Tom Jones the Musical

I was commissioned to adapt the novel Tom Jones into a musical. Many years ago. Many. Years.

It’s not that I’ve been dragging my feet. It’s that I’ve been waiting on my friend Paul Mirkovich. See, he and I wrote China the Whole Enchilada. I wrote the book, lyrics, and basic melodies. Paul then made the songs much better. Much. better. The show ended up receiving Outstanding Musical at the New York City Fringe Festival. Go figure.

So when I was commissioned to write this musical, Paul said he wanted to be more involved with the song writing. Cool. I was rubbing my hands in excitement because Paul is an amazing musician. He played in the 9th incarnation of White Snake. He played with Nelson. He was musical director for Cher, Pink, Christina Aguilera, Hillary Duff, Janet Jackson, INXS, the CBS series RockStar INXS and RockStar Supernova, the MTV series Rock the Cradle. He was the musical director of the Emmys one year.

So you can understand my excitement.

But then Paul got yet another gig. Musical Director of The Voice.

That juggernaut of a show saps all of his time. We thought many times we’d have time to work between seasons. No such luck. For a while Paul suggested I work with someone else because he didn’t want to hold me up. I refused. I knew there was only one person I wanted to work with. Only one person who could bring a bit of – oh I don’t know – brilliance to the project. But mostly he’s one of my best friends. I didn’t want to work with anyone else.

So I waited.

But I decided I needed to start writing some songs. So I wrote a little over a dozen songs.

I wrote the book.

Then I turned the book for the musical into a straight play.

Then I wrote The Quest for Don Quixote.

And then a few weeks ago Paul told me he had six weeks off. Six weeks!? Holy mother of Pearl Bailey! We would actually be getting together to work on the songs.

The Plan

When we did China the Whole Enchilada, we arranged and recorded the songs in six days. It was a marathon. We’re not going at a more leisurely pace, which lets us be a bit more creative. And when I say “us” I mean “Paul.”

Our plan is to do mock-ups of all of the songs to give us an idea of what we want the songs to sound like. And also so the band we’re going to work with can hear the songs. Paul will breakdown all of the parts, send them to the band, and then we’ll go into the studio to record. And then we’ll bring in friends to do the singing.

Then it’s the search for places to workshop the show. We’ve already had serious interest from theaters and directors, so we’re hoping we can do a workshop fairly soon.

The Mock-Up

So Paul and I sit in his studio. He plays all the parts on a keyboard. I sit there and drink chai lattes and eat Girl Scout cookies. Everyone now and then I offer up a suggestion and he politely tells me why I’m wrong. It’s a fantastic working relationship.

Then he goes into the vocal booth and I sit by the console. He sings. I occasionally press the “artist” button, which lets me talk to him in the booth, and I say things like, “That sounds awesome.” Or “Fantastic.” Or “Do you have any more Tagalongs?”

You get the idea.

Here’s one of the songs we recorded. Paul sings both the male and female parts.

The concept is all of the songs are inspired by the 1960s British Pop Invasion. Think Beatles, Herman’s Hermits, the Animals, Sandie Shaw, the Dave Clark Five.

Here’s the first song between the lovers, Tom and Sophie.

I hope you like it.