There was one way in which I was
a very lucky kid:
My parents always told me I could do anything I wanted.
By that, I don't mean they spoiled me.
Far from it. Our household was very modest.
For most of my childhood, I shared a room with my sister.
We also shared our first car, which we purchased used,
and paid for by our summer job earnings.
Which brings me back to how
our parents indulged us:
by encouraging us to believe
we could do anything we set our minds to.
A while back, I rewatched Kiera Knightley don
an Empire-waist dress and embody Jane Austen's Elizabeth Bennet
in a movie remake of Pride and Prejudice.
Immediately, I saw its potential to be a musical.
Silly me! I wasn't the only one. in 1959, a Broadway production called First Impressions
(the original name of the novel)
had an ingnominiously short run.
I wasn't around to see why.
But I did know an Emmy Award-winning
composer-lyricist who, I felt,
could pull it off: Rita Abrams.
And—because of my parents' livelong encouragement,
I truly believed I could write the libretto.
Despite her then-boyfriend's belief that
"no one still reads Jane Austen," Rita was game to try.
After a year-long collaboration, it was ready for the world.
A British operatic society that
found our website hosted its world premiere.
The local press sang its praises, and it played to full houses.
Its second production took place here, locally,
That year, it won the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics' Circle Award for Best Original Musical.
You've got to believe.
where we discuss how she created
the music and lyrics based my script.
The photo above is from the eighth song
in the musical, appropriately called,
“In My Imagination,”
which we've just recorded.
was there a time you pushed all you inhibitions aside
and just went for your dream?
Rita and I at the world premiere in England,
and at the most recent production,
here in the San Francisco Bay area.
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