People ask me all the time, “What has been your favorite work in the theater?”  Actually, I think that’s a pretty easy call.  Working on a Broadway show is a very hard road.  It’s an extremely collaborative art form, probably one of the most collaborative because so many people have to come together to make it right.

Also they say that ultimately any Broadway show rides on its book, its story, its script.  Without a good book, the show is usually doomed for failure except in a few exceptional cases.

I worked on one show that had a great book and a great writer at the heart of it.  His name was William Shakespeare.

I spent 5 years working as composer-in-residence at the NY Shakespeare Festival under Joseph Papp, who was a great producer — smart, savvy and dedicated to the theater.  I did a number of the Bard’s works during that time, but the real winner was “Much Ado About Nothing”, which opened in the summer of 1976 in Central Park.  It was set brilliantly by director, A.J. Antoon, in 1904 during the time of the St. Louis World’s Fair.

I wrote an hours’ worth of music, underscoring the scenes and setting Shakespeare’s lyrics to music. I even wrote a 20 minute pre-show warm-up concert played by an 8 piece oom pah band we named Private Papirofsky’s (Joe Papp’s original name) Genuine Nickel-plated Portable Musical Brass Band.  They played in a park gazebo setting and totally set the scene and period for the show.

It was such a success that summer in the park that they moved it to Broadway.  It became the longest running Shakespeare to ever run on Broadway, starring Sam Waterston, with a wonderful cast.

After its run on Broadway it then received a 3-hour IBM sponsored CBS televised special, which they still air on TV.  It was one of those perfect shows. There were no bad days with that show.

For my work on the show I was nominated for the Tony Award for best composer in the musical category even though it wasn’t officially a musical.  The entire experience was a graceful delight – every scene a gem, costumes and scenery created by Theoni Aldredge and Ming Cho Lee respectively, two of Broadway’s all-time best.  This was a show graced by God and the wonderful and witty script of Mr. Shakespeare.

My favorite memory of that run was this:  About a week after we had opened on Broadway to smash reviews, I had proudly invited my parents to come to New York, see the show and bring with them my grandmother, Marcella Roth, who was then in her 80s.  ‘Nana’ was a lover of the theater and totally star-struck especially now that her grandson had a hit Broadway show.

I bought the three of them my house seats, sixth row, on the aisle at Broadway’s famed Winter Garden Theater.  On the night they came, it so happened that another attendee to our show was the President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, and his family.  With the klieg lights blazing out front, it was pandemonium, but washed with total elegance.  The Secret Service was out in full force and all the eyes of NYC were turned to this moment.

I had my family come early to the theater to avoid the crush and enjoy the spectacle.  I timed it so that the band, Private Papirofsky’s  Genuine Nickel-plated Portable Musical Brass Band, came on stage and played “Hail To The Chief” just as Nixon entered the theater and came down the aisle.  The theater stood and cheered with excitement.

One of the pieces I had written for the pre-show concert was a wonderfully funky little theme song called “Marcella” after my grandmother.  In it, the band would play a chorus or two, then all sing in their even funkier musician’s voices the following classic words:
Marcella
Marcella
Marcella
Oh Marcella!

Even before we knew Nixon was coming, I had told the band that when they performed the song that night that Marcella was going to be there and that they should come down off the stage in their military band costumes, and serenade ‘Nana’ in the aisle.  Everybody was excited about this cute idea.

So at the appropriate moment halfway through the concert, the band did just that – they gathered in the aisle and started to play.

Now the Nixon family had excellent seats as well – 8th row on the aisle – two rows behind my family.  So when the band gathered in the aisle, everyone, of course, figured that that band had come down to serenade the President – probably including the President himself.  Smiles radiated through the theater as the band played on.  Then the band began to sing:
Marcella
Marcella
Marcella
Oh Marcella!

I watched Nana in that moment from my hidden corner in the theater.  As they began to sing, a shocked and puzzled look spread over her face.  She looked back and forth from my father to my mother then back to the band in speechless wonder as the band serenaded her there in front of the President of the United States of America at her son’s hit Broadway show at the famous Winter Garden Theater in New York City.

The people in the theater, including the President and his family, understood the moment right away and the applause filled the theater for Marcella as the band played on.  Nana sat stunned at the wonder of it all.  I stood in my corner watching and wept.  It was a moment I shall never forget.  Nana talked about it for the rest of her life.

Much Ado About Nothing was a lot to do about heart.  Looking back, that was a pinnacle moment in my life and a gift from God to my grandmother in its timing and perfection.  You can’t make those moments up.  Everything about it worked beyond expectation and to perfection.  It’s one of the favorite stories of my lifetime.