Don't you just love a bad boy??? That's how I feel about Mr. Wickham ... and in a few minutes I will upload the new arrangement of his song "#11 Wickham's Dream" for Lindsay to prepare the physical score. The arrangement turned out "nice" as I continue to explore the use of the piano, violin, cello and french horn for our NYMF score.
In the original workshop production at Eastman School of Music in 2004, Wickham sang a pity-party ballad called "Shattered Dreams" ... It was a "Feel-sorry-for-Wickham" song that we thought expressed who he was ... but during the workshop, someone made the comment that it was too "swarmy" and that Wickham needed to be much sexier ... another person told us that it but a big "downer" right in the middle of the first act .... and ... They were right, but Lindsay and I couldn't figure out what to write for Wickham, so we pulled the song and had him as a speaking role ... that is ... until we met Sebastian Arcelus ...
Sebastian Arcelus is an amazingly talented performer. He sings like a dream and his acting is superb. We met him at a 29-hour reading of our show in August of 2007. He was a fantastic "Wickham" and when we went up to introduce ourselves to him, we found out what a truly wonderful and intelligent man he is. He spoke so knowledgeably about Jane Austen, English literature, made note of how we had incorporated Jane Austen's words into the show ... and then ... he got a twinkle in his eye and exclaimed: "... but where is Wickham's power ballad????"
Lindsay and I roared with laughter and told him that we didn't know what to write for Wickham because in Austen's story, he never compliments Elizabeth, he never pursues here (really) and only relates a sob story ... and I mean really, how sexy is a man's sob story?? Would Elizabeth Bennet really be attracted to a man who only has a sob-story to relate?
However, later that Fall, Lindsay and I were drinking a glass of wine, discussing the show, and we started talking about Wickham ... We pondered the question: "What if Wickham sang again ... what would he sing?" We both agreed that the song would have to be amazingly beautiful, lyrical and light ... it would have to describe a life that Elizabeth would find appealing ... it would have to "come off" as being sincere and dreamy, veiling the bad boy ... just like Wickham ...
So ... after another glass of wine, we went searching on YouTube for every clip of Sebastian Arcelus we could find ... laughing the whole time and thinking "Wouldn't it be amazing if Sebastian ever sang this???" We listened to everything we could find and made notes of his range, the color of his voice, the styles he sings best ... and then we started to compose the song. It ultimately became "Wickham's Dream", and in 2008, it was incorporated into the 2008 Concert Staged reading where John Behlmann premiered it with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. John's performance was wonderful too, (What a great actor he is!) and we saw that the song had its place in the show and that it would convince a woman like Elizabeth Bennet to fall for him.
Then ... last year (2010) when we created a new demo, we invited Sebastian Arcelus to help us with that recording and he said "YES!" Because of economics, he doubled roles, singing as both Wickham and Bingley. As you can imagine, we were so excited to hear him sing "Wickham's Dream" as we had dreamed it ... and ... now you can hear him at our website: www.pride-prejudice-musical.com or at www.nymf.org/janeaustensprideandprejudice.
So Wickham has a dream ... we love it! And we thank a brilliantly talented man who inspired us!
No comments:
Post a Comment