The Whole Story*
[*Updated sporadically and inconveniently posted in chronological order, first to last...so get scrolling!]
07MAY23
NEW PROJECT WARNING!
In August of 1985, I returned to Chicago after having spent the last two years in L.A., where I lived with my girlfriend and played in the new wave band, Café Society, I had formed a few years earlier.
I came home, sadly enough, because my high-school sweetheart had broken up with me and moved in with her recently-divorced boss with whom she had been having a short-term affair.
One afternoon, I received a phone call from my now ex-girlfriend who had called to see how I was getting along and to remind me of a few outstanding debts I had agreed to pay.
Hanging up the phone a few minutes earlier, completely gutted, I sat down at my mother's 1947 Wurlitzer spinet and composed, "Phone Call, Phone Call," that would become the first song of a musical that would end up in a drawer (with dozens of unfinished plays, short stories and novels) only to surface again every decade or so.
During the pandemic, I had many opportunities to rummage through old notebooks and hard drives and stumbled upon the musical. During that same period, I purchased a Roland digital piano as two of my daughters were beginning to take lessons.
Needless to say, having a piano at home again after more than a dozen years further re-kindled my interest in dusting off the musical and giving it another go.
There were three of the original songs that I really liked and wanted to use as the foundation for a new story, as the old concept was no longer relevant or interesting for me to pursue.
I began writing various concepts but couldn't come up with an idea that fit into the constraints of the songs, which were contextually specific.
Then, in the summer of 2021, I saw a film on Netflix that changed my life...and the future of the musical and the songs I had composed some 36 years earlier.
Coming up next...Marriage Story and Who the Heck is Adam Driver?
09MAY23
MARRIAGE STORY & WHO THE HECK IS ADAM DRIVER?
I came a bit late to the Adam Driver party.
When I saw Noah Baumbach's film, "Marriage Story," starring Driver and Scarlett Johansson on Netflix in the summer of 2021, I had never seen the san Diego-born, former U.S. Marine and Julliard graduate on screen before. (*See below).
Not only did I find Baumbach's 2019 film a beautifully poignant––and close-to-home-hitting––account of the overwhelmingness of divorce, I found Driver's performance to be one of the best I'd seen in recent memory.
Through 137 minutes of tears and sniffles, I also came away with a newfound hero, a champion whose humble Midwest upbringing and hard-fought success were both inspiring and motivating and––if I dare admit––inciting my first ever "man crush!"
Driver also reminded me, and in many ways, of my son, the oldest of my five children (and only boy), with whom I'd been experiencing a strained relationship since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic a year earlier. There was a physical resemblance as well as a shared calm and deeply emotional demeanor. Watching Driver in the film was like being in the presence of my son, which made the film even more endearing though equally as sorrowful.
After watching "Marriage Story," I enrolled in a self-managed masterclass of all things Adam Driver, reading up on him, watching dozens of interviews on YouTube and screening as many of his films as I could binge. In one weekend I blissfully sat through "The Report," "The Dead Don't Die," "BlacKkKlansman," This is Where I Leave You" and "While We're Young."
*As a side note, I had seen Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln (2012), dozens of times as it ranks as one of my all-time favorite films. However, while Adam Driver does appear in the film as Samuel H. Beckwith, Lincoln's telegraph officer who has all but a few lines in the film, I didn't immediately make the connection, so, I had indeed seen him before though did not recollect having done so.
After my marathon Adam Driverfest, I kept on looking for more films, but was unable to find any others that had already been released on streaming platforms and not being a film franchise fan, I only caught a glimpse of Driver as Kylo Ren in a few "Star Wars" trailers!
Coming up next..."Paterson:" The Film That Changed Everything
11MAY23
PATERSON: THE FILM THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
*WARNING: SEMI-SPOILER ALERTS.
Some months had passed since my Adam Driver movie binge and I was finally able to download yet another film, "Paterson," from Apple TV.
I'd never been a fan of American director Jim Jarmusch, who wrote and directed "Paterson," and I had never heard of Driver's co-star, the Iranian-born actor and activist Golshifteh Farahani (or any other of the film's cast members). But the trailer was intriguing although it gave little if only subtle clues as to what the film was actually about.
I watched the film for the first time with my mouth agape. And for more reasons than one. It had to be the most ordinary film I'd ever seen, no action, suspense, intrigue or high drama. Paterson is a simple story about a simple man who shares a name with the city in which he was born and raised and lives with his wife and their English bulldog. He drives a city bus and writes poetry in the style of his hero, fellow Paterson resident William Carlos Williams, while his wife, Laura, stays home and paints just about everything in the house from door frames to shower curtains while dreaming of running a successful cupcake business and becoming a famous Nashville country singer.
The film follows Paterson and Laura over seven days of sleeping, dreaming, talking about twins, eating breakfast cereal, driving busses, writing poems, walking dogs and eating quinoa for the first time. Remarkable? Not really. A good film?? Perhaps one of the best I've ever seen...
So, while I can't exactly put my finger on just what it is that draws me to this film over and over again, I'd probably revert to the some of the same ideas I've had while watching Driver in his other films, that he reminds me of my son in so many ways and perhaps (though I'm not Freud or Jung) it is a way for me to feel close to him, to watch one man while tricking my brain, heart and conscience into believing it's another.
