Yet another unfinished project

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We’ve been watching Chief of War, Apple TV’s series about the unification of Hawaii starring Jason Momoa and his sturdy buttocks. (It’s true. It’s a joke on the intertubes, but even as we laughed about making it a drinking game — Momoa’s buttcheeks on camera, DRINK — we realized that you couldn’t make it through the first thirty minutes without passing out.)

ANYWAY, it reminded me that decades ago I stumbled across an American composer named Jerré Tanner, who had written a couple of operas with Hawaiian themes. (He lives in Hawaii.) His music is lush, tonal, and very pretty without being insipid. Here’s his stuff on YouTube, and here’s the music I first encountered, the Suite from The Singing Snails:

Somehow I got in touch with him. I may have written him a fan email, actually. At the time, I had the idea of turning de Maupassant’s short story “Simon’s Dad” into a musical, and I offered it to him as an idea. (Somehow I knew I’d never get around to it.)

He declined, saying that the plotline of Marguerite’s illegitimate son Simon wouldn’t make sense in Hawaiian culture. Oh well. I think his version would have lit up Broadway.

I did a fair bit of thinking and planning the scenario, wrote a few lyrics, never wrote a single measure of music, and it’s still there, moribund, in a huge blank book. So that’s three solid stage shows that I have so far come nowhere close to finishing: Simon’s Dad, Scott Wilkerson’s Seven Dreams of Falling, and Mike Funt’s A Day in the Moonlight (a Marx Bros version of The Romancers/The Fantasticks).

If you’re just here for the Lichtenbergian Precept of TASK AVOIDANCE, that’s it. But if you’re curious about what Simon’s Dad might look like on stage, here are my notes on the scenario.

SCENARIO

OPENING/EXPOSITION

Think opening number of Disney’s Beauty & the Beast: meet the village, introduce the hunky new blacksmith Philip, village flirt Yvette and her catty mother, kids coming to school, arrival of Marguerite (La Blanchotte) & Simon (with the village women gossiping)

KIDS 1

Inside school, maybe; kids taunt Simon for not having a dad; he flees

SIMON AT THE RIVER

tough song to write, for real; Philip shows up

PHILIP MEETS MARGUERITE

Philip takes Simon home; maybe a short song “Tell them I’m your father,” which will show up again at the end; maybe she has a song about her life

KIDS 2

back at school, Simon tells them he now has a dad, Philip

DEVELOPMENT SCENES

more life in the village; Yvette throws herself at Philip, “Can’t Force Love”; there’s a village dance coming up; Yvette pointedly asks Philip if he’ll dance with her at the dance; Simon asks his mom if they can go, she’s flustered; Yvette (claws out) urges Marguerite to attend; to her surprise, Philip urges Marguerite; she agrees to come

VILLAGE DANCE

lots of flirting, etc. Philip waltzes with Marguerite; song: “Other People Fall in Love”; almost kiss; Yvette’s a bitch, Marguerite flees

KIDS 3

back at school, the chief bully taunts Simon because Philip isn’t married to Marguerite

THE FORGE

Simon comes to the forge and tells Philip what the other kids are saying; Philip is distraught; the other blacksmiths rally round him and urge him to go to her; Philip heads to Marguerite’s cottage; the other men scatter to tell everyone; Philip sings “Epiphany”

FINALE

Philip arrives at the cottage; she remonstrates at him; he sweeps her inside, closes the door. The door opens, Simon is thrust out. Villagers arrive, all atwitter. Yvette demands to know where Philip is; Simon doesn’t answer her. Finally Guy (head blacksmith) asks, “Where’s your dad?” and Simon opens the door to reveal Philip and Marguerite in a kiss. Philip sings “Tell them I’m your father,” joined by Marguerite. Something something big finish, maybe a reprise of “Other People Fall in Love”?

———————————————

SONG IDEAS/LYRICS

Philip, “Epiphany” — general idea is that he has no other option but to choose happiness

When you know what you’ve got to say,
    And you know you’ve got to say it,
xxxx
    You know you must obey it.

When you know you’re set to go
    Down a road that has no turning,
xxxx
    It leads you towards your yearning.
xxxx
    I’ve got everything to lose
If I really don’t have a choice,
    Then this is what I choose.

———————————————

Yvette, “Can’t Force Love” — She’s flirting with Philip, claiming that love cannot be forced, all the while transparently trying to force him to love her. She is stupid and vain, and not nearly as sophisticated as she would like to appear. All her allusions fall comically flat. She is a poser.

reference to Carmen’s “bird of love”: Don’t you want to give me the bird?

[I have a note that says ‘Goya’s novel Tartuffe’; what?]

———————————————

Philip, maybe Marguerite, “Other People Fall in Love” — They are waltzing at the village dance. He lightheartedly mocks all the other couples; the song turns into an expression of what he and Marguerite are actually feeling. [For reference, see Enya’s “Flora’s Secret” on A Day Without Rain; I’ve used that rhythm for the lyrics.]

People all around us,
    See them dancing now
xxxx
xxxx
    It’s entrancing how
Other people fall in love.

xxxx
    Eyes are gazing in
Each other’s xxxx
xxxx
    It’s amazing when
Other people fall in love.

[I have a note indicating that the third line of each verse rhymes across the verses. I’m just a regular Sondheim…]

It really is a solid idea. Maybe some day… Cras melior est.