Zeke Hecker not only has written the music, words, and book for his latest musical creation, “Now and Then,” which will be performed at the Actors Theatre Playhouse (ATP) this month. He will also be making his directorial debut with this production.
Nonetheless, Hecker insists that “Now and Then” is a collaborative enterprise.
“I want to emphasize that it is not just my show,” he told The Commons. “The longer I have worked for the theater, the more convinced am that putting on any staged work is inherently a joint effort, and the quality of what finally occurs involves many people beyond myself.”
This three-person chamber musical stars versatile performers with diverse backgrounds.
Michael Duffin began his singing career in a heavy metal band. Cindy Ritter is a veteran of many Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. And Jessica Gelter, a notable singer and composer, hasn't appeared in a full-fledged musical since her days as a student at New England Youth Theatre (NEYT).
This eclectic trio will be accompanied on piano by Ken Olsson.
Hecker says that this lineup is by design.
“For reasons I cannot quite explain, this is the very first time I decided to direct one of my musicals myself,” he says. “Since I am new and incompetent at this, I selected the cast myself to make my job easier.”
“I called on the talents of three singer/actors I already knew, who would be accompanied by a pianist who is a musician I trust,” Hecker says. “I wanted to do this chamber musical with a group of people who could carry it. 'Now and Then' has turned out to be a pleasing collaboration.”
As described on ATP's website, “Now and Then” concerns the trials and tribulations of “three New Yorkers in midlife - Jack, Barb, and Lisa - [who] form the eternal triangle, with jealousy taking a surprising shape leading to an equally surprising conclusion. The action of this dark-edged comedy hovers between past and present, proceeds through 16 scenes and 18 songs, and takes us to the resort cities of Nice and Cancun.”
Hecker's original story was inspired by stories by Graham Greene and Truman Capote, by Shakespeare's “Othello” and, while the play not specifically autobiographical, by events from his own life. The play references places he has visited and a high-school sports awards banquet in honor of his brother.
“The story is not all that unique, but then again neither are most plots,” says Hecker. “'Now and Then' involves two women and a man, and concerns the complexities of their relationship, focusing on jealously. A man has a relationship with woman A, whom he drops precipitously for woman B, and the trouble that ensues.”
“Familiar, yes, but what then happens is not entirely conventional,” he says.
He adds that the play is really about “jealousy, abandonment, male narcissism, people not being what they seem, the lengths they will go to escape loneliness, the dangers of impulsive desire, the deterioration of relationships over time, and the power that the past exerts on us.”
Passion to write
Hecker, born in Newark, N.J., in 1947, attended the Lawrenceville School and Harvard University, but he has lived in Vermont most of his life. He taught English at Brattleboro Union High School from 1971 until his retirement in 2004.
Co-founder of Friends of Music at Guilford, he is co-principal oboist of the Pioneer Valley Symphony in Greenfield, Mass., is a member of the woodwind quintets Windfall and Variable Winds, and is the former director of the Consortium of Vermont Composers.
But Hecker's main passion is writing music. An accomplished composer whose work has been presented internationally, he has composed more than 160 works, including operas, orchestral pieces, chamber and choral music, incidental music for plays and films, and songs.
His musicals include “Barataria” which Friends of Music at Guilford produced in 1998, as well as “Double Exposure” and “Bemused,” for which he wrote the books, music, and lyrics.
These latter two productions were staged by Vermont Theatre Company in 2003 and 2005, respectively. His musical “The Lift” was introduced by Vermont Theatre Company in the spring of 2008 and revived in March 2009.
“Now and Then” is the first piece of his performed by ATP. It is also the theater company's first musical.
“In the dead of winter, Sam Pilo [the artistic director and founder of ATP], said to me, 'Actors Theater has never done a musical, would you consider doing one for us?,'” Hecker says. “Well, there is nothing like being asked, so after I mulled it over a bit, I said sure.”
“Rather than reviving something I had already written, I took this as an occasion for creativity and decided to put together a new show,” he says.
“In my desk drawer at home, there are shows that are completed, shows with lyrics, and some with script and lyrics. I chose 'Now and Then,' for which I had already written the book and lyrics but not the music,” Hecker recalls. “Over the next couple of months, I wrote the score.”
Hecker calls “Now and Then” a “chamber musical.”
“I turned to writing chamber operas after the ordeal of putting my first musical onstage in 1997,” he says. “My decision was both logistical and artistic. Chamber musicals are so much easier to perform, but they also involve a different aesthetic that appeals to me.
“My first show, 'Barataria,' was part musical comedy, part operetta, and frankly I put the kitchen sink into that work.”
“Barataria” was based on an original play and with lyrics from other works by the 18th-century American playwright and Guilford resident Royall Tyler (1757-1826).
“I did adaptation, wrote additional lyrics, the music and the orchestrations,” Hecker says. “That was a huge production with 11 solo singers, a four-part chorus, many speaking and dancing roles, dance ensemble, and a 12-piece chamber orchestra.
“And although everything worked out in the end, putting such a massive work onstage damn near killed us.”
After that near fiasco, Hecker thought it imperative to scale back, so he wrote three smaller chamber musicals that Vermont Theater Company staged. In addition to the music, Hecker began writing all lyrics and later the book for his shows.
“I had a great time,” he says. “I made a study of lyric writing, from masters like Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, and my idol, Stephen Sondheim. I learned that I had a knack for it.”
Hecker consciously wrote “Now and Then” in the style of the traditional American musical.
“It is not a through-sung show like pop operas like 'Phantom [of the Opera]' or 'Les [Misérables].' It alternates dialogue and song, with perhaps a slightly greater proportion to song than words. It also is less grandiose than those shows.
“You will find traditional musical song forms here. Audiences will recognize a tango, blues, some quasi operetta, and in one song there is even an allusion to the heavy rock music of Jimi Hendrix.
“Stephen Sondheim has said never reprise a song unless you have a good reason for it, and that a reprise must be different from the original.
“I think both things are true for the reprises in this show. In one, the initial time the song is sung it seems pleasant, but the second time around the harmonies bring out nasty undercurrents in the piece. I like using music that way because, as Mozart has taught me in his operas, music can tell you things you don't hear in just the words.”
Hecker insists that his show is just an entertainment, but by that he does not mean it is shallow or empty-headed.
“I would like to lower the idea of art-with-a-capital-A to just art: it is a show intended primarily for enjoyment. 'Now and Then' is not message-driven, which so many works these days seem to be, trying to convey truths that are social or political or ideological.”
But Hecker thinks that, more important than theme or a message, his play is about the characters themselves.
“I feel our show has lots to suggest, one that will leave the audience arguing about the significance of what happens after they leave the theater,” he says.
“'Now and Then' is about people and their relationships, with all the virtues and flaws involved in that. If the show has its good guys and bad guys, it also suggests that bad guys have their humanity, and that perhaps that it is not so easy after all to divide things into safe categories of good and evil.”