Interview with Joanne Sydney Lessner and Joshua Rosenblum, the writers of 'Garbo & Me'
From 2 – 4 November 2021, new musical production Garbo & Me will make its world premiere at Central.
Performed by a cast of 22 from MA Music Theatre course and supported by a creative team of 30 industry professionals, Garbo & Me is written by the critically acclaimed writing team of Joanne Sydney Lessner and Joshua Rosenblum and is the third of their productions to make its world premiere at Central.
We sat down with the New York Based writing duo to discuss their newest production, their creative process, and why they keep coming back to work with Central.
Garbo & Me is making its world-premiere debut at Central next week. How did the idea for the production come about?
To give credit where it’s due, the idea for the show came from our friend, actor Kate Shindle, current president of Actors’ Equity Association. We were workshopping our musical Einstein’s Dreams, in which she was starring, and were casting about for new ideas. She said, “I’ve always wanted to play Greta Garbo. I think her life would make a great musical.” So we started researching, reading biographies, and watching her movies, and we discovered just how fascinating a person Garbo was behind the glamour—really ahead of her time in the way she took on Mayer and the studio system, making demands that no other woman ever had and pushing the envelope with the censors. Her trump card was that she was always willing to walk away, which of course, she ultimately did. Also, she was gender non-conforming before the term existed, dressing in men’s clothes, often referring to herself with masculine pronouns and having love affairs with both men and women. But I think what really spoke to both of us was this constant struggle between her celebrity persona and her authentic self, which were totally at odds. We have friends who are famous and there is this distance they try to maintain between their public image and who they really are, even to the point of talking about themselves in the third person. And that’s where the title comes from: Garbo and Me. The “Me” is Greta—the real Greta—and the musical is really about her finding her way back to herself.
As a professional writing team, tell us a bit more about your creative process and how you work together.
When I hear a good idea, it’s like little alarm bells go off, and I can sort of see the whole, finished show, or the shape of it. Even if I don’t fully know what it is, I feel certain that there’s something there. The germ of our first show, Fermat’s Last Tango, came from a book review that framed the solving of the infamous math problem Fermat’s Last Theorem as a thrilling, centuries-long detective story. And I thought—oh! Boy gets proof, boy loses proof, boy gets proof. That’s a musical. But the idea has to appeal to both of us—we each have veto power. When we agree, I’ll start writing the book, spotting the songs and sketching out lyrics. Sometimes Josh will set them verbatim, but more often than not, he’ll improve them; the lyrics really are a collaboration. And sometimes I’ll have an idea for a song, and he’ll just take the ball and run with it. Especially if there are scientific or math puns to be made—that’s totally his wheelhouse! I’m a musician as well, and I’m pretty good at putting my finger on what’s not working in a song, while he’s equally good at calling me out on scenes that aren’t doing their job. It must work somehow because we’re still writing musicals together—after 31 years of marriage!
How did you come to have a relationship with Central?
Josh was hired as the pit pianist/associate conductor for the Broadway production of The Pirate Queen, and the musical director for the show was Julian Kelly, who had come over from London to conduct the production. Josh and Julian struck up a friendship, and Josh shared a CD recording of some of his original music with Julian. A few years later, Julian joined the faculty at Central as musical director in the MA music theatre program. He played Josh’s CD for course leader Paul Barker, and they agreed it would be fun to find a way to have Josh’s music represented in a devised musical at Central. That led to Love is not a Science, the first of our three shows to be premiered at Central.
This is the third new musical you’ve premiered at Central since Love is not a Science (2016) and Stage Door (2017). What is it like working with Central’s students and creative teams to stage a new production?
We’ve had three fantastic—and very different—experiences. The constants have been the outstanding talent level of the students, the excellent direction, music direction, choreography and design, and, above all, the incredible support of Paul Barker and Maria Huesca, also on the faculty in charge of vocal performance. Love is not a Science was a compilation of songs from several of our musicals that the students, director Helen Watts, and musical director Julian Kelly devised themselves. We sent over a bunch of songs, they picked the ones that suited their purposes, and they strung them together around a loose narrative, so when we arrived to see it, it was a complete surprise. It was like the musical we didn’t know we’d written! Stage Door we wrote expressly for Central, and it literally went from page to stage without even a reading in our living room. Because it was untried material, we flew over and spent a week in rehearsal and made some changes before opening. With Garbo, we had workshopped it in New York and Vermont, so it was on pretty firm ground from day one. Even so, when we got word in August that Central wanted to do it, we felt we needed to rework a few things, so some of it will be new for us. We’ve watched some rehearsals but have pretty much been hands off. This time we’ll be showing up and seeing it fresh, but unlike Love is Not a Science, we mostly know what to expect. And judging from the rehearsal videos, it’s going to be terrific! We’re very excited.
What was it that made you want to come back to Central again for the premiere of Garbo & Me?
Again, the talent, the production values and the tremendous support. Several songs from Garbo were featured in Love is not a Science, and that cohort seemed particularly to enjoy the jazzy, 1930s-style numbers, so we’d been hoping all along that Central would do the whole show at some point. It was Maria who remembered Garbo and that it might be a great vehicle for this year’s cohort and got in touch with us again. Even though it’s about Garbo, it’s a strong ensemble piece, but one thing that is a challenge for us is providing material that gives every student in the program an opportunity to shine. We added a song right before rehearsals started to create new roles for three women, and that’s the one we can’t get out of our heads! It’s a terrible earworm (you’ve been warned…) Also, we absolutely adore London and are always thrilled to visit and, for a week at a time, pretend we live and work here!
What’s next for Garbo & Me?
There are tentative plans for a production in New York, but nothing we can be specific about yet—except to say that it will also be in a conservatory setting, hopefully as a springboard to a professional production. Of course, if any West End producers are interested beating New York to the punch, give us a shout!
What else are you working on at the moment?
We’re working on a holiday musical—a Hanukkah musical, in fact, because there just aren’t any! It’s partly based on Josh’s experiences growing up in a small town with hardly any other Jewish families. Separately, Josh is writing a book about Broadway songwriters Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire, and I’m working on a new play as well as the fifth installment of my Temporary Detective mystery series.
Garbo & Me will play at the Embassy Theatre of The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama between 2 – 4 November. Find out more about Garbo & Me and book your tickets at Central’s website.
You can find out more about Central’s MA Music Theatre Course by visiting the course page.
New York Based Joanne Sydney Lessner and Joshua Rosenblum have together created six musicals, and Garbo & Me is their third world-premiere at Central in collaboration with Professor Paul Alan Barker and the School’s MA Music Theatre cohort. Previous collaborations with Central have included Love is not a Science (2016) and Stage Door (2017). Beyond Central, the team has created Fermat’s Last Tango, The Haunted Hotel, and Einstein’s Dreams for which they were nominated for four Drama Desk Awards.
