The Birth of a Musical

The Very Last One and Only Highly Endangered Mountain Lion in Pennsylvania is a full-length musical comedy about just that.  The show is a self-aware, satirical version of classic Broadway—like Spamalot and Lion King had a baby that liked to make wry comic observations about the press, politicians and the public they try to take advantage of.

DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY

The show came into being one day when I was trying to cheer up my then 11-year old daughter.  We had just begun to home-school her because of her severe anxiety and depression when faced with the social pressures of being bullied as an insecure and gentle soul in an aggressively competitive middle school.  In hopes of lifting the spirits of one or the other of us, I started writing a musical comedy about an outcast, beaten-down mountain lion, who comes to realize that he has the dubious honor of being the very last one in his state.  The story chronicles his quest to stay alive while he attempts to relocate his lost wife, restore his dignity and his roar, and fulfill his destiny of continuing his proud family line. Along the way he gathers a few dedicated friends and encounters some very powerful enemies, and somehow manages to prevail against all odds.

After working on the musical intermittently for a few years, I read in 2018 that the EPA did in fact declare the eastern mountain lion, a distinct subspecies that originally occupied most of the eastern US, officially extinct. On reading further, I discovered that despite there being no government-verified sitings since the middle of the 20^th century, there have been literally thousands of reported sitings of eastern mountain lions that the government has not been willing to authenticate.  These odd circumstances, along with the particularly bizarre political climate we find ourselves in, in which our leaders and some corners of our media exhibit a level of hostility and lack of compassion for the disadvantaged and the different that is unmatched in our lifetimes, inspired me to complete the story.

The show is in development–fully written with 18 original songs and a complete book and score.  It was awarded two complete table readings by Musical Café in 2019-2020, from which it emerged improved considerably.  Jon Kull, a highly accomplished Hollywood composer and orchestrator, joined the project in 2021.

GOALS AND PLANS

The goal is to get the show produced, through entering new musical competitions, festivals, etc. and promotion at conferences and industry events, and solicitation of producers and theaters. It has approximately 25 parts for at least 10 performers, which will pose a challenge for small for-profit production, but I believe it will be attractive for larger venues and community-level nonprofit productions, and for sponsorship by animal rights organizations, environmental activists and enemies of oppression (e.g., rational human beings) everywhere.

Here you can learn about the show’s progress, listen to its music, read excerpts and keep up with the efforts of its creators to get it produced.

The Story

At the side of the highway somewhere in rural Pennsylvania, the very last, bedraggled mountain lion in the state, Lester, competes with a trio of vultures for road kill, and complains of his plight.  To survive, he’s given up his roar, his taste for fresh meat and his dignity, and pines for his long-lost wife.  He is desperate to find them all and fulfill his destiny of surviving to father the next generation of his distinguished family line.

On his search, he gains three furry companions—a skunk with a body odor problem eager to find a friend, a bad dog struggling to behave, and a tough old goat on a quest for cardboard, and based on the misguided guidance of a know-it-all house cat, together they set out for the state capital in hopes of winning the sympathy of the governor, despite the animal/human language barrier.

Unfortunately, the governor turns out to be a narcissist, fear-mongering billionaire demagogue, who is also an avid hunter.  His only interest in Lester is vilifying him to terrorize the public, staging his slaughter as an act of heroism, and reaping the political rewards.  Fortunately for Lester, a concerned zoologist, Jane Goody-Goody, intervenes and sequesters Lester safely at the zoo.  But the governor is not so easily deterred.  He stages Lester’s “escape” from the zoo to resume his plan to make a public display of Lester’s execution.

Ultimately, the governor’s scheming unravels as his senior staffer, Fred Fairfellow, finally listens to his conscience and intervenes for truth and justice, and to improve his chances with Ms. Goody-Goody.  In a classic happy ending, the governor gets jail time and Fred gets the girl, while Lester gets the governor’s sprawling estate (and vast herd of sheep), gets his wife back from a distant zoo, and discovers that he is already a father, fulfilling his destiny.  And as the show closes, he once again finds his triumphant roar.