Get to know more about Grammy® nominated singer/songwriter Sophie B. Hawkins and her new musical “Birds of New York” as she sits down with Playhouse Artistic Director Mark Shanahan for this 5 QUESTIONS WITH… exclusive interview!
MARK: Can you tell us about your incredible journey so far in writing Birds Of New York, from inception to its current draft?
SOPHIE: I started Birds Of New York in my mind during an ASCAP theatre workshop with Steven Schwarz. I started daydreaming the characters of “Birds” as standing in front of a cascading wall of water. They wanted to speak to each other but were so full of grief they couldn’t, and the wall of water protected them and silenced them and also stirred their hearts, because it was alive and moving, like their missing connection, roaring to be let out.
I placed the London family in the apartment in Manhattan because I know so well the setting of a home that is more like a “dock that floats on light”. The plot, the ticking clocks, the obstacles were just waiting for me, but the hidden story has taken a long time to excavate and present without artifice and apology. Morley, the head of the family, has been the most natural to write. Her voice, her spontaneous creativity, speaking in rhymes, her irreverent and charismatic tap dancing through the labyrinth she created around her children to avoid her own trauma, and her equal potential to live a free and romantic life writing her novels in Manhattan, giver her an unpredictable quality that is fun to work with. Morley’s burdened, under dog daughter Celeste still lives with her and her dying husband, Pomeroy, yet there is more sabotage than loyalty. When Billie, the sunny, hopeful and scapegoated daughter who got away comes home with her seven year old son, all hell breaks loose and the story gets going.
It is a hero’s journey for Billie, who returns home after twenty years of estrangement to “heal” herself and unite the family.
I gave the initial two hundred page script to the Artistic Director of the Public Theatre who gave me one note; to make it Billie’s story. He said, “every scene without Billie- take it out.” That was a hard note because I loved the ensemble nature of the piece and Billie was, in my mind, the least interesting character.
That’s when I started to make Birds Of New York a musical, because Billie is a songwriter, and the most powerful thing about her is what she says through song. Whereas Morley uses her scintillating words like a Sphinx to entrap and confuse, Billie uses her songs to expose myths and truths and to heal her own heart. In this version we are presenting at The Barn, I hope that the relationships, especially between Billie and her sister Celeste, drive the story and make it relatable, even if the subject matter is quite intense.
When Covid hit I kept writing the book and recording the songs until I felt I needed to do this with actors in front of an audience to know what I’ve got and where I need to go. So here I am, about to do our first reading at the Barn. And how lucky I am to have this opportunity at the legendary Westport Country Playhouse? It’s fitting to expose my work in the raw and more humble barn, because the musical is at it’s raw and humble beginnings. Thank you Mark, for inviting me to do this.
MARK: You are so celebrated for your much loved pop songs. How different is it for you to write songs with lyrics that must be integrated to the narrative of your play?
SOPHIE: It’s totally different to write songs for a play than my own songs. I was the composer on a piece with the late, great Thomas Meehan for a musical that didn’t (yet) make it past the 29 hour reading, and that was a wonderful and challenging first experience. Since then, I’ve nurtured both sides of my writing; the solo singer song writer and the invisible writer of other characters’ struggles and desires. There is a place where the writing process intersects, and that’s where I am searching for what I, as myself or as the character, am dying to say something meaningful. The fun of writing for a character who isn’t me but whose shoes I’m walking in is that I say things and feel things I would never dream of as myself. It’s liberating to take on someone else’s perspective, I fall in love with that character when I do it well, I fall in love with their anger, and their pain, and their plight, especially when it’s the kind of person I’ve been fighting with my whole life.
MARK: As you continue to write Birds Of New York, what’s it like to work with different actors and hear them interpret your music?
SOPHIE: In this case, we’ll see. We haven’t started rehearsals yet. I’m open, I’m excited, and I sense it’s going to be a huge growth process for me as a writer.
MARK: How are you hoping to use the response you’ll get from this Barnstormer event as you continue to develop your musical? Is there anything you’ll present which is of particular interest to you in hearing the audience’s response?
SOPHIE: Yes, this is the part I’m most excited about- hearing what the audience likes and doesn’t like. I want to know how the subject matter affects the audience on a personal level, I want to know if it hits home for some people. I also want to hear through their ears if the songs move them. For this reading I’ve had to cut almost all the dialogue in order to make time for all the songs, and that’s a good pressure to edit. I want to hear how the songs tell the story without the descriptive and more detailed story telling device of speaking. There’s so much one takes for granted when working on something solo for so long. It will be like hearing the musical on another planet.
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