“Fat Mike, Me & Soma Snakeoil. Mike, his middle finger placed surreptitiously on my shoulder. Very much on brand.”
“I don’t know how I can help you. As I experience your show, I just want it to be over. I find it aggressively unpleasant, gratingly vulgar, and largely amateurishly written.”
And with those words I was hired.
The original writers of Home Street Home, a Punk Rock musical about abandoned street kids eating out of dumpsters, incorporating the sure-fire hit Broadway tropes of incest, rape, cutting, substance abuse and for quite a while, S&M, were a prodigiously talented and clever couple who had achieved massive success in their respective creative careers, and wanted to turn their formative experiences into a musical. They caught the attention of Jeff Marx, who had a Tony Award for his brilliant lyrics on Avenue Q. When he and “Fat” Mike Burkett, a Punk Rock star I had never heard of, and the Dominatrix professionally known as “Soma Snakeoil,” approached me to collaborate with them, they wanted someone who never cared much for Punk Rock but who had some experience with musicals. I apparently fit that bill. I admire them all for welcoming me into their process; most creatives want to hear only compliments. I know I prefer them. But they knew they wanted their show to work. When, as it turned out, I learned that they had been working with Richard Israel, who had directed Having It All to seven Ovation nominations in LA, I felt safe, and confident that I would have a shot at taking the show to its furthest possible destination.
Some shows, alas, do not make the journey. There are always a host of reasons why, some interconnected and some not, most unforeseen and unavoidable. This case was a confluence of perfect storms. The moment had arrived when I came to love this show -- after a summer at the O’Neill Theatre Center, culminating with a workshop at the Vineyard Arts Project -- and the moment passed. I’m grateful for the time I got to spend with three of the most unique, loving, open people I’ve ever met.
Richard and I would go on to collaborate on Good Man, always fruitfully. And I met some future company members of the Repertory Company of my dreams; but I suppose for me, the highlight was writing a lyric with Jeff Marx, which you can read about if you click the button below.
Workshop, Ideal Glass, Lower East Side, Manhattan. Left to right: Matt Magnusson, Tyler Jent, Robbie Tann, Ariana Goza, Emma Hunton, Alex Holmes, MJ Rodriguez, Ryan O’Connor, Allie Trimm.