The Beauty of Words and Music

John Guare Interviews Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty

Lincoln Center Theater Review ( Fall 2002)

 

I came to Lynn Ahrens's loft on a rainy afternoon in June. Stephen Flaherty hadn't 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 year 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. It's 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 one that might be producible. We tried to keep the size of the casts small to make it economical, because it's very difficult to get produced with a big scale show, especially if you're a young writer. So our first professional venture off-Broadway was Lucky Stiff, which had ten actors. Next was Once on This Island, which had eleven actors. Now we're up to fourteen. But it's 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 that's 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 characters names on them, going down, and then he writes the titles of the songs going across. And then we do X's and we see who has what material and 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. Certainly 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 Importance, a small, humble movie, which hadn't been seen by too many people and had a very low profile, which was good. It's 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. he's a bus conductor who runs an amateur theater company. He is not a man who can sing a whole lot; he's 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 it's a theatrical company, it's about people who also have a double theatrical life.

LA: That's exactly right. He has a very active inner life, a very outspoken internal life. But externally he's closeted in all kinds of ways. So, it's 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 I'm working with a Flaherty and a McNally! And they're very taken by the world of Ireland at that time. The Catholic Church is involved in the story, and it's a time of great fertility in music. The Beatles were happening at the same time. And you have liturgical music. It just seemed like it was right to leave it where it was.

JG: Do you want to talk about last year's 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. I'd work with every one of them again.

JG: Let's 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 that's how we developed our writing skills way back when. We were in the BMI workshop for about six years.

JG: That's where you met?

LA: We both tookm Lehman Engel's 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.

JG: What had you done before that made you say, "I'm a lyricist"?

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