By Karen Isaacs
The journey of a new musical can be years (or decades) long as it goes from an idea to a fully realized production. Often roadblocks along the way derail the entire enterprise. To get The Snow Goose from idea to its world premiere at Goodspeed (through Sunday, Oct. 18) took years and many decisions. Whether those decisions were correct won’t be known until audiences cast their votes. But here’s a look at the journey of The Snow Goose.
Background
The novella (about 64 pages) The Snow Goose: A Story of Dunkirk was written by Paul Gallico in 1941. It tells the story of a young teen girl and a reclusive man along England’s Essex coast and the wounded snow goose that they care for. She returns every year. Set in the years leading up to and during the beginning of WWII, it is a parable on the power of friendship and constancy to heal. When it was published (first as a briefer story in The Saturday Evening Post), it was popular though it was both sentimental and a tear-jerker.
In 1971, the BBC broadcast a film version of the story starring Richard Harris as the reclusive disabled artist, Phillip and Jenny Agutter as Frith, the girl. It was broadcast in the US as part of The Hallmark Hall of Fame; it won several awards including a Golden Globe and an Emmy.
A few years later (1975), Gallico sued the British band, Camel, for distributing an instrumental album title after the book; they changed the name to Music Inspired by The Snow Goose. It proved to be a huge success. A year later, another musical interpretation of the story was produced by RCA with Ed Welch and Spike Milligan as the creative team.
The Idea
Goodspeed’s Artistic Director Donna Lynn Hilton loved the story for many years. She said she had always thought it would make a good musical. Goodspeed decided to commission the work through its GoodWorks Program and in 2023 Hilton reached out to the writing/ composing team of Scott Gillmour and Claire McKenzie, whom she felt had the right sound for the project. They had been involved with the musical Hi, My Name Is Ben which began at the Johnny Mercer Writers Grove at Goodspeed in 2017 and later had a production at the Terris Theatre in 2019.
After reading the book, they agreed. A major step was securing the rights to the work. Without an agreement with those who controlled the copyright, it would be a no-go. Luckily Goodspeed and the copyright holders reached an agreement for the theater to have an option on the work.
Decisions
How do you take a beloved novella that focuses on two people and a goose plus atmospheric descriptions and turn it into a musical?
Once they decided it could be musicalized, the next question was would it be a chamber musical with only Frith and Phillip or would the show be “opened up” and include other characters that are only vaguely referred to in the original.
They agreed to open it up; this meant including people and events that were not necessarily part of the story. A few townspeople are mentioned but they never appear. There was also the possible “ick” factor. In the 1942 novella, Fritha (Frith in the musical) is a young girl (possibly 13 or 14) who becomes friends with the disabled and shunned artist Phillip. How would that sit with modern audiences who are so aware of child sexual abuse, grooming, and exploitation? Let’s be clear that no hint of that is in the book. It is just two lonely people who share a love of helping animals and are awed by the snow goose who flew from Canada to the shore of England and returns each year. By the end of the story, Frith is in her later teens,
The book covers several years from the mid-1930s through the evacuation of British soldiers at Dunkirk in 1940. McKenzie, who writes the music, said she thought of English classical composers such as Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughn Williams, and Benjamin Britten, as well as the sounds of the folk music of the period which often came from pubs as she was thinking about what the musical should sound like.
During the development process McKenzie and Gilmour spent two weeks on the Goodspeed campus as participants in the Johnny Mercer Writers Grove and at a similar retreat related to Benjamin Britten in England. They admitted to visiting multiple pubs in that part of England to get atmospheric inspiration.
Moving Forward
As work progressed, it was time to bring in a director for the project. Hilton, McKenzie and Gilmour considered many possible directors but kept returning to one name – Marshall Pailet. Pailet had won acclaim (and award nominations) for his work on Private Jones at the Terris Theatre and at Signature Theater in Washington, DC. Hilton reached out to him, and after some discussions, he was on board.
With Snow Goose progressing, the next step was to bring in actors and an audience. The musical was selected to be part of the 2025 Festival of New Musicals at Goodspeed. During a two-week period, the show was rehearsed with students from Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford under Pailet’s direction. On Sunday, January 14, the show was presented to an audience for the first time. It still wasn’t complete; in fact, Gilmour improvised an ending for the show. By this point, Goodspeed’s longtime musical director Adam Souza, asked to be its music director.
Audience reaction was overall positive, but the team knew much more work was needed. In late 2024, a reading of the work was held for theater professionals in NYC. Work continued.
Putting It On Stage
As Hilton and her team were planning Goodspeed’s 2026 main stage season, they decided that The Snow Goose was ready for a full production. It was given the fall spot; it runs through Sunday, Oct. 18.
Misha Shields came on board as the choreographer for the project. She had choreographed Private Jones at the Terris Theatre. As she explained it, movement will flow throughout the work so the audience may not be aware when it becomes a dance. She used terms like fluidity, graceful, simple and constantly moving.
Castin was another issue. In the novella, Philip, an artist, is described as reclusive in part because the local villagers view him as an outcast due to an unspecified physical disability. The team decided it was important that Philip have a disability and that the cast include other actors with disabilities. This decision led to conversations about how to sensitively work with the cast.
The snow goose is a major character in the piece, but how do you portray it on stage? Puppetry was an obvious answer, but what the goose puppet would look like and how it would be manipulated needed to be decided. The puppet will vary in size; at times multiple people will be manipulating it, and at other times parts of the goose will separate.
Looking Forward
The goal is for The Snow Goose to go on to future productions, including, possibly Broadway. Hilton said that during its run in East Haddam, Goodspeed will be inviting and encouraging Broadway professionals – including producers – to see it.
Will it become Annie or Shenandoah, two of the shows that began life at Goodspeed? Who knows?
Go see it and let them know what you think. Tickets are available at Goodspeed.org.
This content is courtesy of Shore Publications and Zip06.com
