Setting Life to Music : Q&A with Barry Wyner

What drew you to music?

From as young as I can remember, I just loved it. Simple as that. This motivated me to try to replicate on the piano songs that I heard on the radio. I started playing piano when I was eight. I really liked Billy Joel, Huey Lewis, Journey, Queen, Styx– very melodic rock. I still love these groups. I was always very motivated with piano lessons. My parents wouldn’t have to crack the whip to get me to practice. They would have to tell me to stop practicing. I think I react to things more than most people. When I watch musicals and people are chuckling, I’m usually howling and laughing. If other people are whimpering, I’m sobbing. Things just hit me a little harder.


How did you start working on Calvin Berger?

I wrote to Stephen Sondheim my senior year of college and asked, “So what do I do to become a theatre composer?” He said get a Masters in classical music, so I got a Masters from Queens College in music composition. But I had no idea how to connect to the real theatre world you read about in The New York Times. So I joined the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, which is a fantastic training ground for musical theatre writers. So many successful Broadway writers have gone through this workshop, so it has a great pedigree. It gave me feedback and a sense of community. In the first year, you complete individual song assignments, but in the second year you need to write songs all for one show. So the summer of 2004, going into my second year, I was traveling in Africa and started looking at Cyrano de Bergerac [the play Calvin Berger is based on], which had always been one of my favorites. It is so romantic but also has so much humor. When I got back, I began writing songs for Calvin Berger, and they were always well received, so I just kept going.


Who was Calvin Berger written for?

I was just thinking personally. Around that time, my hair started thinning, and I was very insecure about it. You have that paranoid feeling that people are always looking and fixating on it, like it’s an elephant in the room. And of course, they’re not, but it all feels so magnified in your own head. And then I just thought, “Oh Cyrano, well he’s insecure about his nose, same way I’m feeling now.” And so I just wrote it from a personal place. I thought high school made sense because when you’re at that age you’re all the more insecure about your physicality. It felt like such a natural setting for this story. I never once thought of it as a show primarily for a young audience, and still do not. It has been a lucky accident that teens love it, and I’m very grateful for that. But my hope is that it is universal and everyone sees some of themselves in the characters. Everyone has a big nose, so to speak.

Have there been a lot of changes made since you started working on Calvin Berger?

Tons and tons and tons of changes. Sometimes I tell people who know the present version about how things were in older versions, and they’re like, “Really?!!?” But I always knew and trusted the adage that great musicals are not written, they are RE-written. And then there’s the horrible expression that writers must be willing to “kill their babies.” If you fall in love with everything you write and stubbornly defend it, the work can’t evolve and you shoot yourself in the foot. Each time this show has had a workshop or production, including this one, there’s been a whole round of major re-writes. Since I wrote the book, music, and lyrics, jobs usually done by 3 different people, I have to be careful not to think in a bubble. I have to compensate for not having that team of opinions by being extra open to outside opinions from friends, collaborators, audience members, ushers…anyone.

Are there any themes that you consistently write about in your work?

No, not really. In the years after college I thought I had to write things that were dark and serious. And then I just realized, I’m a comedy guy. There will always be people who do dark much better than I do. I’m much better crafting a joke. I remember I said that to [Broadway composer/lyricist] Bill Finn, and he said “don’t worry, you’ll find your darkness.” Well, that’s something to look forward to. (laughs) I can’t rule anything out though. Woody Allen’s first jobs were TV joke writer and stand up comic. I bet he never imagined he’d make something like Crimes and Misdemeanors.

No one would say that this isn’t a tough business. Where do you draw your motivation?

I mostly just focus on the work itself. If you focus too much on the externals, the work will suffer. I’m not as savvy as many other writers about self-promotion. Recognition is nice, and puts fuel in your tank, but it’s really about the work. I just passionately love this art form. Songs in a dramatic context are so much more meaningful to me. I love the idea of trying to set life to music and capture its magical moments in a chord or a melody. Drama is like a heightened form of life, whereas music is the most abstract of the arts. Something about marrying these two elements continues to fascinate and excite me.

