Welcome back in, everyone, to a fabulous new Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper.We have a wonderful show in store for you and an incredible artist joining us to talk about their new work.
Today, we've got the book writer and lyricist Jay Baer joining us to talk about his show, Love in Idleness.
This is playing November 21st through the 24th at the Actors Temple, and you can get your tickets and more information by visiting telecharge.com. Very excited to be bringing you this very topical, very relevant piece of theater.
And I think our guest is the perfect person to tell us more and to share this wonderful piece.So let us welcome on our guest, Jay, welcome it to Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper. Thank you, Andrew.I'm so glad to be here.
I am so happy you are here and you are bringing this fantastic show, Love and Idleness.I'm so excited to share more of this with our listeners.So let's start by having you tell us a little bit about what this piece is about.
Well, Love and Idleness is the two main, which is inspired by, though not an adaptation per se, of A Midsummer Night's Dream. A lot of people look at the title and go, huh?
Love and idleness is the name of the flower in a Midsummer Night's Dream that many of us remember is the thing that makes people fall in crazy love.So just to start with that.But anyway, the two main things it's about.
which the first one is, as you say, it's timely, it is distressingly timely.So one is that it's about ongoing efforts to oppress and destroy gay people or non-heteronormative people, and it pushes back against that.
And it's also about the challenges, and this is regardless of sexual orientation, it's about the challenges in long-term relationships and how to keep them Those are the two main subjects, if you will, the two main things it's about.
That is fantastic.Fantastic. So what inspired you all to pen this piece and create it?
Well, I've, for a long time, I've wanted to write an original musical.I, you know, I've spent my career, most of my life, not as a pro in the theater.You know, I'm a retired psychiatrist, retired back in 2021.I have always loved the theater.
Grew up, you know, going to musicals as a kid and fell totally in love with them. And I sang for 29 years with the Boston Gay Men's Chorus.That was a good way to stay in musical theater, if you will, while, you know, not being my vocation.
And I wrote a lot of parody songs, actually the chorus did a few of my parody songs and I put on a few of my own shows in the, I guess, late 20 teens of parody shows.
But I always, you know, kind of when I had the bandwidth, if you will, I always wanted to write an original piece.And in terms of why this one, you know, one is again, I've always loved him in Summer Night's Dream.
So I used to think about it a lot and think about things about it, but I did want to write something that was both about stuff that's important But at the same time, it's really fun and entertaining.
It was really important to me that both of those things, you know, be there in the show.So the oppression of, you know, non heteronormative people is a, you know, important subject dear to my heart.
And again, is as timely as ever we are, you know, as election day looms.And as I, you know, think about, Oh, hopefully, you know, they won't be taking my marriage to my husband away.
depends on what happens and what the courts do and da-da-da-da-da-da.And again, also the subject of, you know, keeping long-term relationships healthy, you know, I know from a lot of angles, you know, I'm in one myself.
Again, I was a psychiatrist for 40 years.So I heard a lot of stories and try to help a lot of people with their stuff.
And I got a lot of friends and people were, you know, again, I witnessed those challenges for many vantage points and that's important to me.
So that's, you know, all of that, you know, came together and Midsummer Night's Dream, the nice thing was I got to use the title The title Flower, which gets, it's a contemporary story.It's set in New York, 2025.
So the flower is a metaphor for a drug that is created and not to make crazy love happen, but when things go wrong, funny, the funny wrong part yields that, and that gets a lot of the story going, moving along.
That's fantastic.You literally landed the point right there where I was mentioning it being topical.Cause as I was reading the synopsis, I was like, Oh, so glad this is being done now.Like, yes.
Yeah.Right.I mean, I remember being in a tour with, I was on a tour with Boston Gay Men's Chorus and we arrived in Istanbul the day that the Supreme Court said yes to gay marriage.So that was quite a day.
And so, you know, I did not expect to be worrying about them saying no. at this point.You're right.
That is wonderful.Now, at the time of this recording, we were just under a month away from the show going up at the Actors' Temple, so what's it been like developing the piece?
