The book of a musical is the foundation of the show and as such is one of the most difficult to define in the collaborative art form. 半岛体育 gathered the experts鈥攖he 2019 Tony Award nominees for Best Book of a Musical鈥攖o weigh in.
Ain鈥檛 Too Proud鈥檚 Dominique Morisseau, Beetlejuice鈥檚 Scott Brown, Hadestown鈥檚 Ana茂s Mitchell, The Prom鈥檚 Bob Martin and Chad Beguelin, and Tootsie鈥檚 Robert Horn gathered at the Dramatist Guild Foundation鈥檚 Music Hall to discuss all things writing.
This year鈥檚 crop of nominees runs the gamut from seasoned book writers to first-timers, writing teams, and solo artists. Not to mention the diversity among the musicals themselves.
Morisseau, making her Broadway debut with her first-ever musical, encapsulates the story of Motown supergroup The Temptations in this new bio-musical. Mitchell鈥檚 folk-opera meets blues musical weaves the Greek mythologies of Orpheus and Eurydice and Hades and Persephone. Scott Brown (along with Anthony King, who could not attend due to scheduling) created a fresh adaptation of the Tim Burton film Beetlejuice, about the demon trapped between the real world and the Netherworld and the young girl who can help him bridge the gap. Tootsie鈥檚 Robert Horn also began with a movie, the 1982 hit about a difficult actor so desperate to overcome his reputation he disguises himself as a woman to get cast. And Bob Martin and Chad Beguelin created an entirely original musical about narcissistic Broadway actors who decide to rehab their images by becoming celebrity activists and protesting the exclusion of a gay teenager from her prom.
In a not-to-be-missed discussion, the nominees discuss their processes, the moments they had to cut, the last-minute changes, their collaborations with their composer-lyricists (or what it鈥檚 like to do it all), and more. Watch the full conversation in the video roundtable above, with highlights below.
How do you define the book of a musical?
Bob Martin: When I started doing this, I was approaching it from my television background, where I was a showrunner, creating a treatment, the outline, the structure of the piece, and then diving in from there. So being kind of the architect, I felt like that鈥檚 what our job has become. We create the bones of the show and work with the composer, lyricist, to song-spot and build the show from there. Even if you have little dialogue in your musical, the book writers are still the ones who build the thing. Would you all agree?
Chad Beguelin: You鈥檙e crazy! [Laughs]
Ana茂s Mitchell: I come from the songwriting world, and sort of how to write a three-and-a-half-minute song is what I knew how to do. And then I'd say working on the book of this thing has just been figuring out how to make those songs tell the story in a moment-to-moment way.
Robert Horn: To pick up on what you're saying, you as the book writer create the blueprint for what the story is going to be, but sometimes... When you do television or film, your training and your instinct is to make sure it's all on the page, but when you write the book for a musical, you cannot be redundant with what the music is going to do. The music has to drive either the narrative or the internal monologue or whatever is happening at the moment. So, it's our job in the most entertaining and informative way to move the story but not get ahead of what the music has to do. And that's always such a delicate balancing act to try to manipulate.
Dominique Morisseau: I agree. I come from playwriting and you鈥檙e putting everything on the page鈥攁nd I鈥檓 a dense writer鈥攕o I want to say a lot of things and have it come out of the mouth in a particularly rhythmic way. There鈥檚 something else about doing a bio-musical where the catalog of music already exists, so the challenge is a little different. You're trying to find a way to co-write with written work, you know? And you're also trying to find a way to find new meaning in that written work. I have to fall back on what I want to do as a playwright and tell a story from a new point of view. So, I'm sort of similar to Ana茂s because we both, Ana茂s, we both have this coming from another thing and letting whatever the demands of this form are lead us.
Scott Brown: This process. I mean, it's funny how many times you end up telling the story and how incrementally it changes, but then over time you'll see how much the glacier has moved.
What is step one?
RH: From my experience on Tootsie, the first year was spent just talking. We didn't write for a year because we knew you had the source material that had to be updated, and that we were not going to stay faithful to the movie, but just take the DNA. You have to decide on tone, you have to decide on what the structure is going to be, you have to know what your narrative is.
