NYTimes profiles The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World Musical

Dear Friends,

We're now in our 2nd week of previews, and the show is coming together nicely. Spectacularly. We spend time every day writing new material to make it better, and the actors rehearse 4 hours every day to incorporate the changes, making a fresh, new experience every night. Last night the show was on fire - and we still have 2 more weeks of previews to make it yet better!

Also, a wonderful writer for the NYTimes wrote an article about what we're up to. Read it HERE.

Tickets? The show's at Playwrights Horizons on 42nd st. Come see the fresh previews now, or see the fully-flowered show during its run from June 7 to July 3. (Use this top secret code SHAGFLY when ordering tix for a special discount!)

I hope I see you at one of the shows!

love and blessings,
Gunnar

Dave Werry, Shaggs and Electric Guitars

(The Shaggs open May 12! Click for tix)

The first time I ever touched an electric guitar, I was awestruck. I tried plucking a note, tried to make it sing like the Beatles could, but it did not respond. I was at the house of my friend, Dave Werry. The electric guitar belonged to his mom. It was red, with a sunburst finish, and some kind of a hollow body. I had a slight tinge of disappointment, in that I somehow had the idea that a solid body electric was more modern and cool than a hollow body. But still. I had never been close to any electric guitar before. And even with the minor failing of it being hollowbody, and the fact that I couldn't make it sound like anything, I was totally stoked.

We had gotten his mom's permission to use it in a skit we were preparing for the school talent show. We were in 4th grade. I had memorized every word of the Beatle's 'Help", and had recruited 3 other guys to join me in doing a live version of the song for the talent show. I had a set of sparkly paper drums I'd gotten for Xmas when I was 4, and two black Beatle wigs. Dave had his mom's electric, and we borrowed a couple acoustic guitars. We practiced. We banged and strummed. We knew no notes, we knew no key, we were just singing the words at the top of our lungs and pretending to be the Beatles. On the stage of the cafeteria the day of the show, the only other "band" acts were lip-syncing. We were the real thing, making our own noise, and we were a big hit. 6th graders came up to us afterwards, telling us how cool we were. It was my first taste of the limelight. But it was my last moment with an electric guitar for a long time.

The memory of Dave Werry and his mom's guitar surfaced when I was asked what kind of guitars the girls in the Shaggs would be playing onstage in the upcoming production of "The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World". I'd grown up in a college town, in the suburbs of San Francisco, a fairly cosmopolitan place. Still, I'd never seen an electric guitar except on TV. While I knew there was a music store in town that carried electric guitars, I'd never been inside the store. I didn't think I had the right to open the door and approach an actual guitar. That'd be akin to riding my bike to the Pontiac dealership and asking to test-drive a GTO. If the reality of playing an electric guitar were so distant for a suburban-street-wise kid, how much more exotic might it have been for The Shaggs, who lived in a small town in New Hampshire? Where did their father, who knew nothing about music, find electric guitars? How far did he drive, what kind of store did he find, what was it like for him to talk to a long-haired guitar salesman? And when he brought them home as a surprise gift for his girls (along with a drum set), what was their reaction? Unlike me, they did not have an intense passion about music. They had never expressed any interest in music whatsoever. And if playing en electric guitar eluded a music aficionado like me, how much more hard and mysterious and frustrating would it have been for them?

Years later, when I was 16 and had been playing acoustic guitar for a year (self-taught) I bought a used Fender Mustang and rented a Sears Silvertone amp for 6 months. I still couldn't make it sound like I wanted it to. After 6 months I returned the amp and sold the Mustang. The magic of electric guitars would continue to elude me way into adulthood.

Shaggs Tix on sale Now!

Greetings from NYC,

Tickets are on sale for the upcoming production of The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World at Playwrights Horizons on 42nd st. Come see the smiling infant of a show during previews starting May 12, or see the fully-flowered gawky young adolescent of a show during its run from June 7 to July 3. (Use this top secret code SHAGFLY when ordering tix for a special discount!)

Do you like the graphic they made for us? I dig it deeply. The young hands pulling at the guitar strings, trying to break the guitar or escape or make some kind of sound (or all of the above).

The rehearsals are vibrating with an intensity that makes your head and heart buzz. The cast is thrilling - excellent actors and singers all. I've been spending long long days tightening up the story, the lyrics, the music, the orchestrations, the page turns for the band. I've never worked so long, with such intensity, on any other project in my life. Yeah, I know, that's no guarantee of a great outcome, but I'm telling you - I'm as excited about this project about any other endeavor I've done. It's on a par with The Bobs, or IsoBobs, or Svetlana Village, or...

Well, you get my drift. I hope I see you at one of the previews!

love and blessings,
Gunnar