AN INTERVIEW WITH PETER MILLS AND CARA REICHEL This past May, while the creative team visited Syracuse Stage for a week-long workshop with Syracuse University Department of Drama students to develop the show’s choreography and other technical elements, Syracuse Stage’s publications manager Matthew Nerber sat down with Peter Mills (composer, lyricist, co-bookwriter) and Cara Reichel (director and co-bookwriter) to discuss the process of bringing this heroic musical to life. MATTHEW NERBER: What was that first spark for this show, when you decided that this was the story you wanted to bring to the stage as a musical? CARA REICHEL: I think it was over Memorial Day weekend in 2015. I saw a documentary on the history of women in the military which included a short segment on the Hello Girls. At that time we were looking for possible projects that would center strong women characters and women’s stories—and this one just grabbed me. It’s not only an important story, but it lived in a world that I could hear as a musical. And then I shared that with you, Peter.
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PETER MILLS: It was such a great story! Once you start learning the details of what the women did, you feel the injustice of their not being recognized as veterans for so long. It’s a fantastic adventure, and a war story too. We had written other musicals based on history—specifically one set rather close to this time period of WWI. So as a composer, I knew that I could do that. MN: What was your approach for music? Was it looking at the time period with jazz, ragtime, and all that, or was there a specific composer that was an influence? PM: Ragtime was one thing I looked at, and it ultimately made its way into the score for one