I’m excited about the next few months. I’ve just marked three important dates on my theatrical calendar I’d like to share.

On October 29 Daniel Doss and I are unveiling our new musical, Wild and Willful Women, on the H&R Block City Stage at Union Station. This will be a free, concert-style performance. We’ve been polishing up the songs and hearing lots of great local singers. I wrote the book and lyrics, and Daniel has composed all of the music. It’s been an honor working with such a talented composer and musician as Daniel.

Here’s the blurb we’re using for the musical:

Love, lust, and witchcraft in Puritan New England!

This original musical tells the tale of a formidable minister who believes the devil is leading his flock to hell with sex, laughs, and buckets of beer. When he imposes his moral reformation on the village, three women defy his authority by choosing for themselves who to love and how to live. The minister’s son is caught in the middle. He loves a girl his father calls a witch.

This may be the last time for quite a while to see Daniel conduct and play this material. He’s headed off on an international tour with The Addams Family Musical in January! The October 29 performance begins at 7:30. If you want to come, you should contact the H&R Block City Stage box office for reservations. Again, the tickets are free! http://www.unionstation.org/theater.html I hope you can come. It’ll be exciting.

We’re back at Union Station on December 4 for a reading of my new play, Dangerous to Dance With. This concert-style reading, which will take place in the Irish Center at Union Station, is part of the very popular Martin Tanner Tuesdays reading series. I know that Herman Johansen, the series producer, is lining up some first-class talent for this reading. The tickets are free. For more information, take a look at the Martin Tanner website: www.martintanner.com

Here’s a synopsis of the play:

Playwright Harris Stepp, a native of New York City, lives in a farmhouse in Southwest Missouri with his traumatized niece and a crippled acrobat. He expects to be murdered, and there are many potential murderers. Stepp antagonizes everyone he meets.

He antagonizes the insecure farmer who rents his land by threatening not to renew the lease.  He antagonizes his daughter by announcing his intention to write her out of his trust, and he antagonizes his two houseguests by threatening to throw them out whenever they displease him.

When his daughter’s supposed fiancé, a burly guy from New Jersey, shows up alone with his guns and fishing tackle anxious to meet his new father-in-law, the playwright’s paranoia has a field day.

 This dark comedy investigates the extent to which we are motivated by perceptions stained by our deepest insecurities, and whether a man can be his own worst enemy.

We’ll be reading Dangerous to Dance With again on the evening of March 1 on Broadway. That’s right, we’re going to read the play in the Frederick Loewe room at the Dramatists Guild of America located at 1501 Broadway, New York, NY. If you know anyone in the Big Apple, let them know about the reading. Better yet, if you’ll be in the Big Apple on March 1, please drop in. We start at 7:30.