Lucy Simon: 'Women Are Still Perceived As Soft And Not Really Commercial'

It's a quandary that's been perplexing Broadway ever since statistics started perpetually confirming that women constitute the greatest number of theatre ticket purchasers. Why isn't there greater female representation among creatives in commercial theatre?

"When THE SECRET GARDEN first opened," composer Lucy Simon explains to The Stage, "I was the third woman (composer) who had ever had a Broadway musical produced, and when Jeanine Tesori got the Tony Award, she said how I and (bookwriter/lyricist) Marsha Norman had led the way for it. It was very rare for a female team to be allowed in. And even now, though female directors and bookwriters and lyricists are allowed in, there are still very few female composers. Part of that, I think, is that women are still perceived as soft and not really commercial. When I started writing DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, we went to the British royalty in the theatre world of directing, and many said I was not right for it."

While Simon still reflects today on the failure of last season's DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, ("I think the score is beautiful, but the production was a disaster. It obscured all of the emotion in every possible way and it broke my heart."), the greater example of commercial theatre's inequities is the limited recognition for her only other Broadway entry, the very successful THE SECRET GARDEN, which ran for 700+ performances after its 1991 opening.

While last month's Off-Broadway concert staging, benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation, is being followed this month by a full orchestra all-star concert production at Lincoln Center's Geffen Hall, the popularity of the musical has yet to inspire a Broadway revival.

"I'm not a trained musician, but I really have an emotional connection to melody and what it should be," she explains in regards to the score's success.

When THE SECRET GARDEN premiered in London, music director Chris Walker noted, "It's amazing, Lucy, when you change keys, you don't think about it, but you go where've you want to go and it works."

Much of that, she believes, comes from her prior career as a singer, in a double act with her younger sister Carly Simon. "Because I'm a singer, I just go right into melody. I know the way a voice should sound, and the translation of an emotion into a melody. When I write something I have to know how it feels in my voice first."

"Listen to your own voice," she advises young composers. "Don't copy anyone. You have to know your own voice and what you want to do. And go to the theatre: HAMILTON is absolutely brilliant, maybe the most brilliant musical I've heard in years, because this young man (Lin-Manuel Miranda) took this amazing biography and found a way to tell it musically that was inspiring and original. I think that originality is the most important part of being an artist in the theatre."

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Manhattan Concert Productions is pleased to present two concert performances of the TONY Award-winning musical THE SECRET GARDEN as the fourth installment of its Broadway Series in 2016 at David Geffen Hall on February 21, 2016 and February 22, 2016.

Following the phenomenal success of PARADE earlier this year, TITANIC in 2014, and RAGTIME in 2013, MCP returns to bring Drama Desk and TONY Award-winning THE SECRET GARDEN to Lincoln Center. Both concert performances of THE SECRET GARDEN will feature over 200 singers from the across the United States; the enlarged forces of the New York City Chamber Orchestra; and a full professional Broadway cast.

Based on the 1911 novel of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, the musical's book and lyrics are by Marsha Norman, with music by Lucy Simon. Orphaned while living in India, 10 year-old Mary Lennox returns to Yorkshire, England to live with her embittered, reclusive uncle Archibald, whom she has never met. There, the ill-tempered and lonely Mary meets Martha, a chambermaid, who tells her of a secret garden which belonged to her aunt Lily before she died. Mary's search for the garden introduces her to a slew of other characters including Dickon (Martha's brother), Ben (the head gardener), Neville (her other uncle), and a spirited robin that seems to be trying to talk to her. This compelling tale of forgiveness and hope reveals that even the cruelest of environments can blossom with new life.

Tickets may be purchased by visiting www.lincolncenter.org; calling CenterCharge (212) 721- 6500; or visiting the David Geffen Hall box office at 10 Lincoln Center Plaza (Columbus Avenue at 65th Street).