But the real moment of sudden revelation came to me on one particular day––September 20th 2021––when a young father of two came into my barbershop for the very first time and sat down in my chair.
Coming up next...When a Haircut Inspired a Film Sequel and Broadway Musical
14MAY23
WHEN A HAIRCUT INSPIRED A FILM SEQUEL (AND A BROADWAY MUSICAL!)
Michael first came to my barber chair in September 2021, a few months after my Adam Driver discovery and the first time I had watched "Marriage Story."
With Driver freshly on the brain, I was ever so beguiled by Michael's resemblance to both Adam Driver, 37 and my son, 23 at the time (I imagine Michael was closer to Driver's age, perhaps a little younger, perhaps a little older). And not only a physical resemblance, as Michael was also soft-spoken and mild-mannered.
Cutting Michael's hair for the first time was––if I'm to be completely honest––quite an emotional experience, my reasoning somewhat challenged by the fact I couldn't get Driver or my son out of my mind.
By now, all roads were leading to Rome: I had watched as many Adam Driver films as I could get my hands on; I had, only months earlier, bought a new piano and had begun dusting off the cobwebs of my long-suffering musical; it had been six months since my son suddenly stopped talking to me (something I'll delve deeper into in a future post); and the COVID-19 pandemic was revving up and the second of three long-term lockdowns would give me a good amount of free time to work on the musical.
It was about two weeks after Michael's visit that I had watched "Marriage Story" again, this time being particularly fixed on the odd moment in the film where Driver's character––New York stage director Charlie Barber––is out for drinks at a lounge with members of his theater company and breaks into a musical number, "Being Alive," from Stephen Sondheim's hit 1970 Broadway musical "Company."
Already having been enthralled by Driver's brilliant acting, listening to him sing brought a new added dimension to my appreciation of his seemingly never ending talent.
After that screening, I sat and watched an entire version of "Company," filmed in 2011 at Lincoln Center with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra with Neil Patrick Harris in the starring role. Watching the film of the staged version of Sondheim's masterpiece sparked my desire to work on my musical more than ever and I began spending more and more time working on the play in earnest.
But it was a moment in "Marriage Story," one that almost flashes by unnoticed, that really sparked my inspiration. Charlie (Driver) is seen for a brief moment getting a haircut, a sad and beleaguered look on his face as the hard reality of his pending divorce to his wife Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) is beginning to hit home.
Having experienced divorce firsthand, "Marriage Story" spoke to me on many levels. But seeing Driver in the barber's chair, was a watershed (and tear-shedding) moment for me and crucial to the development of my story.
From that moment on, I knew the action of the play would take place in a barber shop and the protagonist would be a barber, who I would simply call "Charlie," after Driver's "Marriage Story" persona, Charlie Barber. Pun intended!
The story would mirror my own experiences with that of the protagonists in the film (Driver and Johansson). I would add the musical elements with the songs I wrote back in the 1980s for the original concept which, coincidentally, was inspired by the break-up of my six-year relationship with my high school sweetheart.
But the defining moment in the development of my story came after having seen "Paterson" for the umpteenth time.
Becoming more and more enthralled with this film, it suddenly hit me that as seemingly bland and unsophisticated as the characters in the film might be, in fact, upon closer analysis, they were actually tremendously dynamic and characters that mirrored life perhaps more closely than any other film characters I can ever recall seeing. They were Everyman and represented a baseline, a subtle mediocrity that resonated with me. Paterson and Laura were the perfect contradiction of the human condition, both perfect and flawed, high-spirited and woebegone, ambitious and lackadaisical.
The more I watched "Paterson," the more deeply I became engaged with the characters and the more I became engaged in the characters, the more I wanted to know about what happened to them on the eighth day, and the ninth and so on. I wanted to see where their destiny had taken them in subsequent years; did they have children (twins?); did Paterson ever publish his poetry? Did Laura's cupcake business take off and did she ever manage to realize her dream of becoming a country singer?
In other words, I wanted to see the sequel, even if I knew there would almost certainly never be one. Unless that is...
Coming up next...Backstory: How it All Began
16MAY23
BACKSTORY: HOW IT ALL BEGAN
The first time we met was at a 4H Club public speaking contest. I won the blue ribbon and she won the red. I was thirteen, she was twelve.
Two years later I had just joined the Junior Henry (Hart) Street Players, a local teen theater troupe at my local JCC after being coerced by a few of my friends who said they'd only join if I did. They also mentioned a new girl, a beauty queen from the Jewish high school, who was rumored to be joining the company.
So, I joined, albeit reluctantly, as I had my heart set on joining a rival theater company at the larger, more prestigious Bernard Horwich JCC (where the upper middle class Jewish kids from my northside Chicago neighborhood went).
It was the first day of rehearsals and we'd already finished a reading of one of the three proposed scripts for the upcoming production when she came into the room.
She wore an orange terry strapless sundress and was deeply suntanned brown which made her large white teeth seem like bright stars shining in the night sky. She had long straight brown hair, perhaps the longest and straightest hair I had ever seen. She was a raving beauty and to say it wasn't love at first sight would be a blatant, out-and-out lie.
She apologized to the group and to Diane, our director on this particular show, saying she had only a few hours earlier returned from her family's Florida summer vacation.
