Lyricist Jack Murphy and composer Frank Wildhorn team up once again to explore the world of Jazz, Big Bands and a whirlwind love story that kept the tabloids of the twenties in print. Waiting for the Moon runs through July 31 at the Lenape Regional Performing Arts Center in Marlton, New Jersey.
Pati Buehler: When you collaborate together, which comes first, the music or the words?
Frank: Actually, we talk about the show, get some insight into the characters, and on what needs to move forward in the plot. Then we play ping-pong back and forth for a bit.
Jack: Frank is a melodic sort of guy so I "dance in chains" because I'm in the prison of the melody. That's how it usually works in most cases.
PB: What were some of the most challenging songs to write?
Jack: Art, whether it's visual art or theater art is never finished, it's just abandoned for another time. What happens is that you write, and you say "good, good" and then you move on to another thought and sometimes that changes what was good, good - you're constantly changing.
Frank: That's true. It's funny Leslie (Bricusse) and I wrote about 80 songs for Jekyll and I'll give you a little scoop, we just wrote another one for Jekyll. You were here when we premiered Jekyll & Hyde in Concert, well that concert is heading out to tour around the country and in Europe and we felt that Emma needed another song. Even I can't believe it! (laughing)
Jack: I gave Frank the best idea he's had in a long time. It's called the anti-Jekyll & Hyde album. It will have all the songs that were cut from J&H. ( (laughing).
PB: Speaking about cuts, tell us about all the changes you make in your productions...
Frank: The nice thing about working on new productions in regional theaters is that if you can make some changes while you are there. This is the time we are learning about the show from you guys. This is the most important step or the birthing of a show. It would be great if we could always have a laboratory to work out our shows so close to home. In this case,we're hoping this will be a real successful community venture.
PB: How did you two start working together?
Jack: I grew up in New York but went out to LA for 13 years and came back to New York in 1991, and Frank was my 1,000th lunch. My sister-in-law, who is a choreographer was working on one of the original workshops of Jekyll and Hyde and she told me about Frank and we started working together in 1992 mostly writing songs for Linda Eder, then we wrote Civil War.
Lyricist Jack Murphy
PB: How is this musical of Scott & Zelda presented to the audience?
Jack: We tried to present this as their love story. It's tragic in so far as the lives they created, this persona that they had to live up to. They lived a reckless lifestyle. Despite the ending, I think, I hope, you'll leave the theater feeling good. We tried to be emotionally true to them... Like when Zelda is shocking the audience, this may not be something she would have done in 1925, and believe me she did things that were shocking in 1925. So, we want the audience to gasp at what she does onstage to know what she was all about. That's what we mean by capturing what was emotionally true about them.
