the
unenviable task of writing the music to an entire musical – all at once. It was
literally – “Hey! So here are the lyrics to the 23 songs in this show. Have
fun!”
There is one song in the
show that I wrote both music and lyrics for. “Happy Ending.” It’s a song (you may
recognize it from my youtube/soundcloud channel, or this very blog,) that was
not originally written for “Lyra.” It was actually the first thing I wrote
after “Forever Deadward” premiered at New World Stages. “Forever Deadward” completely
drained me (I’ll write about my whole “Forever Deadward” experience sometime
when, well, I have a lot of time to do it lol.) And I actually couldn’t write
for over a month afterwards (a big deal for me.) The song came out of the fact
that I had suddenly had this overwhelmingly wonderful (and challenging) thing
happen – and yet, the very next day it was back to the struggle, and the hard
work, and a lot of disappointments (and more challenges.) I had just received
national press, and rave reviews for this show I created, and I literally
didn’t have money to eat.
As I was writing the
libretto to “Lyra” there was a moment in the second act where pretty much every
character (except Lyra to a degree – as bad as things are for her at that
moment, they’re about to get a whole lot worse,) is at their lowest point. It
felt like we just needed a quiet, unified moment where everyone, though
isolated, was experiencing the same thing, and “Happy Ending” fit perfectly. Here's the acoustic version I wrote well before "Lyra."
Evan finished the score
in the fall of last year (while he was once again playing second keyboard for
“Forever Deadward” for us at The York and 54 Below.) We did a table read around
the holidays last year after which we did some major rewrites. Because I didn’t
want to be rewriting the script and lyrics while Evan was writing the score
(“Hey! I finished the music to the “I Want” song!” “Oh! Sorry! Just scrapped it
and wrote a new lyric,” is not the most effective writing method,) the script
at that table read was literally the first draft I had written. Needless to say
there were a lot of things that needed fixing. We did a second table read in
the spring of this year, which also inspired some big (if not quite so drastic)
changes. Every time Evan sends me a demo after he’s finished writing the music
to a lyric it feels a little bit like Christmas morning. One of my favorite
memories from the creation period thus far is when he sent me the demo for the
final song in the show “Requiem.” I was working at “Phantom of the Opera” (a
lovely setting actually for listening to music from the show.) It’s a tricky
song that incorporates lyrics in three different languages (finally! All those
years of studying French and Latin are paying off!) We had talked about the
vibe of the song, but I knew it was going to be a tricky one to get right. I
plugged my headphones in and listened to the demo – and I literally just
started sobbing right in the lobby of the Majestic Theater. To this day the
Latin section of that song is one of my all time favorite musical moments. It's now a tradition for me to listen to the score whenever I'm at the Majestic (or, any other theater, frankly,) and send Evan obnoxious photos like this (and yes, that is the "Phantom" chandelier in the background, and an entirely empty house. Theater magic.) Thus far "Lyra" has "played" at the Majestic, Winter Garden, and Shubert on Broadway.
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| "Lyra" is playing at the Majestic! |
We recorded three fully
orchestrated demos from the show (check out our Soundcloud page) produced by
the amazing Robin Lai (who is also our drummer for the show) earlier this year,
and will hopefully be doing more soon.
We’ve gotten great
response to the show, and have started developing a following – both from the
musical theater, and circus communities, which has been so thrilling. We’ve had
Cirque artists involved at every step of the process, and the collaboration has
been really exciting.
This upcoming reading
features a fantastic cast – some of whom have been involved in the project
since the very first table read, before Evan was even a part of the show. And
I’m very excited to have my friend Madeline O’Hara (our A.D. on “Forever
Deadward” and frequent assistant to my dear friend Gabriel Barre) directing the
reading. Oh, and the band is sick. Like really, really sick.
I’ll do my best to
document the process over the next couple of weeks. I guess it’ll be more
“diary-like” entries then I usually do. I don’t have much free time, so bare
with me…
I hope you can come see
the show! Would love to have you there!
And now for fun,
Interesting “Lyra”
trivia:
- - The name of
the main character (the equivalent of the Little Mermaid) in the show is Lyra.
The name has multiple meanings within the context of the show.
1.)
A Lyra is a
name for an aerial hoop (also called a Cerceaux) – an aerial circus apparatus.
Lyra appears sitting in a lyra a few times in the circus within the show (and
it was a challenge to avoid writing in the stage directions: “Lyra sits in the
lyra” - which is actually exactly what Lyra is doing in the poster art for the show.) Also I find it kind of fun that Lyra does aerial work, and of course
the name of the Disney Little Mermaid is Ariel.
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| A lyra |
2.)
The name Lyra
comes from the musical instrument the Lyre which is most notable for importance
to the myth of “Orpheus and Eurydice” (I got it in there!) The constellation Lyra
is also a reference to the myth. Orpheus was said to be the most wonderful
musician in the world – and his instrument was the Lyre. The music he produced
was said to be so miraculous that it warmed the heart of Hades (lord of the
underworld), who gave Orpheus the (ill fated) opportunity to get his love back.
Our character Lyra is noted for her miraculous voice, which gets taken from her
during the course of the show. It is the loss of her voice that prevents her
love from recognizing her.
3.)
The sounds in
the name Lyra are an amalgamation of two of the primary sounds in “Little” (L)
“MeR” (r) maid.
And speaking of #2…
- - “Orpheus and
Eurydice” did in fact find its way into “Lyra” (in a bigger way then the name
symbolism.) The plot of the circus within the show is based on the myth, with
Lyra playing Eurydice, and the illusionist playing Hades. The myth also has
metaphoric significance – foreshadowing what will happen to Lyra as the story
progresses (and to a degree foreshadowing what the illusionist (falsely) thinks
will happen…)
- - The name of
the circus in the show is “Shausteller’s Phantasmagoria.” A Phantasmagoria was
a kind of late 18th century magic show, which claimed to conjure up the dead by
using the first projected images. Since the circus is telling a kind of Orpheus
myth (in which Orpheus descends into Hades – the land of the dead,) and the
fact that not all the members of the circus are, strictly speaking, alive – the
title has a subtextual appropriateness.
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| 18th Century poster art for a Phantasmagoria advertisement. |
- - The theater I was at when I got inspired about how to do the show was the Winter Garden on Broadway - where "Mamma Mia" was playing at the time. Evan is currently the Associate Musical Director for the "Mamma Mia" national tour.
