GETTING "LIGHTER' AT NYMF
By Monica Bauer, libretto, music, and lyrics
Putting on a new musical at NYMF is like creating a steamship out of popsicle sticks and crazy glue. The miracle is, people do it every year. And some of these little boats float all the way up stream to Broadway! It helps if your show is connected to your heart and soul, which is certainly true for "Lighter." I've been on a diet since I was six years old, and gave up acting long ago because I knew I'd only get to play mothers, aunts, and Momma Morton in "Chicago". If you go to a famous rehearsal studio such as Ripley-Grier in Manhattan, you'll see a parade of women of near-uniform size and shape. Chances are, anyone over size six is a writer, composer, or accompanist.
I first wrote a little one-woman show called "The Diet Monologues" in 2002. The challenge was to write about this subject without an ounce of self-pity, not a single "fat" joke, make people both laugh until they couldn't breathe, and walk out of the theater feeling better about themselves. It seemed to work; the show became "Diet Monologues: The Musical", off-off Broadway in 2007. And now, it has transformed still further into "Lighter". What started out as a revue about diets and self-esteem is now a full-blown musical comedy love story.
I'm one of those strange people who writes it all; music, book, and lyrics. I collaborate very well with myself! The danger of doing it all is not having someone around who can say, "Cut the scene that doesn't work." Luckily, I have an accomplished director, Craig J. George, and a smart and savvy arranger and musical director, Brent-Alan Huffman. After "Lighter" was given its first staged reading at the York Theater last December, the three of us went on a writing retreat, sharing the same lovely little cottage in the Hamptons. The result: they convinced me to cut out an entire subplot, two characters, and four songs. As I tell my students at Quinnipiac University, writing is rewriting! The best playwrights have the biggest ears, and the smallest egos.
I hope to see you at NYMF! We could all stand to get just a bit "Lighter," especially when we can have fun doing it. We've got a Nutrition Nun, a crazy Jamaican, an evil diet doctor, and two people in love. What could be better than that?
