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The Beauty of Words and Music
John Guare Interviews Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty
I came to Lynn Ahrenss loft on a rainy afternoon in June. Stephen Flaherty hadnt arrived yet, so we chatted. What were we up to? I told her I was taking the summer off and doing nothing. Lynn said she had done that last summer and it was terrific. Stephen phoned; he was stuck in traffic, coming in from Long Island. We decided to start.
John Guare: I first became aware of you and Stephen with a wonderfully funny, small musical called Lucky Stiff. Would you call A Man of No Importance a small musical?
Lynn Ahrens: It is a small musical. Its only fourteen people. And it has a chamber-ensemble feel to it.
JG: In this day of the big spectacle, it seems very brave to write a musical on this scale. It makes me think of the early part of the last century, when Jerome Kern became famous writing the Princess musicals, which were small in response to the big, opulent operettas. What constitutes a small musical?
LA: As you get older the definition changes. When Stephen and I first started writing together, a small musical was a musical that might be producible. We tried to keep the size of the casts small to make it economical, because its very difficult to get produced with a big-scale show, especially if youre a young writer. So our first professional venture on Off-Broadway was Lucky Stiff, which had ten actors. Next was Once On This Island, which had eleven actors. Now were up to fourteen. But its no longer entirely economics. We started out with a great desire to get produced, and to write something that a producer would not be daunted by because of its scale or its cost, but thats evolved into a genuine desire to write on a small scale because it really is challenging. And we love ensemble pieces. We love to feature everybody in the cast and make them work hard and give them prominence. And we love ensemble vocals. And tightly woven stories where everyone plays a very important part. Stephen does little charts. And he writes all the character names on them going down, and then he writes the titles of the songs going across. And then we do Xs and we see who has what material to make sure that everybody is featured.
JG: What drew you to A Man of No Importance?
LA: It was 1998. We had just come from this epic journey of Ragtime, which was a huge story: the scope, the sweep of it, the political time. In terms of the number of actors, the huge orchestra, the number of people involved in the production, it was a gigantic undertaking for all of us. Certain-ly the biggest one that Stephen and I had ever been involved in.
JG: And pleasing.
LA: Oh, fantastic. One of the best experiences ever. So Ragtime opened, and Terrence and Stephen and I felt we had to do something else together. Terrence knew of the movie A Man of No Impor-tance, a small, humble movie, which hadnt been seen by too many people and had a very low profile, which was good. Its about a very withheld and wonderful man named Alfie who lives in 1964 in Dublin and cannot ever admit that he is a homosexual. He has to live a very, very circumscribed life in a certain way. But he can express himself and be joyous and open in the theater. Hes a bus conductor who runs an amateur theater company. He is not a man who can sing a whole lot; hes very withheld emotionally, and it affects the score in that way. And we give him permission to have a big moment only at the end of the show.
JG: But since its a theatrical company, its about people who also have a double theatrical life.
LA: Thats exactly right. He has a very active inner life, a very outspoken internal life. But externally hes closeted in all kinds of ways. So, its an interesting challenge.
JG: Did you think about moving it out of Ireland to America?
LA: No, we never did, because the world is so rich. And Im working with a Flaherty and a McNally! And theyre very taken by the world of Ireland at that time. The Catholic Church is involved in the story, and its a time of great fertility in music. The Beatles were happening at the same time. And you have liturgical music and Irish music. It just seemed like it was right to leave it right where it was.
JG: Do you want to talk about last years Seussical?
LA: It was another big musical, and it was not a happy experience for a number of reasons. But I will tell you that the writing of it, and the early development of the piece, were fantastic. And working with the actors was great too. Id work with every one of them again.
JG: Lets talk about the process of the workshop. You had a wonderful workshop on Seussical. And you had a very good workshop on A Man of No Importance. Talk about the way workshops have replaced now going out of town.
LA: Stephen and I are very comfortable in workshops. And in readings. Because thats how we developed our writing skills way back when. We were in the BMI workshop for about six years.
JG: Thats where you met?
LA: We both took Lehman Engels BMI Workshop in 1982.
JG: Did you apply to it as a lyricist?
LA: I applied to it as a lyricist. Stephen entered as a composer/lyricist. I was working with a bunch of different composers that year, and Stephen was working on his own.
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