The Star-News caught up with Harold Taw, author/playwright, after a performance of the Jane Austen based musical, “Persuasion,” that is running at Coronado’s Lamb’s Players Theatre through Nov. 18.
“Persuasion,” which is making its California debut at Lamb’s was written a year before her death at 41. Taw, who wrote the musical’s book based on her work, collaborated with Chris Jeffries, who composed the music and lyrics. The production made its debut in Seattle.
Interview by Rebecca Williamson:
Do you live in Seattle? Family? Nine-year-old son?
My wife and I have lived in Seattle since 1997 and have 9-year-old boy/girl twins. I did, however, grow up in Laguna Niguel (Calif.).
Please explain when and how you found out the musical was going to be produced by Lambs Players Theater?
We were thrilled that Lamb’s Players Theatre’s Artistic Director Robert Smyth and Associate Artistic Director Deborah Gilmour Smyth flew up to Seattle to see the 2017 world premiere of “Persuasion,” which became the highest-grossing show in Taproot Theatre’s 42-year history. Robert and Deborah really “got” the show, both in terms of how it could be staged with intimacy and immediacy, and in terms of the humor and current relevance of this story about a rapidly changing society and the effort of a woman to be true to her own sense of right and wrong in the face of daunting social pressures. Then, quite fortuitously, Lamb’s Players Theatre was able to make room in its 2018 season for “Persuasion.”
Please explain the backstory of how “Persuasion” came about?
Long before I dreamed of writing musicals I’ve been a Jane Austen fan. I periodically reread her novels when I want to luxuriate in exquisite prose.
“Persuasion” is my personal favorite and the novel particularly suited for adaptation to musical theater. Most of Anne Elliot’s journey in “Persuasion” is internal and explores her thoughts and feelings, all of which get lost in “straight” presentations because of what is most important remains unspoken. With music we can crack open these soaring emotional moments that exist just beneath the facade of composure. “Persuasion” is infused with nostalgia and regret … feelings that find their natural expression in music.
The two-year program you went through with Chris Jeffries in Seattle?
Composer/lyricist Chris Jeffries and I met through a program at The 5th Avenue Theatre, the largest regional theater in the Pacific Northwest, which has an extensive history of sending new musicals to Broadway (such as HAIRSPRAY, MEMPHIS, and so many more). We were the inaugural writers in The 5th Ave Writers Group, a two-year incubator for new works founded by Ian Eisendrath, who is the original and current Music Director for Broadway’s COME FROM AWAY. We met twice a month with The 5th Avenue’s creative staff and were afforded access to top-flight performers and musicians so we could hear our work while we were writing and revising it.
In 2015, The 5th Ave Theatre presented our work as a “staged reading,” which is the first time the outside world of artistic directors and patrons can glimpse the full show in the absence of costumes or sets. Thankfully, the response was overwhelmingly positive, which led both to our “workshop” production at Texas Musical Theatre Workshop in 2016 and to the world premiere professional production at Seattle’s Taproot Theatre in 2017.
Taproot Theatre has been a champion for “Persuasion” and spent an entire year developing it with us and then connecting us to Lamb’s Players Theatre. Taproot has always believed in the show, but even they were startled by its runaway success in Seattle, where it was sold out every night and thronged with repeat viewers.
How did you become involved in writing a musical?
The odd and honest truth is that I’m writing musicals now because our twins, when they were 2 years old, were obsessed with the cast recording for Les Miserables. At the time, I was trying to complete my second novel, which is long, and dark, and involves a great deal of research. So my children kept asking me to play Les Mis over and over and I began to think, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to write a musical?” I started poking around, a playwright friend told me about The 5th Avenue’s new Writers Group, The 5th Avenue was reckless enough to include me as the only non-theater writer in its inaugural program, and the rest is history. My co-writer Chris and I were actually matched up by The 5th Avenue. We’re an arranged marriage that became a love match.
How have “Janeites” fans reacted to you?
The Janeites have been warm, welcoming, and enthusiastic about “Persuasion!” We’ve had members of JASNA (Jane Austen Society of North America) attend every presentation of our show, developmental or professional, and they are so knowledgeable and thoughtful. Janeites appreciate just how difficult it is to translate the intricacies of Austen’s work into a different medium and have been quite supportive of the hard narrative choices that had to be made to move the story from page to musical stage. Plus, they appreciate that we never proposed to make Captain Wentworth and Anne into hippies during the disco 1970s, or moved the setting to Spain so we could include flamenco dancing. I suspect that Janeites share with Chris and I a keen appreciation that 1814 to 1815, when people thought the Napoleonic Wars were over when they were not, is a vibrant period and setting to be embraced rather than avoided. There was so much societal upheaval occurring. Our intent was to allow audiences to see the past not as a foreign land but as current and lively location.
Future plans or productions of the musical?
We are excited that audiences and artistic directors will have the opportunity to see such a gorgeous, showcase presentation of “Persuasion” at Lamb’s Players Theatre. The cast and creative team at Lamb’s have poured so much beauty and artistry into this production that it can’t help but be infectious.
The greatest advocates for our show have been the audiences—people calling friends during intermission and telling them to buy tickets, people coming back for their third or fourth viewing. Because Jane Austen is so universally revered in literary circles, there can be a misconception that coming to a musical adaptation of “Persuasion” is akin to swallowing medicine. But once people see the show, they realize how vibrant, lively, fun, and thoughtful “Persuasion” truly is. Some of the most enthusiastic fans of our show have been teenagers, which led to a Seattle TeenTix Award nomination of “Persuasion.” The show has hidden pleasures for people young and old, women and men. An audience member who attended Lamb’s Players’ first preview told me, “My husband usually falls asleep during the shows. He was not only awake but laughed and thoroughly enjoyed it!”
Our feeling is that if our show continues to be blessed by productions as lovely as the one at Lamb’s Players Theatre, “Persuasion” will find its way to numerous professional productions and a groundswell of audience support that cannot be ignored. We are excited to find out where it will play next and how far it will go!
For information on show times, visit the website at https://www.lambsplayers.org/persuasion-show-details/