Well, again, this is all new turf for me, so that's been really interesting.First off, it was really great.First thing I had to do was find a composer because I can't write music.And this was back in the pandemic where it started.
And a friend of mine who had worked with Soto, Andrew goes by the name Soto, so I'll frequently say that, and that's what he said.
When I was asking my friend to suggest somebody who was in the business, he suggested Soto, and I sent the script to him, that version, and he really liked it.
So first, to start with, it was just so cool that somebody who writes music, you know, liked the idea, liked the script, and wanted to, you know,
sign on and then it was just really you know collaborating is is really fun just like kind of figuring out you know what is what should this song sound like what should this song sound like and uh and that process over time too like we were we had you know we had some zoom readings at the beginning we finally had our first live reading actually last year had another reading uh zoom again after a bunch of
work with the structure and some changes but you know we were really happy originally with about half of our songs in terms of the tone we took with them but about half of them we really weren't and so we we had to like you know get back together about like you know what should this song sound like and and and it was that that process was just so fun i'm kind of figuring out like you know this song should really you know hey you know it shouldn't sound like that it should sound like a tango instead of a you know a rock song that's right you know that kind of thing was just really great
And, you know, more recently, you know, I went through the process of, and again, this whole thing of trying to promote a show is new to me.
I went through the process of, you know, submitting at various places, you know, and learning what that process is like and how, you know, you get a lot of silence and you get some, you know, even when I get rejections, I get excited that somebody actually wrote back.
I got this lovely letter from the, you know, the O'Neill Festival going like, Oh, you know, he wrote this like whole complimentary, you know, paragraph about it, but sorry, we're not gonna put you in the festival.
But anywho, Soto and I decided, we were working towards a 29-hour read originally, and then we were talking about it earlier this year.And my feeling about this is, I really want this to happen,
One, you know, I, and it would be a bummer to spend, you know, a bunch of, a whole bunch of years trying to get somebody else to get interested in it enough to make it happen.
And we agreed instead of going for the 21 hour rethink to just, you know, do a small production of it.I'm so lucky that I was able to, you know. do, you know, do that.And so like, all right, let's make it happen.
So then I have been in this crash course of learning, you know, you know, how do you produce a show?
And so I worked first with a friend of Soto's who's a producer who just, you know, mentored me and tutored me, you know, showed me, here's a budget like you need and so on and so forth.And then, you know, found the creative team.
And again, I had to first learn who, you know, what composes, comprises the creative team.And I was able to do that, you know, mostly through, you know, people who knew people and they're wonderful.They're just so fun to work with.
And then we, you know, we just had auditions recently, pretty recently, and that would, I'd never, sat through auditions for a show before.I'd been in them, but I hadn't been behind the table.
And that was such a fun process to see all these amazingly talented people, you know, show up to, you know, who were interested in being in the show.
Uh, and then we just started rehearsals literally yesterday and we had our first read through and it was just so fun.So again, I've been, you know, learning the ropes and I'm always going like, you know, I'm always having to go, I'm new to this.
So please explain how this works to everybody.And they've been wonderfully patient and generous with their information and advice and thoughts and so forth.But it's just, it's, it's been great.
And now I'm so excited because now we're in the like, you know, all these different creative people are involved with my show and just to like see what they do with it and see what they think of and see what they try.And that's so cool.
So I'm so excited it's gonna, you know, that it's coming to life.
That is so wonderful.Let me ask you, with this great piece that, you know, it's got those classical ties to A Midsummer Night's Dream and it's got this relevant today message as well.Yep.
Is there a particular message or thought you're hoping the audiences will take away from this piece?
Well, you know, I'm looking for uplift.I'm looking at the audience.I'm looking to give the audience uplift.I mean, I spent, you know, again, I spent my professional career trying to help people feel better.
And I'm now trying to, you know, I feel like that applies here too.Like I'm, you know, I'm trying to give them, you know, hopeful messages about, you know, civil rights and human rights and respecting, you know, love is, Love is love.Love is good.
Love doesn't hurt people.You know, nobody, you know, groomed me to be a gay guy.It's like, we're, we're natural too.
