Reading the script, it’s hard to imagine that The Story of My Life—a small, brave, honest, literate two-man musical about friendship, stories, the butterfly effect, the things we’ll never know about one another and the things we need from life—was actually staged on Broadway. But there it was in 2009 for 18 previews and five performances. Good reviews did not arrive but an original cast recording was made and—cue butterflies—Milwaukee Opera Theatre will present the Milwaukee premiere of this affecting show at Boswell Book Co.
What’s easy to imagine is the powerful impact the bookstore setting will have on the material. This will be a site-specific musical theater event. Thomas, the storyteller, is a 35-year-old successful novelist called upon to write a eulogy for his lifelong best friend, Alvin. Alvin had taken over his deceased father’s independent bookstore and now has died unexpectedly and mysteriously at age 35, a possible suicide. Although as children and young men, these oddball book-loving friends saw one another through many challenging experiences, they haven’t spoken in a while. Thomas has reached an impasse in his writing; by coincidence, the name of Alvin’s bookstore, the only building on its city block, is The Writer’s Block. As Thomas struggles for words to describe his beloved friend, he imagines Alvin there to help him tell their story. The audience sees them interacting from age 6 to 35 while Thomas comes to understand that all of his experiences with Alvin helped him shape each book he’s written. Since Thomas is only imagining his presence, Alvin can’t tell him how or why he jumped from a bridge to his death; that’s not the story that writers Brian Hill and Neil Bartram are interested in telling. The Story of My Life is not a melodrama. It’s a eulogy, in fact: a sincere meditation on the meaning of friendship presented almost entirely in songs by two men and almost never in duets.
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Jill Anna Ponasik, Milwaukee Opera Theatre’s producing artistic director, chose to produce the show for the artists involved. “When someone I care about and admire says that a piece is important to them or that they think they can learn from it,” she says, “I think we should follow their lead. MOT’s commitment is to provide opportunities for growth and development to artists who live and work in Milwaukee, whether they’re established professionals like [the show’s director] Michael Wright who runs a large organization and makes theater every day but hasn’t staged a play in a bookstore, or emerging artists getting started.”
Wright, the producing artistic director of Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, remembers how the idea arose. “Jill Anna had a spaghetti dinner for friends to celebrate her five years with MOT and to talk about the next five years.” Doug Clemons, who will play Alvin, was at the table and suggested The Story of My Life. He’d been given the Broadway recording by the show’s musical director, Anne Van Deusen. Wright promptly bought the recording, fell in love with it and asked Ponasik “if she’d consider him to direct it.”
When Ponasik brought the idea to Van Deusen a few days later, “She just started crying,” Ponasik says. “Do you know that hungry artistic excitement? So I thought, if an artist has that level of excitement about pursuing this, it’s like all the beagles are pointing in the same direction. Adam Estes was the last piece.” Estes, who will play Thomas, was performing with Clemons in Ponasik’s production of Gioachino Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Cinderella) for the Skylight at the time. Clemons mentioned the piece in the dressing room and Estes instantly texted his enthusiasm to Ponasik. “It appears that the entire artistic team just found itself,” she replied.
With the bookstore’s actual furniture and nothing to disguise the environment, Wright is staging the show with audiences on three sides of the performers because, he says, “to me it’s all about embracing these two young vulnerable beings. We’re all responsible for them.”
The music, Ponasik says, “will feel like an American musical to listeners and it’s sung in musical theater style. But they blur the distinction between speaking and singing in a way that I find delightful. It doesn’t have that Broadway tah-dah. It’s a fully committed American musical about non-romantic love and we don’t tell that kind of story very often.”
Although December is the busiest month of the year for Boswell Book Co., the store will close an hour early, at 8 p.m., on performance nights. MOT will have 30 minutes to set up before the doors reopen at 8:30 for the 9 p.m. curtain. The exception is Sunday, Dec. 13, when the store will close at 6 p.m. for a 7 p.m. curtain. The performance lasts about 90 minutes.
Performances are Thursday through Saturday, Dec. 3-12, at 9 p.m. and Sun, Dec. 13 at 7 p.m. at Boswell Book Company, 2559 N. Downer Ave. Seating is limited to 150 per show. Tickets are $25 or $15 for students and artists. Order online at storyofmylife.brownpapertickets.com or call 917-684-0512.
