Well, Roger and I are at it again. After a couple of less-than-successful attempts to write another novel, we decided to finish a musical called Venice that we started back in the Dark Ages or so. In that version — which was horrible, BTW — we had a script, as well as lyrics for most of the songs, but we had written very little of the music for it — and what we did have wasn’t written down. Considering Venice is a musical, I figured the music was sort of important. 🙂 So last fall I decided I wanted to write music for the lyrics that didn’t have any, and transcribe the music for those that did, just so I could say I finished the damn play. Then when the tantalizing possibility of getting the play produced presented itself, I decided to rewrite the whole thing, book, lyrics, and music. So I threw out the old script and started over. This involved writing several new songs that were never in the original, as well as tossing out some of the old ones. I finished the first draft of the script a week or so ago, and last night I completed the final song. Much revising left to do, but at least I have a full script to work with now.

And Roger? He wrote music for a couple of the songs, but now his real work begins: the unenviable task of writing orchestral arrangements for all of the songs. I can write songs and — maybe — handle very simple orchestral arrangements, but for anything complicated, fuggedaboudit. That’s where Roger’s expertise comes in. He’s a very talented performing musician and very knowledgable about music theory.

As a teaser, here are the song titles, in the order they appear in the play:

Overture
Anybody’s Bed
Minding Our Own Business
Images of Home
I’m Napoleon
Imagined Boy
Living in the Streets
Moving
Carnivale
Captain of the Guard
Your Eyes
Child of Woe
Just Enough Hate
Love Is Fine
Let the Storm Flow Around Us
Entr’Acte
Living in the Clouds
Your Own Words
Revere’s Lament
Masks of Venice (You Cannot Hide)
The Stone Boat
Across the Water
In the Flesh