I don't actually remember how or when we began dating, but I do recall that first date and picking her up at her parent's house on Lunt, meeting them on the front stoop, shaking hands with her father (whose odd British accent I was immediately enchanted by) and telling them we were going to see a film at the Lincoln Village Theatre and that I would bring their daughter home directly afterwards.
By the start of my sophomore year of high school in September 1978, we were going steady and seeing each other whenever the opportunity presented itself. I would spend Friday nights with her Orthodox Jewish family––her parents and three older brothers––and all day on Saturdays as she wasn't allowed to go out on the Sabbath.
A year and one grade above her––and going to a public high school while she attended a private Jewish school––I graduated in 1981 and decided to forego university and move out west to become a rock star. We made a pact that as soon as she graduated the following summer, she would move out to Los Angeles and we would live together and start a new life.
On my way to L.A., I took a nine-month detour and arrived in Phoenix, where my old friend and bandmate from Chicago, Burton Korer, had moved a year or so earlier. Burt and I, and a young female drummer, Monique Bera, started a power punk trio we called The Convertibles and recorded our first six-song demo at Camelback Studios and played what was left of the waning punk rock scene's circuit of dive bars and 21-and-under sarsaparilla lounges.
I left Phoenix in June of 1982, arriving in L.A. where my girlfriend arrived two weeks later.
We rented an apartment on Arch Drive in Studio City, inhabited by a odd mix of actors, models and, of all people, a former Marlboro Man who appeared in print ads for the cigarette brand in the late 70s and early 80s. A few years later––after my girlfriend and I would break up––I moved back to that Arch Drive complex and lived in the same apartment where the Marlboro Man and his boyfriend lived.
My girlfriend and I broke up during the summer of 1985, and it was two phone calls that would, just two short months later, lead to my writing the first song of what I had intended to be my first go at writing a Broadway-style musical.
The first phone call––one I inadvertently overheard––was my girlfriend talking to her mother on the phone after just returning from a visit to see her parents in Chicago. Hearing the words, "I just didn't miss him this time like other times," was not only heartbreaking, but it made me realize that the end of our nearly six-year relationship was close on the horizon.
The second phone call was about a week after I had returned to live with my parents in Chicago following the breakup in August of 1985.
I was sitting at my mother's piano––a 1947 Wurlitzer spinet––when the phone rang. It was her. She called to ask me how I was doing and to remind me about the few outstanding debts we shared that I agreed to pay her for once I got settled and found a job.
After hanging up from our brief telephone conversation, I went back to the piano, cried my eyes out and wrote this song:
Once upon a time
I was yours, you were mine
Nothing ever came between us
Not secrets or lies
Oceans or skies
It was a love built on the sweetness in your eyes
Phone call, from call from home
But it isn't my home anymore
Phone, call, phone call from home
I should have fought for much more
Then the storm clouds blew in
And the rain and the wind
Washed our love far out to sea
And when the clouds went away
Our love had gone away
The tempest is unforgiving that way
Phone call, from call from home
But it isn't my home anymore
Phone, call, phone call from home
I should have fought for much more
How many times
Must I rewrite these lines
Before you're back in my arms again?
And when this book
Take on a new look
And will these pages and hearts ever mend?
Phone call, from call from home
But it isn't my home anymore
Phone, call, phone call from home
I should have fought for much more
I wrote "Phone Call, Phone Call" in about a half an hour and when I finished I nearly threw the piece of lined notebook paper I had scribble the lyrics on in the trash, never wanting to sing those words––or hear her voice––again.
But I folded the sheet of paper and stuck it into a Beatles songbook in the piano bench and left it there, only to retrieve it a few weeks later when I decided to begin writing a musical stage play based on the the universal experience of heartbreak and the ending of a romantic relationship.
Coming up next...A Thirty-Six Year Hiatus
17MAY23
A THIRTY-SIX YEAR HIATUS
Finally, after thirty-six years of fits and starts and dreams and schemes, I had almost all the elements of a real musical and felt closer than ever to putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
But for my ever-changing creative moods (and self-diagnosed ADHD brain), I found it difficult to settle on some of the most important aspects of my concept and just get down to work.
I had a story––or should I say, I had an idea for a story that was made up of several congruent stories. Or, in other words, more excuses to prevent me from just getting on with it.
Once I was able to convince myself I had already taken the first steps on my journey, I knew there would be no turning back. So, I decided to develop the entire project as a unicorn-like musical, presented in three individual parts to be written and produced in order of simplicity and the viability of my actually still being alive to see it come to fruition!
The first part would be a one-man musical, which served to fulfill a lifelong dream of putting on a one-man performance, a theatrical genre I had admired since I was a teenager and my grandparents took me to see a one-man show, a marathon monologue, that I could barely sit through but kept me intrigued and curious to see this superhuman feat of memorization right before my very eyes.
I came close to a one-man show when I lived in Valencia, Spain in the late 90s and noughties and wrote and performed a musical review called "Good Morning Valencia," aimed at Spanish school children and presented in an educational context. While I played seven different characters in the review, I was accompanied by a musical director and another character that basically served a narrator; in all appearances, a one-man show.
