Almost exactly a year ago, an old high school friend, Burt Rochelson, called me out of the blue and asked if I would audition for a part in a staged reading of his new musical play about Albert Einstein called The Rule of Disorder. The request was a surprise since we had last worked on a play together 45 years ago!  I don’t have a trained singing voice, and since the last time I sang publicly on stage was also 45 years ago, I was somewhat skeptical. But, anyway, I did it and it was a lot of fun.

The beautifully done musical score is by Jonathan Glickman, who in his spare time works for NASA as a rocket scientist. (Really!) Here is one of the lovely songs from the score, sung by real singers:

The play had won a musical play competition, and we performed it in the lobby of a beautiful old former vaudeville theatre in Patchogue, LI. Unfortunately, even though we were sold out, and got a very good response, we were funded only for that one performance, and the play didn’t get to be seen by a wider audience.

I had lunch with Burt yesterday (who, incidentally, among other things, happens to be a doctor, currently head of OBGYN at a major hospital on Long Island), and he was telling me about his current campaign to get the play seen by more people. He has been submitting it to the many different organizations around the country that produce musicals. It’s a difficult, tedious, and often arbitrary process, but a necessary one that musical creators have to go through. In the meantime, however, in between baby deliveries, he is working on other playwriting projects. So, if you know someone who knows someone who produces musicals…please let me know.