One of the many joys of writing Ms America and the Brouhaha on Broadway was doing the research. Once I set this New York City-based mystery on Broadway, the first person I phoned for help was Beth Blatt, whom I met in Tokyo 25 years ago and have been lucky to call a friend ever since.
Beth’s work in musical theater has earned her any number of awards, grants, and fellowships. The Mistress Cycle, for which she wrote the book and lyrics, won The Directors’ Choice Award at The New York Musical Theatre Festival. Beth is also the founder and CEO of Hope Sings, a for-benefit music organization.
Beth introduced me to Mindi Dickstein, a librettist and lyricist whose songs have been performed at the Kennedy Center and as part of Lincoln Center’s American Songbook. A winner of the Jonathan Larson Foundation Award, among other accolades, Mindi is currently writing the lyrics for three musicals: Benny and Joon, Snow in August, and At the Beck.
Beth also put me in touch with Robert DuSold, an actor who toured nationally with Evita, played Javert in Les Misérables on Broadway and with the first national company, and lists Cats, Phantom of the Opera, Mamma Mia, and numerous other musicals among his credits. Along with Thomas Caruso, he conceived for the stage the upcoming musical Southern Comfort, based on the Sundance Award-winning documentary. A winner of the Jonathan Larson Award, Southern Comfort will begin preview performances at the Anspacher Theater in New York on February 23, 2016.
I am so grateful to Beth, Mindi, and Robert for sharing their profound wisdom about musical theater and Broadway. I also thank Aixa Martinez for her unerring guidance on fashion and fur coats and Bill Fuller for the wide variety of help he provided—literary, Broadway-oriented, and otherwise. And thank you again to Rhonda Freshwater for her gorgeous cover art. I don’t know how she keeps outdoing herself, but she does.
And as always, my husband Jed was insightful, encouraging, and supportive throughout. He even came up with inspired ideas for my cover design! I don’t know how many more first-draft manuscripts he’ll be willing to go through (and second and third draft, too), but let’s hope it’s a really big number.