In another solo-style performance attempt, I dabbled in stand-up comedy for a few months during the final year I lived in Liverpool in 2010 (see photo above). I had been talking regularly to an old friend back in Chicago, telling him about my exploits living in England, which he found hysterical and he all but dared me to write a short stand-up routine and take it around to a few open mic nights. Which I did to a surprisingly positive response.
But what I was really after––what I've always desired––was to do a full-on musical, just me, my story and my songs. And that brings me to the here and now.
The one-man show I've devised, "Adam Driver and the Millions Dollar Haircut,"is the story of Charlie the barber, a retired English teacher who studied playwriting as a young man at a world-renowned drama conservatory in Chicago. Charlie retires from teaching after a rewarding 25-year career and decides to become a barber, a trade he had always admired and wanted to pursue. After a six-month apprenticeship with a master barber, Charlie comes up with a unique business concept and opens the first (and only) after-hours barbershop in The Hague (Netherlands) where he'd been living for nearly a decade after having been living in Europe since the late 1990s. Charlie's "Night Barber" concept takes off and he soon becomes one of the most popular and beloved barbers in town.
Charlie, an avid movie fan, watches a film, "Marriage Story," that one of his regular customers recommends. Beguiled by actor Adam Driver––who Charlie had never seen nor heard of––Charlie goes on a binge watching all the Adam Driver films he can find online.
After coming across the 2016 film "Paterson," directed by Jim Jarmusch and co-starring Golshifteh Farahani, Charlie becomes obsessed with trying to write his first screenplay––a sequel to "Paterson." Now enthralled with the story, Charlie begins a journey of writing about what becomes of the protagonists after the film's ending credits have rolled.
With his first screenplay finished, Charlie realizes that he has no idea what to do with the finished work. This is the starting point of a long journey replete with ups and downs that has Charlie looking for ways to get his screenplay into the right hands.
After six months of rejections and dead-end leads, Charlie conceives a desperate, almost harebrained scheme he is certain will get his screenplay into the right hands.
Coming up next...Part Two: A Full-Blown Broadway Musical
20MAY23
PART TWO: A FULL-BLOWN BROADWAY MUSICAL
The idea behind the one-man show version of my new musical, "Adam Driver and the Million Dollar Haircut," is varied and intricate.
In its purest form, it is a developmental sketch which will allow me to flesh out the concept and fuse all of my ideas into one succinct production, a full-blown Broadway-style musical; full cast, chorus line, dazzling musical numbers and a theatrical experience worthy of a large professional venue (Broadway or elsewhere!).
The musical will incorporate all the elements of its predecessor (the one-man show), expanding on the storylines, featuring additional musical numbers and, ultimately, leading up to the climax, the moment where the "real" Adam Driver shows up to an actual performance at an off-off Broadway theater, is hauled up on stage, sat in the barber chair and convinced to financially back Charlie's film sequel.
Not only does Driver agree to bankroll and star in the production, he is so enthralled by the idea, he agrees to do whatever it takes to convince his "Paterson" co-star Farahani and other cast members to take part.
But there's one hitch. And that hitch is a single, non-negotiable condition...that instead of Charlie's "Paterson" movie sequel produced as a film, it be done as a...Broadway musical!
Still there? Still following??
Coming up next...Part Three & Where Things Stand Today
24MAY23
PART THREE & WHERE THINGS STAND TODAY
I met Sarah a few months ago at the Venezuelan restaurant she works at that is owned by a customer of mine.
I took my eldest daughter to dinner there one night and met the young Venezuelan woman, whose family had settled in Madrid some years ago.
Sarah was jovial and a delight to talk to with her perfect English (spoken curiously with an Australian accent despite her claim to having never visited the country!).
She said she knew I was her boss Antonio's barber and mentioned that her boyfriend, Matthew, was in dire need of a haircut and, seeing how my shop was literally around the corner from where she lived, she and Matthew (pictured with me above) popped in late one night for a cut.
Matthew and Sarah are both studying International Studies at Leiden University here in The Hague. During the haircut service, Jakarta-born Matthew, mentioned that he was a classically-trained pianist. That, of course, led me to tell him about my project and mention that I was beginning a search for a musical director. One thing led to another and, interested in my concept, we made a plan to meet and discuss things further.
A week or so later, I invited Matthew and Sarah over to my place for lunch where I talked about my vision for the musical and sang a few of the songs. Whatever I said or did (perhaps it was my world-renowned risotto...or the Champagne!), Matthew was in and we set another meeting for a few weeks down the line.
We met again and sat around the piano for a few hours and continued getting to know each other, this time on a more personal level. We talked in depth about the songs and my plan for getting the musical in front of a live audience as soon as possible––perhaps as soon as the end of the summer or early autumn.
We chose three songs to work on in advance of our first official rehearsal in early June.
Meanwhile, I had a meeting with Wilco, the owner of the hair salon where I rent my barbershop four evenings a week to ask him if I could use the shop to rehearse and perhaps when the time came actually do some performances there. My idea is to launch the musical at the barbershop itself. It's obviously an orthodox venue, but I feel it will give the play an eccentric air of unconventionality; and the musical is certainly unconventional!
Wilco not only gave me his blessings, but was enthusiastic and encouraging, insisting that if I didn't give it a try, I would never know what might have become of my idea, one born so very long ago, so very far away and in a very different time in my life.
