Sparks from the Fire

In days long before Watchfire Music was ever even a dream, I was a composer for the Broadway Theater.  While in my early 30s I had had some success as the guy people turned to when they wanted to add a score to their play, much like one might for a movie.

I had already been nominated for the Tony Award for my work in Joseph Papp’s production of Much Ado About Nothing and also had done the similar style scoring for productions like Lincoln Center’s Trelawney Of The Wells and James Lipton’s production of The Mighty Gents with Morgan Freeman on Broadway.

American Playwright Neil Simon

I was offered the opportunity to work with the legendary Neil Simon on his play about Anton Chekov called The Good Doctor. As a young man, I was very excited to work on this wonderful show with the cream of the crop on Broadway.

I also had the opportunity to collaborate with Mr. Simon who wrote his first lyrics for 4 or 5 songs that I composed for the show as well as over an hour’s worth of underscoring and a pre-show “band concert”.

The cast was led by five seasoned Broadway stars – René Auberjonois, Barnard Hughes, Marsha Mason, Frances Sternhagen, who won the Tony Award for her work in the play, and Christopher Plummer who played Anton Chekov.

Tony Walton,  set designer, and Tharon Musser, lighting designer, were two of Broadway’s legendary stars of the theater as creative artists.  Both were people who I was simply in awe of, both consummate professionals.  Neil Simon, Broadway’s most successful playwright, would work with the best.

I loved this show and the entire experience, but like any other show, it had its difficult moments.  When I think back on the experience, one night and a great life lesson jumps out at me.

We were out of town in New Haven at the Shubert Theater.  We were in rehearsal, and working on the set in the theater between previews.  We were having trouble with one of the songs that Neil and I had written for Christopher Plummer.

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People ask me all the time, “What has been your favorite work in the theater?”  Actually, I think that’s a pretty easy call.  Working on a Broadway show is a very hard road.  It’s an extremely collaborative art form, probably one of the most collaborative because so many people have to come together to make it right.

Much Ado About Nothing

Also they say that ultimately any Broadway show rides on its book, its story, its script.  Without a good book, the show is usually doomed for failure except in a few exceptional cases.

I worked on one show that had a great book and a great writer at the heart of it.  His name was William Shakespeare.

I spent 5 years working as composer-in-residence at the NY Shakespeare Festival under Joseph Papp, who was a great producer — smart, savvy and dedicated to the theater.  I did a number of the Bard’s works during that time, but the real winner was “Much Ado About Nothing”, which opened in the summer of 1976 in Central Park.  It was set brilliantly by director, A.J. Antoon, in 1904 during the time of the St. Louis World’s Fair.

I wrote an hours’ worth of music, underscoring the scenes and setting Shakespeare’s lyrics to music. I even wrote a 20 minute pre-show warm-up concert played by an 8 piece oom pah band we named Private Papirofsky’s (Joe Papp’s original name) Genuine Nickel-plated Portable Musical Brass Band.  They played in a park gazebo setting and totally set the scene and period for the show.

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