I have a novel coming out in May and a musical opening.
1. My novel RIDING WITH JOHN WAYNE will be published by Simon & Schuster on May 1. It is about making a movie in Texas which is something I have done. The novel is set in the present but many of the incidents are based things that happened during the making of URBAN COWBOY back in 1978-1980. In case anyone would care to compare nonfiction and fiction, I am including excerpts from my URBAN COWBOY DIARY on this website.
For example, this is from my diary:
We went over to the casting office. There we met a pretty young casting director Nancy Wally. She explained that she had divided the pictures of the actors and actresses into separate piles. One pile was for our producer, Bob Evans. The other pile was for us. Evans' pile contained pictures of people who couldn't act all but who were pretty. Our pile contained pictures of people who could act. We were allowed to look at his pile, but he was not allowed to look at ours.
This is from the novel:
"I've got two stacks of pictures for you," Marion says. Bending forward, she picks them up from the coffee table, one in each hand. One stack is much thicker than the other stack. "These are the girls who can act," she says, shaking the smaller stack. "And these" - she shakes the bigger stack - "are the girls for your esteemed producer." "What?" I ask. "Don't ask," says Marion. I hope you enjoy both.
2. HOW A ZYDECO MUSICAL CAME TO BE
As could only happen in this city, the musical Pogo & Evie will be performed in a New York restaurant, directed by one its waiters, produced by one of its bartenders, and associated produced by another bartender. It was written by the restaurant's best customer: me.
For a while, I had wanted to write a musical about a community that was described and circumscribed by its music. I had heard a lot about zydeco music and so decided to take a trip epicenter of the movement: Lafayette, Louisiana.
Lafayette reminds me of Nashville. It reminds me of Rio. These are
music-mad, music-saturated cities. In Nashville, they say the way to find a
song writer is to order a pizza. In Rio cafes, everybody is beating out
rhythms with spoons or shaking matchboxes. In Lafayette, everybody has two identities: insurance salesman/ bass player, auto-repairman/accordion player, plumber/drummer, washerwoman/rubboard rubber. In this swampy corner of Louisiana, you are always your everyday self and your better self simultaneously.
While in Lafayette, I heard over and over again the story of Amédé Ardoin, the greatest accordion player who ever lived, who was lynched back in the 1941. His story suggested a plot to me. Since many Louisiana bands turn out to be family bands that stay in the same family for generations, I imaged present-day band made of Amédé's descendants and another band composed of the descendants of the men who tortured him. One band would be all black and play zydeco. The other band would be all white and play traditional Cajun. The story would be a battle of the bands on many levels. Then I fashioned a Romeo-and-Juliet plot in which a young black man in the zydeco band falls in love with a young white woman in the Cajun band.
While I was writing the play, a Louisiana restaurant named Jacques-Imo's was opening up - 100 yards from my fornt door - at 77th and Columbus. I happened to notice that one end of the restaurant was a raised platform that looked to me like a stage. So I gave my play to one of the waitresses and asked her to pass it on to her bosses. She said she would but she didn't. Months later, I gave the play to another waitress who did indeed pass it on to the manager. The next day the manager said she wanted to do the piece every Wednesday night at Jacques-Imo's.
I was thrilled until I realized I didn't know how to put on a play. I called the one stage director I know. He didn't want to take a chance on a musical opening in a restaurant. I called the only casting director I know. He didn't want to take a chance either. I felt an opportunity slipping away.
Then I heard that one of the bartenders sometimes produced segments for America's Most Wanted. Hearing the word "producer," I asked her if she wanted to produce a musical. Jenny Rose signed on. Then I remembered an actor/waiter with whom I had had long talks about Shakespeare. I asked if he had ever directed anything. He said he had in college. I asked him if he wanted to direct a new musical to be performed right there in the restaurant. Sergio Alvarado signed on.
But where were we going to get actors? My new director Jenny wrote and placed an ad in Backstage. Soon we hat hot-and-cold actors running in and out of my apartment auditioning. These were nonunion actors since we don't have any money, but the talent pool is so deep in this town that we had no trouble filling all the roles but one with truly talented performers. Really. But no young black men came in our door and our hero is supposed to be a young black man. Maybe they don't read Backstage. Then I remembered Keith Johnson, whom we had cast as our hero's father, teaches drama. I asked him if he knew any young black actors who can sing. He knew one.
Adé Herbert came into my apartment like an answered prayer. He sang so well, I just prayed he could talk. If he couldn't, I was prepared to have him sing all his lines. It didn't come to that. He talked great.
So we started rehearsals, but there was very little room in the inn, namely my apartment. Because I had another musical rehearsing there, too. The company for the national tour of my musical Urban Cowboy also needed a place to hone their act. And I wanted to be there for their rehearsals because I had rewritten the play.
So for one overcrowded week we had cowboys rehearsing in the living room and Cajuns rehearsing in the kitchen. Then our safari guide and his wife showed up from Kenya needing a place to stay. Then our daughter's boyfriend, sans our daughter, showed up needing a bed, too. Awkward. It was getting as crowded as that closet in A Night at the Opera. I half expected to answer a knock at the door and find the Marx Brothers standing outside.
We open May 17 at Jacqes-Imo's. Go here for the Pogo and Evie website! |