And so, and, and so I want, I really look, and also that, you know, look at a lot of, you know, a lot of marriages and long-term relationships end.And again, you know, that's not per se or inherently always the wrong thing.
But some of them should end or whatever, and people are better off with that, and that's fine.But there are...
well, potholes in the road, you know, that you run into in long-term relationships and, you know, and so I wanted to give, like, morale boosts in both of those categories.And also from an, you know, I mean, I really believe in entertainment.
So I, as well as giving those messages and giving the audience uplift about those messages, I also am so excited to, you know, give them a really fun night at the theater.
So I'm looking for the sort of, you know, double, you know, uplift to the audience, but the messaging uplift and the, wow, that was really fun, you know, uplift at the same time.
That is a wonderful, wonderful idea as well.I love it.And that's going to lead right to my final question for this first part, which is who are you hoping have access to love and idleness?
You know, I, you know, on the one hand, you know, you'd say like, wow, this is a, you know, this is a natural show for the LGBTQ plus, you know, audience, which it is.
On the other hand, I also very, you know, strongly, honestly see it as for every, you know, it's not like just for, you know, you know, just for my peeps or something.It's for, I think it's,
for, you know, for everybody, you know, I'm sure there were some people who, you know, for their own political or whatever mishegoss, you know, kind of wouldn't, you know, wouldn't come to that gay thing.
But, but really I, I very much wanted a show that had broad appeal.So, you know, it's, it's not just a like target audience, you know, narrow target audience.
Well, for the second part of our interviews, we'd love giving our listeners a chance to get to know our guests a little bit better.Pick your brain, Will.And I would love to start with our regular first question, which is who inspires you?
What playwrights, composers, or shows have inspired you in the past or are just some of your favorites?
Wow.Well, this might be an answer you get a lot, but I am part of the cult of Sondheim.I mean, I, you know, I, I have been really inspired by him and I have always loved, you know, in some ways, I guess, taking me back to what I was just
talking about, you know, the fact that they're, you know, the interesting things are talked about and important things are talked about, things that matter are talked about, but, you know, the music is so moving and gorgeous and, you know, the story is compelling and you're so entertained.
So that he's certainly the first thing that came to mind.I just also just just some incredible stage moments.
Like when I think of the end of act one of Sunday in the Park, you know, I get chills just thinking about it, let alone how I felt when I was there.
So he's my, I guess, sort of my, my biggest, if you will, but I've, you know, I've loved a lot of, a lot of shows, you know, also from different folks and, you know, from, you know, seeing stuff when I grew up, like, you know, I went to
Hello, Dolly with Earl Bailey and Cab Calloway.And, you know, so, you know, a lot of other, you know, good story about feelings that matter and, you know, good score go a long way.
That is incredible.Well, I would love to know now.I mean, I know you said you're kind of new to this theater game, although I'm not sure how new you are.I gotta be honest. But what is your favorite part about working in the theater?
Having an audience there, like engaging with an audience.And I guess, I mean, again, much of my life that was from the receiving end or being in the audience, getting engaged in a piece felt so amazing to me.
And so the thought of being able to do that or trying to do that from the stage side seems
so great and, you know, trying to yield an engaged, you know, satisfied or, you know, in some ways fulfilled, I was going to say happy, but I feel that very much about this show, but just an engaged, fulfilled, you know, audience is great.
You know, last summer I had the amazing good fortune to be in a production of The Fantastics at the Provincetown Theatre. And it was, you know, that really demonstrated this.I mean, you know, we were
people were coming and they were having a great time and they were, you know, they were engaged and it was just, it was, that experience was just so great.So I guess that's, I guess that'd be the answer.
That is a fantastic answer though.How exciting.And I'm going to snowball off of that into my favorite question to ask guests, which is your favorite theater memory.
It actually might be the Sunday in the park that I just, cited a minute ago, because that's almost, you know, speaking, you know, that's combination earworm and eyeworm, if there is such a thing.That act, end act one, oh my God.
But there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of, you know, favorites lists.
