A ‘Hail’ of a trip to stage from script
Published 1:00 am Wednesday, September 24, 2008
The new musical ‘Hail and Reign’ to hit BPA.
A virtual genesis is common enough in romantic and professional relationships these days.
Composer Paul Lewis and writer Colin Crowley did the model one better, building a full-length musical together, entirely via email, never meeting face-to-face.
“It was kind of blind faith,” Lewis said.
As his 2006 graduation from Northwestern University approached, Crowley, a history student, found himself captivated by the story of Stephen and Matilda, two 12th century noble types battling for the throne of England.
He headed back to his native Cape Cod, Mass., and spent a month pounding out a draft of a musical based on the story.
“Why a musical I’m not exactly sure…(but) I never imagined it to be anything else,” Crowley said.
He’d become aware of Lewis’ work on an online musical theater forum the year before and contacted Lewis again, based on his appreciation of the Bainbridge composer’s earlier pieces.
“I liked the fact that they were very heavy and soulful tunes; they weren’t superficial at all,” Crowley said.
Lewis, for his part, saw promise in the book, despite the fact that it was Crowley’s first time out with such a big effort.
“There was some great stuff in it,” Lewis said. “He turns out to be this great lyricist…he totally gets (musical theater) and story structure.”
Two years of what Crowley calls a “patchworky” yet efficient collaboration ensued, during which Lewis put parts of the book to music and sent Crowley samples, followed by Crowley, in turn, refining lyrics to better map to Lewis’ score. And back-and-forth and vice-versa.
The final product, helmed by BPA Artistic Director Steven Fogell, has come to sparkling life through an energetic cast of Bainbridge theater regulars including Lynda Sue Welch, Michelle Lorenz Odell and Chloe Hosterman.
Driving the plot is the struggle for who will helm England. King Henry dies, leaving his daughter, the Empress Matilda, a rightful position in the driver’s seat. She sails to England to take over.
Matilda is, however, a woman, and vain and French to boot, and therefore woefully unpopular with both statesmen and the church. Ergo Stephen, a dashing and good-hearted English nobleman, is crowned.
Hail hath no fury, and war ensues as soon as Matilda hits dry land. But it’s a battle with a twist – after Matilda imprisons Stephen, Matty, his wife, steps in to fill his shoes, taking up the cause for love of her husband as much as her country.
And that, Lewis said, is what the musical all boils down to.
“Ultimately for me the story is about love,” he said. “It’s about what we’ll endure, and what we’ll do, for the sake of love.”
“On the surface of everything you could argue that it’s about who’s going to be king,” Crowley added. “But ultimately, it’s human beings who matter and what they will do for each other when times are tough. There’s so much of that heroism and courage in it.”
At a recent rehearsal, a few days before Crowley arrived on the island to prep for the show, director Fogell drew parallels between “Hail’s” ravenous race for rule and the current political scene.
And it’s tough not to get on board with that, watching Odell’s Matilda strike a pose and milk a frightening sweetness for all it’s worth as she shallowly trills, “Oh my sweet dears, I’ll rule you a lovely reign,” and later, “History will christen me ‘Matilda the Really Great.’”
But Crowley maintains that the play and its characters exist purely in the realm of history, and the stage.
“The people in the play are what they are. In my mind, it’s very much a medieval piece,” he said.
Yet at the same time, the material is funny. His reverence for history aside, Crowley’s lyrics are densely packed with witty asides, bon mots and verbal slapstick. In fact, there was so much humor at the outset that Lewis encouraged him to tone things down, turning two of the songs into ballads.
“The comedy part was very much intentional. And early on, that almost dominated it to a negative extent,” Crowley said. “So now, it has that comedy end and also that weighty end.”
In terms of working style, Lewis – who has scored several local productions including the choral-orchestral piece “Last Poem on Earth” and the musical “The Recollection of Flight” – found the relationship to offer almost the best of both worlds. He loves working alone, and doesn’t enjoy having someone looking over his shoulder. Getting to meet Crowley at the end of the process, act as a Bainbridge ambassador, and show the young playwright how far his original idea had come – versus facing each other day in and day out –well, it’s got to be refreshing.
Call it another online success story.
“This has been a really sweet collaboration,” Lewis said.
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Love Reign O’er Me
“Hail and Reign” runs Sept. 25-28 at Bainbridge Performing Arts. Get tickets at www.bainbridgeperformingarts.org.