So, that's the plan. Matthew and I will begin rehearsing next month and setting our sights to giving a few dry-run performances to audiences of my oldest and most trusted customers who I'll invite to see the show and enjoy some wine and cheese afterwards where they can give their feedback about the show.
If those previews go well and the feedback is positive, I'll promote the show to a wider, paying public. The shop can seat about 15 people and the idea of going to see a performance in a barbershop whose action takes place in a barbershop is novel, to say the least. Another feature is that the show is performed to a small, intimate audience who have a "fly on the wall" perspective, that more traditional theater experiences don't always provide.
Finally, if the short run of performances go well at the barbershop, I will begin to seek out a small theater here in The Hague for the musical's "world premiere," sometime in mid 2024. Until then, there's work to be done, theater to make and dreams to chase!
Coming up next...Four Films, One Actor, and the Alignment of the Planets
28MAY23
FOUR FILMS, ONE ACTOR & THE ALIGNMENT OF THE PLANETS
I've been watching films––and loving films––my whole life; films that, during every stage of my life have had an impact and played an important part in that life.
And there have been some films that, as one might imagine, have made a deeper impact than others.
For example, "Bullitt," directed by Peter Yates and starring Steve McQueen, released in 1968, when I was merely a wee lad of five years old. (And how, why and who would take a five-year-old to see a murder-filled action thriller? Read on...).
My grandfather was the quintessential traveler. And when, in the winter of 1968, he wanted to go to Miami Beach for a week and his wife––my grandmother––had work and a busy social agenda, five-year-old Ricky was as good a travel companion as any (at least my grandfather thought so!).
So, we packed up and flew down to Miami, stayed, as one did in the 1960s, at the renowned Fontainebleau Hotel (with its equally renowned talking parrot in the lobby) and kicked back for a week of swimming pools, breakfasts as Sambo's and a trip to the Keys (which was highlighted by a rare tropical winter storm that had us evacuated in a kind samaritan's van).
One hot day, my grandfather decided he had had enough of the heat and decided to go to the movies and cool off. Thinking it would also be a nice refreshing atmosphere for his young travel companion to have a nap in, he chose "Bullitt," and we ended up sitting through three full showings!
Needless to say, I didn't nap and, even at five, that film made a big impression, especially the famous car chase scene through the streets of San Francisco and the scene where McQueen shoots actor Pat Renella who goes crashing through the glass door at San Francisco International Airport.
Other films that had a profound influence on my life were "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Sting," both starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford; "Dog Day Afternoon," "All That Jazz," "Jaws" and the "Godfather (Parts 1 and 2") were also some of my 70s favorites.
So, after "discovering" Adam Driver and watching a few of the films he was in, I also began to see a pattern emerging, one where––unlike the action-suspense-thrillers I enjoyed in my youth––I found myself connecting to the stories and to the characters Driver played in these films.
In "Marriage Story," Driver plays a theater professional in the midst of a tumultuous divorce which, as a playwright and divorcee, hit very close to home.
In "Annette," an under-the-radar arthouse film written by two of my L.A. musical heroes, brothers Ron and Russell Mael who together are known as the quirky pop band Sparks, Driver plays Henry McHenry, a raunchy, daredevil stand-up comedian whose marriage to his opera singer wife, played by Marion Cotillard, goes awry shortly after their daughter, Annette, is born.
In "This is Where I Leave You," Driver plays the part of Phillip Altman, the youngest of four siblings reunited at the family home to observe the seven days of Jewish mourning after their father passes away suddenly. Driver, in an all-star cast featuring Jane Fonda, Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Dax Shepard and Timothy Olyphant, is the youngest member of the Altman clan, a well-to-do Jewish family and the black sheep, living his life from career to career and from one romantic relationship to another.
And finally, in "Paterson," Driver is a bus driver who writes poems and lives his his wife Laura and their English bulldog Marvin.
The coincidences revolving around this film that correspond to my own life are subtle but profound. From a young age, I desired to become a bus driver, fascinated with busses and the men who, sitting up front to observe them, I admired and emulated as a child by putting a round sofa cushion on my grandmother's credenza, donning a real CTA bus driver's hat acquired by my grandfather from a friend who drove a bus, and using a hole punch from my grandmother's office to punch holes in the transfer slips that everyone in my family would save for me. Oh, and the local bus Driver drives in "Paterson" (in the city of Paterson, New Jersey, where his character lives) is the number 23, the same bus line as the local bus that runs through my neighborhood in the town I live in outside of The Hague.
One final coincidence is the fact that I have been writing poems since the fourth grade and have amassed a stockpile of just south of two thousand original poems.
So, I began to see these patterns and subtle (as they may be) coincidences in Driver's films emerging and begin to play an important part in the development of my musical.
You could say the planets aligned and helped guide me towards a galaxy I've been observing for years that only now is beginning to come into focus; planets whose light and gravitational pull are bringing me closer and closer to the edge of creation.
07JULY23
ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK
Life is filled with ups and downs. And theater, like life, is not immune from trials and tribulations.
June was supposed to be a month of new beginnings as Matthew, my musical director and I, were slated to begin rehearsals.
Matthew called me a few days before our first rehearsal on the 11th to tell me he hadn't found the time to transcribe the opening number, apologizing for the late notice and asking if we could meet on the 17th, by which time he would have the first number transcribed and ready to rehearse.