There's a, you know, just when, again, when, when things land, like when I saw the, the Patti LuPone gypsy, and she sang, everything's coming up roses and like tore up the letter from June and everything.The, the power of that,
the feeling, you know, the feeling that was expressed and then powered by the singing and the music was just amazing.So they're, you know,
you know, things like that, like there's a number of like, even, either 11 o'clock or not really 11 o'clock technically numbers that, you know, land in a way are killers.
Like when I saw White Girl in Danger, you know, Jackson's White Girl in Danger, there's a number, I think it's called Why I Kill, which is toward the end, you know, it's an 11 o'clock number that when it's not quite 11 o'clock in the show, but it is, it was, you know, just so thrilling.
I mean, the number and the way it was performed was just so, fantastic and powerful.So those kinds of experiences are, you know, you don't forget them.And they're incredibly, you know, enjoyable and nurturing.So I
Love those memories.Love those memories.Thank you so much for sharing those with us.Thanks for hearing them.
As we wrap things up, I would love to know, do you have any other projects or productions coming down the pipeline that we might be able to plug for you?Such a no.
Yeah, actually, I am working on another I've actually written another show, again, book and lyrics, because I can't write music.
And I'm working with another composer, a wonderful composer named Christy Twilley, Christy Childs Twilley, that's her full name.And it's called Reunion.And it's about four friends who get together, you know, they're about 50 years old.
They get together at their 25th college reunion.And it's about that weekend at the reunion.And it's, and this was partly inspired by, well, it was partly inspired by a lot of life experiences with a lot of
friends and women classmates that, you know, who had to put up with crap that I didn't have to put up with because of gender.And then I went to my 45th reunion and was reminded of it.And that sort of stirred me to write it.
And so what happens at this reunion is like, here are these four women who are real interesting and fun and accomplished and from the outside look great, but all have some, you know, self-esteem challenges, you know, and feel bad because they like haven't been able to do everything.
Like they somehow, you know, they were, thought that they should be able to do, which actually no one can do.So the course of the show is them expressing all that and commiserate, but also basically coming away feeling better.
So that's also, I guess, the psychiatrist in me creating a musical.It's a therapeutic weekend, but also with the goal of being really fun and entertaining for the audience and relatable, I think, certainly.So that's the other thing I have cooking.
And we're working our way through the songs.We're getting close to halfway. Hopefully I'll start trying to get that on to work into the world in 2025.
And that is a great reason for us to keep tabs on you since you've got some exciting work coming down the pipeline, which leads to my question, which is if our listeners would like more information about love and idleness, what about you?
Maybe they'd like to reach out to you.How can they do so?
That's a great question and something I haven't really fully developed and have to think about it.Duh.I suppose I can tell you now and you can decide if it's inappropriate and edit it out.You know, I have my email address.
That's sort of how I can be reached now.Like I don't have a website yet or something like that, like the world seems to do, but maybe I will.But I, you know, Ain't there yet.
So, you know, right now they can reach me through the theater, certainly, but, you know, that won't be true after the run.That's the sort of disappointing answer I have to give you at this point.Perfect.
Well, Jay, thank you so, so much for taking the time to speak with me today and for sharing your amazing new work. I'm truly excited for not only this upcoming production, but the productions to follow.
I'm sure this will continue to have feet and life after it's run at the Actors' Temple.So thank you so much for your time.
Well, thank you for your time.And yes, I would love for it to have a life after this.And that'll be the next part of The Learning Curve. All right.Thanks again so much.Thank you.All righty.
My guest today has been the amazing book writer and lyricist, Jay Baer, who joined us to talk about his new work, Love in Idleness.
This is playing November 21st through the 24th at the Actors Temple, and you can get your tickets and more information by visiting telecharge.com.
We also have some contact information for our guests, which will be posted in our episode description as well as on our social media posts, but hurry over to telecharge.com.
You've only got a few chances to catch this wonderful show before it moves on to the next production.And again, the show is Love and Idleness, November 21st through the 24th.
So until next time, I'm Andrew Cortez reminding you to turn off your cell phones, unwrap your candies, keep thinking about the theater.
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