"Lehman Engel was one of those great natural teachers," remembers composer/lyricist Maury Yeston. "Having had the advantage of enormous experience, he was part and parcel of the generation of conductors and composers who created the modern musical theatre as we knew it then and as we know it today."
He made these remarks while reflecting on a milestone: the 40th year of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, celebrated March 11 with a showcase of excerpts from various musicals-in-progress. They included "Baby Case," a musical "fantasia" regarding the Lindbergh baby by Michael Ogborn; "Adventures in Love," a revue by Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich; and "The Enchanted Cottage," based on the Arthur Wing Pinero play, by composer Kim Oler and lyricist Alison Hubbard, among others. Presented at the Manhattan Theatre Club's Stage I, performers at the event included Randy Graff, Pam Isaacs, and Steven Skybell.
The concept for a weekly, multi-tiered, multi-year, multidisciplinary workshop developed, Yeston says, when Engel "began to think in a structured way about what makes musicals musicals, and he asked BMI if they would think about forming a workshop that would be absolutely free to composers and lyricists, and later, librettists. His idea was to teach the basic principles of musical theatre construction as a way to support and nourish the community."
Take Yeston's word for it—he knows. For he, too, began as a BMI workshop member, and there's quite a strong argument to be made that the BMI workshop had a direct impact on the development and eventual success of his 1982 Tony Award-winning musical "Nine."
Yet Yeston doesn't hide that fact. Indeed, there's a fascinating chronology in the souvenir program from "Nine" that offers a glimpse into how Engel's workshop enabled a young musical theatre writer to refine and polish his technique and his talent.
"September 18th, 1970," one chronology notation reads. "Yeston joins the BMI Theatre Workshop under Lehman Engel." And another: "November 11th, 1973…Yeston presents three songs from his new BMI project, 'Nine.' The songs: 'Guido's Song,' 'The Germans at the Spa,' and 'Nine.' And yet another: "June 5th, 1974…Three songs showcased at the Edison Theatre. Project is optioned. Yeston writes 'The Grand Canal,' 'Unusual Way,' and 'Be On Your Own.'
Working the Workshop
On BMI's website, bmi.com, there's an homage of sorts to the little Engel that could. It says, in part, that BMI's "most impressive commitment to musical theatre came in 1961, when the company established its Musical Theatre Workshop, headed by Lehman Engel, the acknowledged 'Dean of Broadway Conductors,' with a quarter-century of composing and conducting experience in musical theatre….A number of successful composers emerged from this program, energized by Lehman's exacting but inspiring direction. In addition to singer-songwriters Melissa Manchester and Barry Manilow as well as film music writer Dean Pitchford, they include Alan Menken ('Little Shop of Horrors'), Ed Kleban (lyricist for 'A Chorus Line'), Maury Yeston ('Nine'), and Judd Woldin and Robert Brittan ('Raisin')." Still others include Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, and Michael John LaChuisa.
The website text goes on: "Engel's death in 1982 was a significant loss to the musical theater and to BMI. Yeston, Menken, Kleban, and others formed a steering committee and took on the responsibility of keeping the workshop alive. Rechristened the BMI/Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, it continues to this day, a springboard for the discovery of new talents in theatrical music composition."
Today, the steering committee includes artistic coordinator Patrick Cook, Richard Engquist, David Spencer, Frank Evans, Frederick Fryer, Nancy Golladay, Annette Leisten, Alan Menken, Susan H. Schulman, Jane Smulyan, and Maury Yeston. What are they all looking for?
"Several things," Yeston says, "but, interestingly enough, it's not the quality of the work that gets submitted so much as what the potential first-year student wants to work on. I think what they're interested in writing about and what they think are good ideas are terribly important. We look to see if there's a spark of a new voice. And even if their work is imperfect, that's how it's supposed to be—you're supposed to get up in the workshop and play things that aren't quite right. We want to know if there's an active musical imagination there—one that is self-sustaining and looks like it's ready to take risks. We're drawn to anybody who has a strong, definite point of view."