The 17th came and went as Matthew's school commitments and his self-described poor time management skills were not allowing him sufficient space to work on the songs.
On the 29th, following my four-day soirée in London to see my beloved Chicago Cubs (for the first time in 27 years!) play a two-game series against their rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, at London's Olympic Stadium, Matthew wrote to me to apologize once again and to reassure me of his continued interest and commitment to the project.
I replied telling him that I came up with a solution, that I would have the songs professionally transcribed and the first song would be ready in a matter of days, allowing us to jump right in to rehearsals. He thought that was a great idea and would take a good amount of the pressure off so he could focus fully on his studies. I reminded him that only a mere two-hours of rehearsal would be needed each week.
The next day, he informed me that he didn't finish the school year on the high note he had hoped for and that he would be attending summer school. He asked if we could postpone things until "next month" until he got back on track with his studies.
Understanding his predicament, and wanting to be supportive, I said that would be fine and asked him to clarify if by "next month" he meant July. His response was that he meant August.
In the end, I wrote to Matthew telling him I understood where he was coming from but was simply not willing to delay things any longer (38 years was long enough!). What I didn't tell him, was how disappointed I was and perhaps even a bit put off in thinking that he hadn't been forthcoming with me from the beginning. Part of me thinks he simply did not want to do it---or had a change of heart---and felt bad to tell me.
I have now started putting out feelers for a new musical director or accompanist to help me get back on track. Meeting Matthew---through a mutual friend---turned out to be a blessing and a curse and finding a replacement will be a huge challenge.
On a positive note, today I had a meeting in the city of Leiden with a seasoned Amsterdam-based theater director who has expressed an interest in collaborating on the project.
The meeting was upbeat and positive and gave me a renewed sense of purpose, which I badly needed.
After our hour-long meeting, we agreed to continue our conversation at her rehearsal space in Amsterdam where, in the near future, she can get to know me better as a performer and see if the meager talent I possess will suffice to actually entertain an audience for 60 minutes.
We also discussed other possibilities, such as looking for a "real actor" to portray Charlie the Barber. I told her I was open to whatever was best for the integrity of the project and that I had no problem stepping aside if she felt I wasn't up to the task of performing the piece myself which, to be brutally honest, I don't know whether I am or not and telling her this was as difficult as it was painfully honest.
I'm hoping things will progress and get back on track and hopefully, when it does, I'll be able to make a formal and proper introduction here.
Ukrainian pianist, composer and arranger Hennadii Beziazychnyi.
21JULY23
RE-BOOTED AND RARING TO GO!
So, it's been three weeks since my meeting with the Amsterdam-based director and I haven't heard a peep from her.
Which turns out to be a good thing as I've had second (and third) thoughts about who might be the right/best person to direct me on stage.
That person is Abbott Chrisman. But he doesn't know it yet!
I met Abbott as a (25-year-old) freshman at the Theater School of Chicago's DePaul University in 1988. Abbott was my professor for a general intro course, History of Dramatic Literature.
A few years later, Abbott moved to Zurich, Switzerland to further his academic interests, but before he left Chicago, he was one of my advisors and editors of my Masters project, a book of poetry I wrote and published about the life and times of my great-grandfather (who came to America from current-day Ukraine in September 1923).
Abbott and I have stayed in touch all these years, even reuniting in Geneva and twice in the Netherlands over the past decade or so.
Abbott Chrisman and me. Geneva, Switzerland, October 2012.
It was Abbott to whom I reached out two summers ago when I came up with the concept for the latest iteration of the musical I started writing back in August 1985.
We spent nearly three hours on a video chat and Abbott---the consummate dramaturg---was encouraging and had some very clear ideas about how to approach my ambitious project.
He suggested I "compartmentalize" the musical into three more approachable segments, going from the most practical and easiest to get off the ground. That idea was a one-man show, or to be more specific, a one-man musical, a genre that is not very common and oftentimes used as a performance vehicle for artists of more, shall we say, renown.
I loved the idea, especially seeing how single-actor performances had always intrigued me.
The idea was to work out a one-man show, then, if that proved successful, go to the next phase and try to produce a full-cast, Broadway-style musical, based on the one-man show. Finally, if that worked, I could go on to produce the final piece of my musical trilogy (probably as I near my 100th birthday!).
So, now that I've sidetracked and blog-bombed my own post, I'll get back to the events of today (well, yesterday, as I'm finishing this just after 4 a.m. on the day after!)...
Last week, I saw a post on a local Facebook group by someone announcing piano lessons for children. Long story short, I reached out to him asking if he might be interested in collaborating on a musical. Turns out he was.
After exchanging a few text messages, Hennadii and I met at my house and I described the project in more detail and played him a selection from a few of the songs. He agreed to first transcribe the songs and get my 38-year-old compositions onto paper (I'm not a trained musician or composer and never learned to read or write music!).
So, yesterday––three days after we met––Hennadii came over to show me his progress on the first song, The Storyteller, which is the show's opening number.
To say I was absolutely overcome with emotion would be an understatement. This was the first time in my life I had ever heard anyone other than myself playing one of my own songs. I was overwhelmed and stood there laughing though nearly in tears. I simply couldn't believe that someone else was playing a song I had written.
