Students Unbottle ‘Genie’ on Cabot Stage

Genie, a wholly original musical written and directed by James W. Lawler ’04-’05 and Benjamin D. Scheuer ’04-’05, brings its fantastic tale of college life to the stage for the first time starting Wednesday, Dec. 15.

Genie is the story of Mooney O’Tooley (Rowan Sheldon ’08)—a nerdy freshman with intentions of starting anew who falls in love with Sweetie Connors (Sara Jayne Blackmore, a student at the New England Conservatory). Frustratingly, she is an heiress afflicted with multiple personalities, each of them out of his league. Dejected, he heads to a bar to drown his sorrows; while there, however, he discovers a soulful and mischievous genie in a bottle (La’Tarsha Long on Dec.15 and 19 and Anita Murrell on Dec. 16-18, both students at the Longy School of Music). From there he’s taken on a wild and whimsical musical journey.

The performances are often so finely tuned that the characters seem tailor-made for their interpreter. This is for good reason: they were. “The thing about this show is that it was written as we worked. A lot of the music was written for specific cast members. It allowed them to bring out a theme that they would highlight in the way they play the part,” Scheuer recounts of the play’s creation.

Occasionally, this unique process led to significant script alterations, including a new character. “The role of head genie wasn’t in the script as of common casting,” Scheuer says, “but K’idar [Miller ’08] had such a great audition that we brought it back into the show.”

While musicals are commonly performed around campus, rarely are they as fully homegrown. While Lawler had the idea to write a musical in fall 2003, the script was put on the back-burner when Lawler took a year off to train for the Olympic Trials as a swimmer. “I came back with about 60 pages of script and sent out an email on Cabot Open saying that I was looking for a composer.” That email turned up the composer Scheuer, already a veteran of three similar endeavors.

“Ben wrote the music and we collaborated on the lyrics,” says Lawler, who makes his directorial debut with the play. Surprisingly, theater has not been Lawler’s primary preoccupation at Harvard: his previous writing experience had come mostly from feature-length screenplays.

Despite both being super seniors, hailing from the same House, and originally living 15 minutes from each other, Lawler and Scheuer had never met before working together on the play. Yet even with, or perhaps because of, their lack of previous contact, they complemented each other perfectly. According to Lawler, “the writing went really smoothly. We work really well together.” The co-writers were aided and guided by a shared philosophy; “The concept was just to create something people would have a great time at.”

Lawler confessed that the scale of the production is larger than he had originally envisioned. “The plan was to workshop it when we got back [to Harvard], but it turned into something more elaborate.”

“The people we have worked with are very creative and enthusiastic,” Scheuer adds, specifically citing lighting designer Tom E. Osborne ’08, stage manager Susan C. Merenda ’07 and producer Teymour Shahabi ’05.

Musically, the play is all over the map. Scheuer “wanted to blend classical show tunes with rock” and other genres. He describes the resulting show as “a musical chameleon.”

Such an ambitious play required their stage to change appearance; Cabot is a rarely used theatrical venue. “We were able to transform the Cabot JCR into a theatrical space. There was already a stage, so it was just a question of building risers” Lawler reports. “We transformed it into a great place for shows.” The authors hope that future productions will be able to utilize the renovated space.

As for the future of their production, the duo is cautious, but has their eyes on larger stages. Lawler plans to “see how this run goes and see what can be improved. We’ll make those improvements, then submit it to festivals.”

Genie will be performed in the Cabot JCR on Dec. 15-18 at 8:00 p.m. and Dec. 19 at 4:00 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the Harvard Box Office or at the door for $7, $5 with a Harvard I.D. More information can be accessed at the production’s website, www.geniethemusical.com.