Bright Lights, Big City:
Bright Lights, Big City available on Sh-K-Boom Records...

Rooms:
Look out for the NYMF 2005 hit "rock romance" ROOMS coming to Off-Broadway in 2007 (directed by Scott Schwartz and produced by Van Hill Entertainment)

Alive in the World. Good title. That was the first thought.

How do you manage to do this exactly- be alive in this world right now- and what songs could I create around this theme?

I started fiddling around with some melodies in 2002, but it was too heavy, the memory of 9/11 too fresh, the ideas not fully formed. I put the work aside, or in a trunk, or wherever it is that I store my shit, and took a chill pill. Or three.

In January this year though, enough was enough- I had to go back. There was just too much going on; too many bad headlines to ignore, too much electric fear and anger in the air.

What makes people happy in days like these anyway? And if you find happiness, or think you see it, do you grab and damn the consequences or do you stop to absorb, ponder, act? All good questions. No decent answers. Characters were born in my head and miraculously, they accompanied the words and music starting to cascade with an urgent intensity that shocked and thrilled me. Nice. A musical was coming and it wasn’t based on a movie! Nicer. I figured by January 2007 I’d be ready for a reading.

On July 23 this year I did a gig at Makor. Me, my guitar and 3 women (nicest), and I included a couple of tunes from 'Alive...'. They felt strong and audience response was très positive, especially from Van Dean and Hillary Cutter from Van Hill Entertainment. They immediately offered to produce the show as a work in progress at NYMF. In the immortal words of Sophocles I said "What the fuck?" and we were on a sprint to put this thing together.

Kurt Deutsch came on board as director and I locked myself in Sh-K-Boom’s offices and attempted to finish draft number one. Just did. Goal now is to translate the raw urgency that is coming off the page and get it onto the stage. The process is going to be seen in public. That is exciting. No first presentation in a rehearsal room somewhere for jaded professionals lining up to give you their reasons why it won’t work commercially. This seems more interesting and vital and real; exactly how I want my show to feel. Now we’ll see.

The cast is awesome, the team is great, the time is now. Off we go again.

I have a rehearsal room in my office and for the past 8 months or so Paul Scott Goodman came over nearly everyday. If I didn’t have anything going on in there he would make himself comfortable with his guitar and write songs. One day he came over to me and said, "Wanna listen to these songs I’ve been writing."  I said, “Sure”… He started playing song after amazing song. All the songs were about what it is like to live in the world post 9/11. He envisioned this as something between Hair and Jacques Brel. He said to me, "Do you want to direct it?" To be honest, the thought of directing a musical with a 9/11 subject matter seemed like a very daunting task.

This is a musical about 4 people who are living in New York City. Now. How do we connect? How do we find hope? Love? Happiness? Healing? What do we have to give? To say?  And how do we Survive? ...When you never know what is going to happen from one second to the next.

This is the beginning. We are still writing. Creating. Let’s see what we have. Let’s  put it on. Let’s focus on the story, the music and the characters. Without the extra pressure and baggage that comes with a full production. This is first stage of development to see how people respond. How far can we go? Do the moments work? Many questions answered.... Hopefully. And onward....