Which musical do you wish you had written?

Falsettos and Rent are probably the most special to me. The writers that I admire most are the ones that can embrace tradition yet still be incredibly unique. From the older generation, Frank Loesser and Jerry Bock come to mind. Sondheim is, of course, the ultimate iconoclast and someone I revere. It’s not that I could have written either of those shows. Only Jonathan Larson could have written Rent and only Bill Finn could have written Falsettos. These are all incredibly colorful people who manage to get their individual, outsize personalities across in their writing. They inspire me to have a “voice” in my writing as unique as theirs, and as reflective of my own personality and life experience.

Are there any inspiring words you’d like to leave to other emerging artists?

I once asked that question to Billy Joel, and he said: “First thing, hire a lawyer. Then hire a second lawyer to watch the first lawyer.” I’m going to try real hard to avoid the cliché answers, too. For aspiring writers, I would say make sure you really love the art itself, because if you are just after recognition, there are probably better ways, or at least faster ones. Musicals are inevitably a tortoise industry—they average at least 5 years in development, and usually many more. So it can be 5 years of hard and often solitary labor for 5 weeks of recognition. Not a great ratio. That said, there is no feeling more thrilling than having actors bring your writing to life. They teach you things you didn’t even know were there. That makes it all pay off. I would encourage writers to study convention before trying to break from it. You have to understand the “rules” before you break them. You can chart that evolution in the work of almost all artistic giants, whether it’s Beethoven or Sondheim or The Beatles. The last thing I’d say is be judicious whose advice you follow. Some people are smart and really want to help you, while some just want to hear themselves talk. If you have a strong instinct, trust it.

"Security Meltdown" ...briefly now and then

The opening number of the show is called “Security Meltdown” and insecurity is a major theme of the show. Specifically, not letting your insecurity hold you back from doing what you want to do. Each of the characters are insecure about something, whether a physical feature or a perceived personality defect. Over the course of the show, we see them struggle with their insecurities and try to overcome them.

And of course, as our production grows near, I battle my own insecurities. People see me pacing in the back of the room, or just bearing a general look of terror, and say “Don’t be ridiculous! The show is wonderful!” To which I reply, “Hey, I’m the guy who wrote a show about insecurity!”

That said, I’ve been proud of my fear/optimism ratio lately, which has leaned more in the positive direction lately than usual. I think some things people view as opposites-- like ego and insecurity, or crying and laughing-- are often more connected than people realize. This came up in a recent discussion of our Finale, in which Kathleen, our director, had some characteristically wise insights. The scene before the Finale song had lots of sharp and funny quips, whereas the Finale song itself was sweet and sentimental. We are sprinkling some of the funny lines from the scene into the song. It makes more dramatic sense, but also hopefully you’ll laugh at a joke one second and then hear something touching the next. Laughing through your tears is a heavenly feeling. I’d be thrilled if something I wrote induced that in others.

My favorite example of this feeling is in a truly brilliant piece of musical theatre writing: The hospital scene at the end of William Finn’s Falsettos, in which they hold a bar mitzvah in the hospital room of a dying character. Bill is the master of mixing joy with sadness, humor with emotion. That’s a big part of why I treasure his work so much. (If you love musical theatre and don’t own the CD to Finn’s Elegies… my highest recommendation.) Bill has been a huge supporter of Calvin Berger and had a giant impact on its structure. There is a wonderful tradition in musical theatre of established writers mentoring the younger crop. In the case of this show, Bill Finn, Jerry Bock and Stephen Sondheim have all played big roles. It is truly altruistic on their part and something I greatly admire. So, as I battle things like fear and fatigue, the emotion that always dominates is my favorite…. Gratitude.

Alright, time for rehearsal now. Come see Calvin Berger, everyone!

