'LILIAN'S LAST DANCE': MUSICAL PROJECT LOOKS FOR CREATIVE CONTRIBUTORS, ARTISTIC SUPPORT, TALENT IN EXCHANGE FOR PLAYING A PART IN ARTISTIC ENDEAVOR
WE ARE WORKING to develop "Lilian's Last Dance" into a musical! We debuted three of the songs to the public recently! Big hit, so we are encouraged.
That was the original hope when the plot idea came to me and my first husband, Bruce Meyers, many moons ago. The vision survives.
I've written several songs for a musical of "Lilian's Last Dance," the musical. We're looking for help in transforming the paperback to a theater book, lyrics and score.
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| Popular singer Marian Booth Green introduces three songs from the musical, "Lilian's Last Dance" to the public at a recent reading in Billings. |
WE ARE WORKING to develop "Lilian's Last Dance" into a musical! We debuted three of the songs to the public recently! Big hit, so we are encouraged.
That was the original hope when the plot idea came to me and my first husband, Bruce Meyers, many moons ago. The vision survives.
 |
| Christene Meyers and Bruce Keller in the Hollywood Hills. |
In the 1980s, Bruce and I came up with an idea for
a musical featuring actors at the transition of the “silents-to- talkies”
era. Bruce died in 1992 and I began dating and eventually married Bill Jones, fellow film critic, creative guy and my co-author on "Lilian's Last Dance." Sadly, he, too, passed away, in 2005.
NOW THAT Bruce Keller and I have the novel off and running (Amazon eBook and soon a paperback by WordsWorth Publishers), we are looking for collaborators, help in converting songs to musical scores and contributors for book, music and lyrics.
Contact us at lilianslastdance@gmail.com
*******
IN MY FAMILY, the motto was "come big or stay home." So I'm coming big, but it's taken a while and it may never be more than a well reviewed novel........but who knows?
When my late husband Bill and I collaborated on the novel version of "Lilian's Last Dance," I told him of that long-ago dream with
Bruce, to write a Broadway musical. It would be a musical about a French born sharpshooter. (Bruce and I had seen many incarnations of "Annie Get Your Gun" -- and Bill and I had just seen "Les Miserables" for the third time. We were thinking French.)
I believe it was frequent forays to Paris and Provence that made us imagine this beautiful, talented French character who fell in love with the American West and one of its cowboys.
Our Lilian would be sexy, smart, sassy and sure of herself. Her confidence would be subtle, not brassy.
AS BILLY AND I plugged away on "Lilian," he encouraged me to imagine a musical score. That's when I crafted those half-dozen songs, towards "The Famous Broadway Musical," as we called it.
We knew people might compare it to "Annie Get Your Gun" so our musical wouldn't be all sweet and dreamy. Patti Lupone? Not quite right, although she wowed 'em with her fire, magnificent pipes and belt-it-out bravado. Reba McEntire? No, too perky and flirty, with a country flair.
Mary Martin was the most prim and proper of the Annie Oakleys we studied. Betty Hutton was the most like our Lilian -- a bit sultry, but capable of murder. Our musical would have violence, death, a love triangle, a gay couple, unrequited love, accidents and a couple really rotten characters.
Herbert and Dorothy Fields wrote the book for a musical based on Oakley's life and I listened to their brilliant lyrics as I thought about Lilian. It was fun to revisit the famous "Annie Get Your Gun."
On a 1999 trip to New York, the show was in revival with Bernadette Peters in the title role and Tom Wopat as Frank Butler. Peters was enchanting, expressive -- a world apart from Merman's over-the-top Annie.
NOW THAT Bruce Keller and I have the novel off and running (Amazon eBook and soon a paperback by WordsWorth Publishers), we are looking for collaborators, help in converting songs to musical scores and contributors for book, music and lyrics.
Contact us at lilianslastdance@gmail.com
*******
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| Merman's Annie: she belted out the songs, but wasn't what critics called subtle. Crowds loved her bluster and unmistakable bravado, though. |
When my late husband Bill and I collaborated on the novel version of "Lilian's Last Dance," I told him of that long-ago dream with
 |
| Mary Martin's Annie -- she gave it an operatic lilt
after "South Pacific"
and "Peter Pan." Ah, show biz.
Below, Bernadette Peters
was a charming, sexy Annie.
 |
I believe it was frequent forays to Paris and Provence that made us imagine this beautiful, talented French character who fell in love with the American West and one of its cowboys.
Our Lilian would be sexy, smart, sassy and sure of herself. Her confidence would be subtle, not brassy.
 |
| Betty Hutton's Annie -- sultry for the day~! |
We knew people might compare it to "Annie Get Your Gun" so our musical wouldn't be all sweet and dreamy. Patti Lupone? Not quite right, although she wowed 'em with her fire, magnificent pipes and belt-it-out bravado. Reba McEntire? No, too perky and flirty, with a country flair.
Mary Martin was the most prim and proper of the Annie Oakleys we studied. Betty Hutton was the most like our Lilian -- a bit sultry, but capable of murder. Our musical would have violence, death, a love triangle, a gay couple, unrequited love, accidents and a couple really rotten characters.
Herbert and Dorothy Fields wrote the book for a musical based on Oakley's life and I listened to their brilliant lyrics as I thought about Lilian. It was fun to revisit the famous "Annie Get Your Gun."
On a 1999 trip to New York, the show was in revival with Bernadette Peters in the title role and Tom Wopat as Frank Butler. Peters was enchanting, expressive -- a world apart from Merman's over-the-top Annie.
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