And then Hennadii told me to sing along from the beginning. Which I did. Majestically. Proudly.
It was a moment I will never forget. And while it was par for the course for Hennadii, a classically trained professional pianist, composer and arranger who has dedicated his whole life to his craft, for me it was a watershed moment, a turning point whereby I felt for the first time since coming up with the idea of writing a musical in 1985, that this elusive dream, this fantasy I've harbored and aspired to create might actually come to fruition.
Hennadii and I only spent about 20 minutes going over the song twice and having a short chat about a missing bridge connecting the third and fourth verses of the song and the fact that he still considered the piece a work in progress to be continued.
But those twenty minutes, for me anyway, were magical and lifted my spirits to great heights.
Hennadii leaves for Hungary today where he'll be performing and giving a master class for the next two weeks. We agreed to meet again to put the finishing touches on the opening number and get started on song two, which will probably be either Phone Call, Phone Call or Great Big Town.
Until then, I'll continue daydreaming, rehearsing, memorizing lyrics, finishing a new song and carry on working with the script outline.
I could think of a million corny metaphors, but I can honestly say for the first time that I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. And maybe, just maybe, I've come a little bit closer to really doing this.
Screenshot of Abbott Chrisman on a recent video call from Zurich.
08AUGUST23
HE SAID 'YES' AND OTHER TIDBITS
Having decided that I'd wanted no one but Abbott Chrisman to direct ADATMDH, I finally reached out to him via email and was delighted to receive a positive response from him a few days later.
This week, while I was still recuperating from some nasty upper-respiratory issues, Abbott and I had a quick video chat to touch base and set things in motion.
We agreed to communicate every week or two and that Abbott would fly over from Zurich sometime in early 2024.
I updated him on my progress to date, including letting him know that my arranger, Hennadii, was just about finished transcribing the second song.
And speaking of Hennadii, he'll be coming over on Monday the 11th to go over song two and talk about how we can expedite the next two musical numbers. I'd like to have all five songs transcribed, arranged and wrapped up by the end of October and begin rehearsals in mid November.
In keeping with the theme of the 2016 Jim Jarmusch film, "Paterson," that features prominently in my musical, this week I acquired a toy wooden bus, purchased for just five euros at the weekly antique and curiosa market in our village.
I'm not one to normally favor good luck charms (though I have have kept a few special trinkets over the years), the bus, made by a Finnish company founded in 1923 (the same year my family emigrated from Eastern Europe to the United States), is symbolic in that Adam Driver's character in "Paterson," is a bus driver. In fact, he drives the number 23 bus in Paterson, New Jersey, so we see the '23' again. And, coincidentally as it might seem, the local bus company in The Hague, HTM, has a 23 bus line which just so happens to be the line that runs through our neighborhood. So, a lot of synergy and symbolism and now officially my project's talisman.
Finally, as part of their celebration of the films of Jim Jarmusch, Filmhuis Den Haag, The Hague's renowned arthouse cinema, is presenting a screening of "Paterson" on Saturday evening August 9th. As you might imagine, I have my ticket and will be in attendance to see "Paterson" on the big screen for the first time and I'm sure I'll walk away inspired with a dozen new ideas for my show!
22DECEMBER23
SO, THIS HAPPENED
And so it came to pass that one fine day, in the month of October, I sat at my desk in front of my computer screen looking over the two dozen or so stories that I had planned on using for my one-man musical and came to the sudden realization that I simply had too much material––too many bloody stories––for a 70-minute production. In fact, I had so much material, I could have put it all together in a novel!
In a novel...?
And then the email came. The one I get every October from NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month), an annual, self-challenge, novel-writing event I first participated in back in 2011 when I wrote––and completed––my first novel, "A River Runs Wild."
So, would I sign up again for this year's 50,000-word challenge? (I'd participated in four of the previous eleven years, only finishing once!). I would. And I did. And for one very specific reason...to help me finish the musical!
Here's what I was thinking...
The one man show, "Adam Driver and the Million Dollar Haircut," was meant to be a semi-improvised performance combining storytelling and music. But there were simply too many stories to pack into a 70-minute show so I came up with the idea to write a novel containing all––or almost all––of the stories and anecdotes I wanted to appear in the performance. Then, like a catalog of stories, I could simply pick and choose the ones I wanted to use for any given performance; and seeing how November 1st was right around the corner, I figured NANOWRIMO as the perfect motivation to get things done quickish. In fact, I wrote the 54,000-word novel in just 27 days, beating out my 2011 novel by one day!
So, the novel's done and will be published in March 2024 (click HERE to see just how I'm going to do that).
Finally, I've been meeting regularly with Hennadii, going over the songs, and video conferencing with Abbott, for moral support. There are still two songs to transpose (one is giving me some trouble lyrically) and I still don't have a date in mind for the previews, but still setting my sights on late April/early may. I have also made first contact with the theater in The Hague for the world premiere sometime in June. I'll do a book launch for the novel at the end of January at the barbershop.
13MARCH2024
THEN, THIS HAPPENED
And so it came to pass that one fine day, in the month of October, I sat at my desk in front of my computer screen looking over the two dozen or so stories that I had planned on using for my one-man musical and came to the sudden realization that I simply had too much material––too many bloody stories––for a 70-minute production. In fact, I had so much material, I could have put it all together in a novel...! So, that's exactly what I did!
