"Good Copy"

[ChristopherSchlegel 0]

I finally finished a really long-term project that's been hanging over my head for about 13 years now.

A little history ... As a kid I always loved movie musicals: anything and everything with Gene Kelly, "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers", "Guys & Dolls", most of Rogers & Hammerstein's stuff, etc.

In the early 90's I got the chance to play in the orchestra pit for a few seasons of live musical theatre. I loved it so much I realized I should try to WRITE one myself!

The material I chose to base my musical upon was the short story "Good Copy" in the "Early Ayn Rand". It was a good, fun, self-contained little story with some comedy, adventure and, of course, a love interest. Even better, it was set in the roaring 20's, so jazzy Broadway tunes ala Gershwin, Berlin, Porter were perfectly suited.

I wrote a great deal of it in 1993-1994 sitting at the piano. Then, those tunes were some of the first things I sequenced when I got a MIDI sequencing system. I worked on it off and on for years. Mostly I viewed it as a learning process: a self-assigned giant lesson in musical composition.

Last year, I got it all out again: my script, my MIDI files, the few tunes I had rendered as audio and reassessed the whole thing. I really enjoyed the work I did; I think it's swell! Although I am not a good singer (to say the least!), over the last 2 months I have recorded the tunes with me singing the lyrics, to at least provide an idea of how they should sound. The lyrics are also linked on the page in MS Word document format.

Good Copy Tunes & Lyrics

If you haven't read Ayn Rand's short story I encourage you to do so ASAP! Also, it will provide some context for the songs. I have them posted on the page in the order they would appear in the story line.

Happy listening!

[Stephen Speicher 0]

Good Copy Tunes & Lyrics

[...]

Happy listening!

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It was. Thanks.

Christopher, have you considered producing this, either professionally or with a local amateur group? A taping to DVD would be nice.

[ChristopherSchlegel 0]

It was. Thanks.

Great! Welcome, of course.

Christopher, have you considered producing this, either professionally or with a local amateur group? A taping to DVD would be nice.

Yes. I thought it was good enough to look into pursuing. I contacted ARI. They informed me the rights to produce it on stage or screen had been granted to Michael Paxton. I contacted him & he already has his own script for it & is working on getting it produced as a film.

So, maybe in the future it might be possible in some way to do my musical version? I don't know. But for now, it is at least good to know the story is in Mr. Paxton's capable hands and we may hopefully see a screen/film version.

[Stephen Speicher 0]

Christopher, have you considered producing this, either professionally or with a local amateur group? A taping to DVD would be nice.

Yes. I thought it was good enough to look into pursuing. I contacted ARI. They informed me the rights to produce it on stage or screen had been granted to Michael Paxton. I contacted him & he already has his own script for it & is working on getting it produced as a film.

So, maybe in the future it might be possible in some way to do my musical version? I don't know. But for now, it is at least good to know the story is in Mr. Paxton's capable hands and we may hopefully see a screen/film version.

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That's really good news. Something to look forward to. Thanks for following up.