- posted by Barry Wyner

"More than meets the eye "

Read-through of all music today. It’s good to see where we stand.. The first phase of rehearsals is always nerve-wracking for me: actors tend to find the music tricky, so when they struggle I feel like they’re mad at me for its difficulty. But I also think they know that the depth and sophistication of the music is what captures the complex emotions of these characters. This helps differentiate the show from being just a “kids show,” which it is definitely not.

This cast did a remarkable job picking up the tunes and harmonies quickly. In rehearsal, they record their parts on their iphones, and then the next day you can tell they really practiced with it at night. People don’t realize the amazing work ethic actors need to have. Even just the 6-day rehearsal schedule can be very grueling (he types while yawning). One of our actors has been performing in a Broadway show at night after rehearsal, too. Oy!

One of our actresses was not called for rehearsal today, and when we did a group number our director Kathleen filled in and sang her parts. I thought to myself, “How surreal that Kathleen Marshall-- someone whose work I’ve know and admired for years-- is casually singing my song right now.” If I have the diligence to continue with these blogs, I think you’ll be hearing me praise Kathleen a LOT. She is so smart and also so warm and kind. It is real treat to work with her. She’s sitting right next to me… but doesn’t know I’m complimenting her in this article. I wouldn’t want to make her blush.

I’ve also been seeing more of myself in the show than I ever knew was there. I guess things sneak in subconsciously and you don’t realize. One example is the character of Matt. All the other characters have names derived from Cyrano DeBergerac (Cyrano is Calvin, Roxana is Rosanna, LeBret is Bret), but where did “Matt” come from? In Cyrano, that character is named Christien! The first production of Calvin Berger was a half hour from my hometown, and many of my high school friends came to support me. One of them, named Matt, asked me humbly after the show, “Barry, um… is that character based on me?” And I had never thought about it, but I think he was right! I had forgotten, but in high school we had a love triangle: we both had a crush on the same girl (who now has 4 kids, btw), and she chose him—the happy-go-lucky, good-natured jock—over me. I chose that name by “accident” and didn’t even realize it was from my own experience. Yup, art imitates life, alright.

Now that I’ve gotten to know our cast better, I could NOT be more pumped about this production. It is going to be fantastic. Help us spread the word!

Calvin Berger: First Day of School

First day of rehearsal. It’s a show about school-age characters, and the journey there felt like riding the bus to the first day of school. There are lots of method actors, but I might be the world’s first method writer.

I don’t have kids, but I would guess that the pride I felt seeing the show reach this next step was akin to what parents feel seeing children reach milestones. Walking up George Street for the first time and seeing our beautiful new logo hanging outside this reputable regional theatre… Hearing artistic director David Saint praise the Dream Team of creative minds we have assembled (I couldn’t agree more!)… Seeing the army of warm and hospitable GSP employees so eager to help make the show a success. I felt like a proud parent… “my little [show] is growing up!” (bites bottom lip, chokes back tears)

A special moment for me was David Saint’s welcome speech where he said I remind him of his good friend Jonathan Larson (the late composer of RENT). Jonathan is my personal hero. I keep a picture of him above my piano. I don’t feel worthy of a pimple on Jonathan’s big toe (then again, I did write a show about insecurity), but hearing any comparison from someone who knew him was surreal and special. Thank you, David!

In rehearsal, Kathleen spoke brilliantly about our internal self-perception and the external image we try to put forth, a prominent theme in the show. How appropriate, I thought, as just last night I pondered trying to look “writerly” for today’s meet-and-greet, with a vest, or maybe the ol’ t-shirt/blazer combo. Luckily, I nixed that idea.

The cast members are each magnetic in their own ways. All are wonderful and quirky, and none are boring. They managed to make this difficult music sound exciting and lovely on their very first day. Their vibe is fun, positive and warm. This goes so far in making the audience root for these characters.

We are definitely off to a great start!