On Producing and Directing
Romance/Romance
I had seen the Broadway
production of Romance/Romance with Scott Bacula and Allison Frasier when in
NY in 1988 and feel in love with this little musical. It was later
nominated for best book, best musical, score, actor, actress...
Obviously the tony folks loved it too. I was in Monterey, working
frequently as a performer at Monterey Peninsula College (a glorified
community theatre with college funding) and wondered if this small scale
musical could work in their TINY SRO black box theatre. Peter Debono
gave me the chance and we were off. Everyone involved helped out with
set and costume construction. I had a small 3 piece band that did an
amazing job of filling in the orchestrations and didn't complain once about
being crammed into a corner in the backstage area. The four talented
performers were a joy to work with and gave their whole hearts to this show.
My dear, dear friend Nancy
Larner played the lead female role originated by Alison Frasier. I'm
so glad we were able to work together on this play.
We've lost Michael Piňa-Garcia
now to AIDS. We deeply miss him.
