My attempt to become Cole Porter has come to this.
One thing I’ve been doing (and avoiding doing) for 12 years is writing a musical. Project Time, it was called. I’ll spare you the many readings, rewritings and re-imaginings. But this is the upshot: Project Time: the bedtime story will be performed this Saturday, February 7, at Mi Casa. (which in this case really is mi casa.) I managed to cut so much text (but not a single song) that the whole thing is only 30 minutes long. I was lucky enough that certain key people are still attached to the project. Among them:
Patti Boo Rae!!!
The drag alter-ego of Coggin Galbreath, who joined a summer writers group at my house when they were only 16 years old but I was already working on my musical. In the decades since, they moved to the UK and became a sensation–both as a writer and a performer. Patti has agreed to play Mrs. Wapsmakpowski, even though she and I always pictured her as Mrs. Wap’s rebellious daughter Holly Lolly. Patti will still get to voice Holly Lolly, but not be her. Because now Holly Lolly looks like this:
This puppet idea came from Robin Grace Soto:
Robin has been my most important dramaturg for at least 15 years, maybe more. And then Kristen Osborn, the director, quadrupled the puppet idea. Here she is, with my hand and one of my eyeballs:
So now the cast of the 30-minute Project Time musical bedtime story is as follows: Patti Boo, 4 puppets, Shelly Leuzinger (who has known and sung these songs for all 12 years) and me. Now I have to finish the puppets. Holly Lolly has three costume changes.