You're Writing a Musical About What?

"You're writing a musical about what?"

I can't tell you how often I've heard this question while working on Signs of Life: A Tale of Terezin.

The question always surprises me a little. After all Showboat, widely regarded as the first modern American musical, involves racism and miscegenation; Oklahoma! features murder and attempted rape; South Pacific addresses racism and war; West Side Story enacts scenes of gang warfare; Cabaret and Sound of Music both take place during the rise of the Nazi Party; Sweeney Todd's main character is a serial killer; and Assassins is about, well, assassins.

The question, I imagine, is due to what we've come to expect our American musicals to be: big, delightful pageants, all-out comedies, or shows that treat the musical form "ironically." Contemporary opera, on the other hand, routinely addresses big, serious subjects: John Adam's Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer come readily to mind.

This is simply a question of fashion, however. It has nothing to do with any inherent limitation in musical form, as the history of the American musical clearly shows.

There are complicated issues involved in representing difficult and tragic real-life events on stage. But the musical idiom can handle those issues as readily as any.

To order tickets to Signs of Life: A Tale of Terezin, click here.

To visit the Signs of Life website, click here.

To find out more about Signs of Life off-Broadway, click here.

To visit Peter Ullian's Website, click here.

To find Peter Ullian's "Fan" Page on Facebook, click here.

To visit the Signs of Life Facebook page, click here.

To read Signs of Life Lyricist Len Schiff's blog, click here.

To visit Signs of Life composer Joel Derfner's website, click here.

To read Signs of Life composer Joel Derfner's blog, click here.