DM: This is my first time at the rodeo. Again, playwright. I knew the characters because it鈥檚 The Temptations, but who else was going to be in their world to fill the world in? Des McAnuff, our director, he and I sat and talked and went through all of their music because we had approved songs. But the world, for me, there鈥檚 always going to be the women. Even though this is a male-centered story, I鈥檓 like 鈥淲hat were the women doing? And who were the women in their lives? And what costs did they pay for these men鈥檚 success?鈥� That can often be omitted from stories around men. If you鈥檙e going to look at an artist, you got to look at them whole.
SB: For us, the big question was what happens when Beetlejuice opens his mouth and sings? Warner Bros. they were pretty cool about saying, 鈥淒on鈥檛 stick to the movie and do what you need to do.鈥�
AM: Having a plan going into it sounds like a great idea. That鈥檚 not the way it went down with us or with me. Anything creative I鈥檓 working on usually comes from a kind of mysterious spark. In this case it was 13 years ago and I was in my 20s and I was starting a songwriter career and some lyrics just came into my head when I was driving that seemed to be about this story. Obviously, our story is this ancient Greek myth, so there was a lot contained in that already and then the question was, what鈥檚 going to be different about this telling? It started out as a DIY community theatre project and then I made an album of some of that music鈥攕o it was very music-first early on.
BM: When the page is blank, it鈥檚 all about constraints. We decided that the problem would be told in two halves. We knew what we were working towards and we kind of work back from that, and began with a treatment that broke the story down鈥攍ike a beat sheet鈥攍eading towards our ending, creating the characters. Very broad strokes.
You talk about writing towards something. What is the message of your show that you ultimately wanted to communicate?
BM: Oh, for us it鈥檚 acceptance.
AM: For me, it鈥檚 trying.
SB: Connection. Cheesy, but connection.
DM: I think it鈥檚 the cost of what it takes and the whole being the greater thing than the individual.
RH: For us, it was humility and understanding.
When you鈥檙e working with something that has source material鈥攁 song catalog or a movie鈥攚hat are the 鈥渉ave-to-haves鈥� and the 鈥渃an-let-gos鈥�?
SB: There was an understanding from the very beginning that the 鈥淏anana Boat Song鈥� was going into the show. On top of that, though, we didn鈥檛 really get a whole lot. We re-centered it so much on Beetlejuice and Lydia and their relationship and aligning them. They only have two scenes together in the movie; they鈥檙e only on screen for 12 minutes apiece. [The movie] is mostly about Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin, about the Maitlands. But [Lydia and Beetlejuice] are both so iconic.
DM: You鈥檝e got to put their hits in there. Over that, The Temptations also have this big VH1 movie that was one of their biggest bio movies ever. So it was like, 鈥淟et鈥檚 not do the movie again.鈥� Detroit, we have so much ownership over The Temptations, not just as a brand but the individuals that they went to school with and 鈥渢hey lived on my block.鈥� The big thing for us was Detroit has to be a character. All these questions about what should you do with your art right now when the world is sort of coming undone and your nation doesn鈥檛 really see you as a full human being, but you鈥檙e the face of success to the nation at the same time. They鈥檙e listening to your music, and yet, you can鈥檛 go sit and eat in that restaurant. All that stuff is feeling really palpable again. And then do you, as an artist, do you keep smiling? Do you get political? Do you address the injustice that鈥檚 happening to you and to your hometown and the to the people that you know? Or will that cost you your entire gains? For me, it was about selecting the things that felt like my own present questions.
RH: We knew going in we were not going to let the tail wag the dog. Other than the actual DNA of the story鈥攁 desperate actor who鈥檇 told he can no longer do the thing he loves more than anything in the world and what choices do you make to help rectify that? The role of feminism and misogyny, how it鈥檚 changed within our culture, has become a very important part of it. We wanted to address that. A man putting on a dress in 2019鈥�2020 has a very different resonance. It means something very different. Out culture has changed a lot. You look at it all and you say, 鈥淗ow do you make it your own?鈥�
When you鈥檙e starting from scratch, what are your priorities in the writing?
AM: It鈥檚 poetry for me. It鈥檚 the rhymes and the lines and them sounding right coming out of someone鈥檚 mouth. And, in my case, because Hadestown is mostly sung through, and all of the dialogue rhymes and it鈥檚 metered and it鈥檚 underscored. The process of trying to figure out how to make that happen and also do what has to happen for the story and the characters. It鈥檚 been really hard sometimes to sacrifice what feels like good poetry on the altar of this character.