Cook largely concurs. "We're looking for talent, but not necessarily for craft," he says. "By this, we mean someone we think has a future writing dramatically. The craft part comes later, with time. What the workshop does is allow us to talk about craft, examine it, and to look at musicals of the past, whether it's Rodgers and Hammerstein, Irving Berlin, concept musicals, Euro-musicals, or book musicals." While Cook did not know Engel personally—having joined the workshop in 1983—he fervently believes in one of his chief maxims: "Talent without craft is meaningless."
Engel's Angle
"He really was," Yeston says, "the dean of American conductors, a brilliant intellectual musician from Jackson, Miss., and was very close to Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson. And what he did is he created a workshop that became quite a powerful force among writers in that it provided a weekly forum for people to work on their work. Particularly when he started—and for years afterward—Lehman provided, vis a vis the workshop, that rarest of New York commodities: friendly criticism."
Yeston adds that much of the "syllabus" remains as it was when Engel ran the show. "In the first year," Yeston says, "Lehman would talk a lot and teach the basics: ballads, musical scenes, charm songs—which are uptempo, basically optimistic songs that aren't about a laugh, like 'A Wonderful Guy' from 'South Pacific,' and then, in the second year, he would outline and break down the nature of musical books."
"One of the assignments is a song for Blanche DuBois," elaborated Cook. "Another is a song for the suicide scene in 'Death of a Salesman.' Then, at the end, you have to write a 10-minute musical."
There are yet other things that Engel taught, and which the workshop still emphasizes. For example, says Yeston, the notion that "plays have all night for exposition whereas musicals do not, which is why screenwriters, playwrights, and novelists, if they're not respectful, miss the boat. Another principle is that songs push the story forward. He used to like to quote George Abbott, who said 'There are too many show stoppers and not enough show advancers.' Finally, there's the idea that a score has to make you feel something, it has to move the audience in some way, because the musical is, fundamentally, an optimistic form."
Optimistic? This from the man who wrote "Titanic?" That show, Yeston says, makes a classic case in point. "In 'Titanic,' we found the positive by looking at the 'if' factors in the story—the 'what could have been's'—from a man kissing his girlfriend goodbye to the upper-class people having the most fabulous time. More importantly, the show points out how that ship was such a great, great dream. Musical theatre turns toward the light, and I think Lehman understood that."
What's less understood, it would seem, is what today's first-year students know about the musical theatre—whether they are as educated, as saturated with the form, as the creators of yesteryear. There, Yeston and Cook differ somewhat. According to Yeston, today's workshop participants "have seen a lot more shows, have thought about musical theatre a great deal more, and they often come from programs like NYU, whereas there were no such things 20 or 30 years ago. Many people come in with more of a theatrical background. I also think the musical theatre has shown such a spread of not only musical styles but of musicalization—the question of how you tell a story musically."
To that, Cook says "I actually think they may be somewhat less fluent in musical theatre than, say, I was, because when I grew up in the '60s, it was still kind of a golden age for musicals; musicals had the sound of musicals. I know students today whose first musical was an Andrew Lloyd Webber show. But one of the fun parts about what we do is exposing students to great work they don't know. Another joy, he says, "is that moment, every once in a while, when magic happens in that room. It could be when somebody writes something or it could be when I demonstrate something that shows the magic of musical theatre. That, above all, makes it all worth it."
Planning to Apply?
Applications for the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Librettists Workshop are now being accepted. The deadline for submissions is May 1, 2002. Applicants are asked to submit samples of their scriptwriting work, as well as a resume and completed application form. As for the composers and lyricists workshop, the deadline is August 1. Those applicants must submit three songs—an uptempo, ballad, and comedy song—on a CD or tape, along with an introductory set-up and a lyric sheet. All applications may be obtained by contacting Jean Banks, Senior Director, Musical Theatre, BMI, 320 W. 57th St., NY, NY 10019. Or call (212) 830-2508, or email musicaltheatre@bmi.com.
