4 minute read
WITHIN THESE WALLS
LYNN AHRENS & STEPHEN FLAHERTY
YOU CAN’T REALLY UNDERSTAND how to write a musical until you’ve had one produced. This makes us two of the luckiest writers around, because we’ve had not one but four musicals produced by Lincoln Center Theater.
All have been realized under the watchful, loving, and sometimes nervous guidance of three men—Ira Weitzman, who discovered and encouraged us, André Bishop, who developed and produced us, and Bernie Gersten, who not only managed the finances but threw both opening and closing night parties! Having an artistic “home” that welcomes you back time after time through failure and success is one of the rarest gifts writers can receive.
My Favorite Year, which premiered in 1992, was the first original American musical to play at the Beaumont, the first to utilize the brand-new pit, and our first large-scale show with a full orchestra. The moment when they struck up that opening fanfare is not only unforgettable but historic—a musical theater dream come true. But the show needed work. We sat in the back row night after night, cringing as the brilliant comedienne Andrea Martin struggled to make her big song, “Professional Showbizness Comedy,” land before a sea of unsmiling faces. Under the dire time constraints of previews, we frantically rewrote the number for her eccentric talents, adding Borscht-belt jokes, a silly striptease, and a wild turn on a tambourine. Just in time for the critics to arrive, she performed the new version, brought down the house, and later that year won the Tony Award! The show turned out to be an invaluable master class in craft—how to work with an orchestra, how to write for a star, how to rewrite under intense pressure. Thank you, Lincoln Center Theater.
Between 2002 and 2007, three of our shows opened downstairs in the Mitzi. A Man of No Importance, written with playwright Terrence McNally, taught us how to find the music in a withheld character and a kitchen sink world. Dessa Rose, directed by Graciela Daniele, was a dark folk opera, unlike anything we’d attempted before, but our producers trusted us to try. The Glorious Ones, set in the slapstick world of commedia dell’arte, was first produced at Pittsburgh Public Theater and then brought to New York by who else but Lincoln Center Theater. Show by show, we were supported no matter where our imaginations led.
Today, much of what we know and how we work was honed within the expansive, challenging space of the Beaumont and the intimate hug of the Mitzi. We’ve strode the underground halls, passing show posters of our idols, and eventually show posters of our own. We’ve seen Ira knitting to calm his nerves and beheld Bernie tiptoeing in at intermission to catch part of a preview. We’ve gnawed on our pencils in the last row, madly scribbled rewrites in the lobbies, and choked up as André Bishop told us, “I believe in what you do.” We even wrote a song christening the Claire Tow Theater. Maybe the spirit of these two seasoned Lincoln Center Theater writers will help inspire newcomers.
We’re deeply honored and grateful to be part of the Lincoln Center Theater family and thrilled to celebrate this momentous anniversary. We wouldn’t be the writers we are but for these hallowed walls and the people who gave us chance after chance to work within them. To quote A Man of No Importance, “We are blessed in our friends.” ▪
HAVING AN ARTISTIC “HOME” THAT WELCOMES YOU BACK TIME AFTER TIME THROUGH FAILURE AND SUCCESS IS ONE OF THE RAREST GIFTS WRITERS CAN RECEIVE.
Header Photo: Scene from My Favorite Year. Copyright Joan Marcus.