BM: The very premise of the piece is the marriage of very broad comedy with very difficult politics. So it鈥檚 what dictated the piece.
CB: When we did our out-of-town in Atlanta, Casey said, 鈥淚 feel like it鈥檚 musical theatre characters invading a musical theatre town and if that town doesn鈥檛 feel real, it doesn鈥檛 really work.鈥� So I started talking about my hometown, which is very similar to [our Indiana setting]. The coal mine is gone, the factories are shut down. People are really nervous.
BM: The whole act of writing is extremely personal. Not only putting your own politics, or fears, or doubts, or anything within the characters voices. I鈥檓 an actor as well and one of the reasons I enjoy writing so much is that I can overcome my limitations as a performer vicariously through other actors. It鈥檚 really fun to work with somebody like Brooks, who鈥檚 an incredibly skilled comedian, but has all this depth, as well. To really push him to the dialog to get to uncomfortable places. It鈥檚 a very intimate journey with actors when you鈥檙e developing an original piece.
AM: I do agree that the workshops are everything and that the actors are muses. That once they get in there, in their body and in their voice, it guides the way. 鈥� Patrick Page, who plays Hades King of the Underworld, he would build into his mind five different beats [in a song] that I hadn鈥檛 written in there and I鈥檇 be like, 鈥淢aybe I should write that in there.鈥�
RH: For Tootsie, we almost cast the entire show in readings. We never had auditions. Then you are writing for those characters.
SB: Right. Alex Brightman comes in and just has a voice for Beetlejuice that is a comic voice. Then we can write towards it. Kerry Butler comes in and shows us how Barbara is funny. Rob McClure, same thing. Sophia Ann Caruso as Lydia鈥�
DM: You have these incredible artists. You have Ephraim Sykes who鈥檚 like David Ruffin when he comes onstage, you don鈥檛 want him to ever leave. It鈥檚 already supported by Jarvis B Manning, who plays the lead, Al, before Ephraim comes on. You have these high energy lead men and they just keep one-upping each other.
What is the moment that brings you the most joy when watching your show?
SB: Alex Brightman does something in the middle of 鈥淭hat Beautiful Sound,鈥� which is the number that opens the second act. He finds a pie that a nosy neighbor has brought over. He throws the lady out the door with his possession force and then he鈥檚 got the pie and he goes, 鈥淗ey lady, you forgot your pie.鈥� There鈥檚 something about it. He does it so joyfully.
AM: The reprise of 鈥淲ait for Me.鈥� It鈥檚 the last moment where you think maybe Orpheus and Eurydice and maybe everyone else in the underworld is going to make it out. [Eva] is in this sublime belt part of her voice. It鈥檚 full-on stadium pop moment.
CB: For me, it鈥檚 after Allyssa comes out to her mom and she says, 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 think I鈥檇 feel so relieved.鈥�
BM: It might be Caitlin鈥檚 last note on 鈥淒ance With You.鈥� It鈥檚 partly my relationship with the actress. I just watched her mature through this whole process and every time she sings that note, which is just this other-worldly ability she has鈥擨 just feel such pride and love for her.
RH: One is what Santino Fontana could do with his voice. Absolutely spectacular. But it鈥檚 hearing 1,600 people erupt with laughter throughout the entire night and have it build, build, build. The satisfaction of that, you have done something that lets people forget about their problems, leave everything outside, and become this community under one roof, it is so gratifying.
DM: I have two. When Ephraim Sykes, who plays David Ruffin, and Saint Aubyn, who plays Dennis Edwards, they have this sing-off. The audience is cracking up. When I first wrote it, I didn鈥檛 know if I could [alternate] who sings the lyrics. Every night when I watch that I go, 鈥淚 wrote that. I constructed that.鈥� The second one is when Derrick Baskin sings at the end of 鈥淲hat Becomes a Broken Heart鈥� and he hits his final note. I think, 鈥淥K. That鈥檚 Otis Williams. That鈥檚 his story. We made it work.鈥�
This just scratches the surface with these six writers. Watch the full roundtable discussion in the video above. Videography and video editing by Roberto Araujo. Filmed at DGF Music Hall, visit .
