Zhivago

I've just spent a wonderful week work-shopping a Lucy Simon masterpiece: Dr. Zhivago The Musical.

It was a magnificent week 'Love-Triangle-ng' with great pals Tam Mutu and Sierra Boggess (my “Shar-Bear” and I have never worked together before— just shared that epic dressing room in Master Class. It was magic. We called it "Sophie and Sharon Go To Russia, Sing a Power Ballad and Share a Husband"...)

Suffice it to say: Tonya, Yuri and Lara sang their faces off...

But there was no joy comparable to exploring one of my favorite (exquisitely touching) characters in literature: Yuri Zhivago's childhood best friend and wife, Tonya. (Я тебя люблю, Tonya!) Boris Pasternak wrote a masterpiece (I have waxed lyrical about his virtues and influence before), what an honor to bring it to musical life, however fleetingly. 

"You in others - this is your soul. This is what you are. This is what your consciousness has breathed and lived on and enjoyed throughout your life - your soul, your immortality, your life in others. And what now? You have always been in others and you will remain in others. And what does it matter to you if later on that is called your memory? This will be you - the you that enters the future and becomes a part of it." - Boris Pasternak 

The Return of Sophie and Sharon!

Tonya, Yuri and Lara (with Tam Mutu and Sierra Boggess)