Lies and Legends

LIES AND LEGENDS (THE MUSIC OF HARRY CHAPIN)
THEATER 34
-fall 1991
The Pennington Players did shows year-round, not just the summer musical. Dramas and comedies. I heard that they were going to do a Harry Chapin show. I'd have traveled anywhere to do it, but by coincidence it was my old company. It's barely an exaggeration to say that Harry's music had been my only friend in my late teens. I auditioned. The director seemed a good guy. It became obvious that my knowledge of, and dedication to, Harry's music, was unique among the auditioners. I told the director but needn't have worried, he said i'd have been cast anyway. There were five people in the cast, none of whom i'd worked with. Michelle, twenty and talented and fun, played the ingenue. Bobbi Mendel, whom i'd met and whose stepdaughter was a Youth Clubber, played the older woman. Craig Mills, a sweet man with a very sweet voice, plus another nice guy and myself, were the male singers. I played the comic guy. I re-connected with John Kling and Betty Henninger, who did production work. The show was a pretty straightforward song review, with piano/cello accompaniment, and doing Harry's music was sweet, sweet joy. I warmed up before shows, singing Harry songs the others had never heard. We rehearsed and performed in a church in Pennington. My solo numbers were "Halfway to Heaven", "Salt and Pepper", and "Odd Job Man". They were great. "Halfway" isn't comic, it's a scorcher about sexual temptation. Many of the numbers were group efforts, and we worked wonderfully together. "Danceband On the Titanic" was particularly funtastic. The funniest thing was an ongoing giggle we backup singers shared during "Tangled Up Puppet". It was the two girls and i singing one word each, "puppet", "tangled", and "oo-ooh", over and over. I was "tangled". At some point in rehearsal our part started to strike me as incredibly silly, and i began to laugh. I'm not sure they understood why i was laughing, but before long, Michelle and Bobbi couldn't get through the song without laughing too. Many times we were stopped with shouts of "What the HELL is wrong with you backup singers??" By opening, we could get through the number, as long as i didn't glance at either of them.