As November was fast approaching, I decided to sign up for my sixth attempt at completing a 50,000-word novel during National Novel Writing Month (NANOWRIMO). My first attempt––back in 2011––which was at the time my only successful finish (in 28 days!), was followed by four more unsuccessful attempts.
November 2023's attempt would be different in that I already had a concept and a head full of stories. It would be a matter of sitting down and flushing them out, which I managed to do in just 27 days, beating my 2011 time by 24 hours!).
So, on November 27th 2023, I had a finished novel of about 53,000 words. That proved to be the easy part as what transpired over the next 101 days was nothing less than a whirlwind.
Once the novel was finished, I began the process of revising, editing, proofreading and all the gobbledygook that goes into preparing a book for publication.
The first thing I did was run the story through the AI-powered writing program ProWritingAid, that I paid about 60 bucks to subscribe to. I found the platform ineffective and unhelpful so I decided to look for a human proofreader.
I turned to Nancy, who had been the proofreader of the expat magazine I was hired to be the editor of last summer who had since given up the proofreader's job (I have since convinced her to come back to the fold), and she agreed to give my book her best shot. Which she did in a remarkably short period of time.
Once I turned the text over to Nancy, I turned to two more of my magazine comrades, Marina Višić and Marek Moggré who would design the cover art and interior layout respectively.
I had met Marina through her husband, Tomas, a Portuguese customer of mine at the barbershop who mentioned that his architect wife-to-be was also doing graphic design as a side hustle. I contacted Marina, a native of Serbia, who came up with a great concept that I used for my first magazine cover as the expat publication's new editor.
Marek, from the Czech Republic and longtime resident of the Netherlands, had been the graphic designer for the magazine for the past 12 years and reaching out to him for my book's interior layout was a no-brainer.
So, after 101 days and numerous modifications, edits, versions and the like, the book was published on Amazon while I also had 100 copies printed at a facility in northern Poland (whose quality is just a notch above Amazon's) that I will sell at the shop and whenever I take my one-man show out on the road or at book signing events.
My hat goes off to Nancy for her impeccable proofreading; to Marina for not only a terrific cover but for her unwavering patience as we did no fewer than eleven revisions of the artwork, even one after the test printing when it was decided that a black cover wasn't what we were after; and to Marek, who also exhibited patience above and beyond the call of duty, walking and talking me through the process of laying out the interior for maximum readability and aesthetic quality. And there's one other person I'd like to thank. Albert Evers is my contact as BooksFactory in Poland, who was very generous with his time while making me feel like I was million copy customer. While I may never have the occasion to print a million books, I will definitely be calling on Albert soon to print the first run of my next book, "A River Runs Wild," some time in late May or early June.
The book is done. The book is out. Hoping you'll read it, review it, recommend it and, more than anything, enjoy it!
13APRIL2024
AND NOW, THIS IS HAPPENING (REALLY!)
Abbott received his copy of the novel in mid-March and finished it a few weeks later in short order.
He called me one Monday morning---as he often does for our weekly catch-up--and asked me when I'd like to get started working on the one-man show.
I told him "in five or six years!"
He replied, "how about May?"
So, his flight from Zurich is booked---he arrives on 8 May---his hotel is booked---a nice place near the shop---I have ordered a portable stage piano---a nice one with weighted keys so Henny will think he's playing a Steinway!---and I've got more butterflies in my stomach than the Mexican monarch butterfly migration!
But it's happening...
On Friday and Saturday evening, May 10th and 11th, I'll be inviting a small number of my customers to the shop to observe a "working rehearsal" and participate in a focus group moderated by Abbott immediately following the performance (with light refreshments, of course).
One day earlier, on Thursday the 9th, I'll invite a few close friends to watch Abbott, Henny and me rehearsing and blocking out the scenes and musical numbers.
Needless to say, I'm a nervous wreck, but on a positive note, I've come up with a new mantra:
What if it's good? What if they like it??
So, now it's daily work on the monologues and songs and getting my chops up on the guitar as I may decide to do one of the songs that Laura (from the imagined "Paterson" film sequel) performs during a recording session at a studio in Nashville.
Watch this space for more updates as preparations for the next phase of "Adam Driver and the Million Dollar Haircut: The Musical" continue taking shape.
28APRIL2024
THE WORK CONTINUES
Henny (pictured above) has been coming over to run through the songs and after more than nine months of working together I finally got him to accept a meager cup of coffee and a measly biscuit!
We've been fine-tuning the numbers and making some minor changes here and there, but for the most part the songs are ready. I've even written the lyrics to the finale, which is a reprise of the opening number, The Storyteller.
I have also purchased a full-size, portable digital piano with weighted keys and onboard speakers for the upcoming open rehearsals/focus group shows in early May.
Still grappling with a number of contextual issues regarding the opening sequence of the show; not sure whether I'm going to start off as myself and transform into the Charlie the Barber persona on stage as the audience look on or just begin as Charlie and remain in character throughout.
For now, I'll continue with vocal exercises and trying to make sure I sing every day. I may even hire a improv coach for a few online, one-on-one sessions to help me focus and keep things real!
More updates as they unfold!