When Murray Ross approached me about doing a musical based on Plato's "Symposium," I jumped at the chance. After all, not only did the idea seem absurd, but I had no experience writing show tunes - and in fact my love/hate relationship with musical theater has generally leaned towards the hate side.
But I was pleasantly surprised. The result inhabits a kind of nether-world between cabaret and conventional musical theater. I hope that some of the joy I felt in creating this music comes through.
What I love most about "The Symposium" is its integration of the world. Sure, it's hierarchical, and unlike Cole Porter, you won't catch Plato saying that anything goes. But through his mouthpiece, Diotima, Plato attacks dualistic divisions into black and white, saying that all kinds of love have their place on the road to true beauty. And though Diotima seems to imply that the heavenly ladder is a one-way ascent, Plato goes on to warn us, through Alcibiades, that backsliding has tragic consequences.
As for the music: To paraphrase Aaron Copland, the composer's challenge is to write music that's simple and direct without being stupid. In this case, there were four challenges. The first was to write graceful, light, effervescent tunes that fit in the 1930s setting while sounding fresh and original. Second, the music had to grow out of the characters' personalities. (In the case of Pausanias, we worked backwards, fitting the personality to the music.) Third, in spite of the very wide stylistic range, each song had to sound at least not outlandish in its immediate context. One method of accomplishing this - if it was accomplished - was by creating thematic connections between the songs. For instance, the opening melodic contour of Alcibiades "Tango" relates both to his preceding entrance music and to the following "Anthem."
And fourth, there was the challenge of turning Plato's intellectual thicket into song lyrics. Rather than admit to Murray that I utterly lacked the ability to pull this off, I put my wife Lauren to work. What she accomplished went far beyond my own workmanlike hammering into verse. The odds are that any elegant turn or phrase of memorable poetic image is hers.